Rolling Yellow Dice

Cygnar or Retribution

2010-12-21T06:41:00.000-08:00

Long time no see guys, I haven't posted on this blog in quite a while as I haven't been playing much Warmachine, but last week a new store opened here and is going to be running tournaments and gaming nights and just everything I'd like to do with the hobby.

So the first tournament is coming up in January and I'm trying to decide what I want to play. I still have my Retribution but I painted up a Cygnar army to practice painting green (pictures will come later). For this first tournament I can't decide if I want to play Retribution (A Kaelyssa list and a Vyros list) or play Cygnar (E Nemo and possibly E Haley/Prime Haley/Prime Stryker).

I feel like playing something a little more "broken" than Retribution can currently muster, but I would have little to no experience with the army, so it's power VS experience.

What do you guys think? Fully painted Cygnar VS half painted Retribution

Long time no see

2010-10-03T17:28:00.000-07:00

Hey folks, been quite a while since I posted. I'm still not really back into Warmachine but I felt like painting something so I've been painting up my metal Cygnar battlegroup in an olive green to try and improve my green and black painting skills. The Lancer is now finished and the Charger is half done, so I thought I'd post up some pics.

I shall post more when I've finished the Charger. I can't decide if I want to use the Ironclad or not. I know I'm replacing Stryker with Hailey as I think she looks more gritty in her original sculpt than Stryker does and I want the dirty infield look.

Like Rocky but with less punching.

2010-07-11T23:35:00.000-07:00

For the next 2 months this blog will be a personal ramble on finding tournament skills. After becoming the Event planner at my local Wargaming club I've been busy setting up events and getting people to run them, well now it's set and on September 25th we will be holding our first national sized tournament. And since I'm not running it (I just pulled the strings to get it done), I get to play in it! If you're in the UK, it would be awesome to see other IABN guys there, so keep the Saturday free and when the tickets go on sale (only £10 including lunch) grab yourself one and come throw some ~~yellow~~ dice with me.

So I decided I need to tighten up and start to play a couple of games of WM a week, maybe even go as far as one a day. After my break from WM I returned and found I had lost what skills I had got (I took about a year break in total, so obviously I lost a lot), which means I now need to get back into estimating stealth ranges and such..

I also filled out my Retribution army (at the cost of selling my never used Legion stuff), so I now own every Warcaster and every released unit except the houseguard. I'm a few solos off but I have enough left over from the legion stuff to grab them and a unit or two.

So I sat down and made 2 lists I wanted to use at a tournament level of play.

List 1,

Rahn
Phoenix
Chimera
Full sentinals + UA + Soulless Escort
A pack of Mittens
2 MHA
E Eiryss
Arcanist

List 2,
Kaelyssa
Hydra
Full Sentinels + UA
Full MHSF+UA
A pack of Mittens
2 MHA
Narn

So I'm already some what used to Kaelyssa (although no where near enough, I will dedicate at least 2 weeks to playing her into the ground. But I've been playing Rahn a lot lately and I'm getting a good feel for him.

Here is what I've learnt over those games.

-Stealth rapes Retribution, we just have no answer to stealthed Heavies except Sents, who are priority one.
-I need to learn to guess Stealth range much better.
-I need to use a 'caster not just 1 of their abilities.
-Rahn's feat is rarely powerful, but it's useful for a double force hammer turn or wiping infantry off the board with 12" of AOEs
-Mittens are great for my style of play, they increase ranges
-I need to protect my solos better, I offer them up too easy and always call people's bluff on the MHAs, which they either run from or take out turn 1. I need to try holding them back or at least 1 of them.
-Forcehammer is very good but risky and expensive, the D6 slam can be a bad thing more than it's good.
-Don't get frustrated when the game looks over and you're going to lose. I did this in a game I had tonight and pointed out to my opponent how he could kill me, I should of shut up and let him miss it, he didn't take it any way and I later got a 11.7" line on Lylyth including 2 free strikes on Rahn, took it and if the dice hadn't failed me I would of beaten her down. As long as you have a high focus model on the table you can do something.
-I need to protect my Sentinel officer better.
-I don't value my models enough, I always play high risk high reward and it makes me give up points I shouldn't be. I need to stop throwing away stuff and making bad trades, I have to look at this more like Magic where you only trade if you get a perk from it or you have no choice but to.

That's it for my ranting now. If any one wants to give me any suggestions and feedback or set up a game of Vassal below I'd be up for that. I need to play games and I've met some great guys on IABN I'd like to play with.

Why I play the lists I play #1

2010-06-09T19:42:00.000-07:00

A few minutes ago I just finished a game on Vassal VS Harbinger, it ended in the way I like all my games to end with an Elf putting a crossbow bolt in an opposing 'casters face. Which made me think why I like the lists I like and play the way I play. At a club night a week previous someone asked me why I liked Elves (while unpacking my Wood Elves after rocking him with my Retribution), my answer was thus "I don't like Elves, they like me". Elf factions tend to be fast and nimble with a preference for long ranged combat, that is the way I like to fight in games, that's how I like to be on the tabletop.

I know there are a lot of people who like Khador being tanks and just shrugging off blows but I've never felt happy with that. If I'm playing something I want skill to be the defining factor not luck and having high armour stats just doesn't give me that feeling, so I've always been drawn to relying on my reflexs in games and positioning in Wargaming. Due to this the first faction I picked up was Cryx (Cryx Trixs used to be a common phrase), then I picked up Cygnar and found they lacked the mobility I wanted even though I liked the 'jacks and Warcasters. After much time with Skorne I read the Retribution army book (as I was intending to buy all the books at that stage but got burnt out on the game before I did so) and found -my- faction. They have the mobile ranged theme while not sacrificing melee, they have a Warcaster (Kaelyssa) who allowed me to turn my biggest fear of assassination into a strength (camped fury/focus) yet still the faction has a nice melee unit to hold scenario against those players who just want to zerg rush you with arm 20+ models.

Next post will break down the exact list I play and why I use each model. I recently got a new diagnosis for my illness and if it turns out to be correct I maybe able to attend larger tournaments in my area and if I did the list would be my A-list for 35 point games.

POWER MUHAHAHA

2010-06-08T19:07:00.000-07:00

The last week or so has been an exciting time and by exciting I mean I did stuff. I'm now one of the 3 guys in charge of the local wargaming club, which has got a name change, has an upcoming Campaign and Warmachine Tournament!

I've been playing a lot of Warhammer fantasy the last few weeks, really enjoying it. It's a nice balance between Warmachine and Warhammer 40k. It's not as deep as Warmachine but not as bland and lifeless as 40k, I could happily play it.

Any way at the club I'm arranging a 15 point Mangled mental tournament, I will be using Retribution of course. Probably Kaelyssa with 2 heavies and a light if I can fit one. More than likely the Heavies will be Hydras due to keeping high focus camping ability. But a phoniex would be nice for the arc node. I'm playing Kaelyssa for sure, she punishes people too well for mistakes not to take it.

I also have to write a story line for the 40k campaign, it's going to be Order VS Disorder. Chaos and Orks will have invaded a world and the Order forces will have to capture it back for the Imperium. Each month one side will gain a bonus for winning/losing. Since the campaign is an escelation there will also be rewards for painting as the event goes on and such, not sure what yet but there we go. Hopefully it'll end in 1 big ass apocalypse game, where everyone just mauls each other.

I shall be fielding a Chaos Red Corsairs army, lead by Huron Blackheart. No idea exactly what but I shall none the less do it.

If you're in the Midlands area and wanting to play some Tabletop games check us out at http://www.facebook.com/?sk=2361831622#!/group.php?gid=390808245455 . We're friendly and only slightest demented.

Miss me?

2010-05-26T02:02:00.000-07:00

Did any one miss me? Didn't think so.

The last few days I haven't been feeling too bad so I've been about to get out to my local gaming club and after playing one game of 40k I was about ready to kill myself. So this week I played a game of Warmachine, and it was fun, which it's meant to be, so I shall be playing more and I'll resume blogging about it.

I had the following.

Ravyn
-Hydra
Mage hunter Strike force + UA
Invcitors + Ua
Stormfall archers
Narn
MHA

My opponent was playing Trolls and had roughly this

Borka
Mauler
Bltizer
Fenn blades
Pygmies
Kriel stone unit
Fellcaller

He decides to take first turn and runs everything at my lines, I pop my feat turn 1 and wipe out half the fennblades and knock the rest down. Narn and the MHA run to the opposite side of the board to the troll brick holding the scenario.

Turn two the fenn blades and Pygmies mince half the mage hunters and in return I kill all but 1 Pygmy and finish off all but 2 fennblades, then the archers step up and start lighting crap on fire. Most the stone dudes burn up and all is well and good.

Turn three Borka pops feat, a Mauler grabs the fellcaller and tosses him at Ravyn through a line of dudes, rolls the dice and my opponent goes "15 damage" and I'm like "ouch, but she lives" then he goes "no wait 16" and I'm like "She's dead.." and extend my hand as we both laugh.

At that point in the game I had taken enough out that I could attrition him out and playing hide and seek until I could set up flank on the invictors to take out the dires and then Ravyn would take out Borka or win via scenario at that point. But as I haven't played in so long I was rusty and left Ravyn open in a position she really didn't need to be.

Still was a fun game and it was nice to see MKII trolls and get a grasp of their power level.

Being disheartened by WM

2010-03-17T10:42:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to write a huge long blog post how PP is evil and I think they are turning into GW because it's not worth the time or effort, but I am being more and more disheartened in the PP community and company.

I look at the way PP is acting and it feels more corporate and less fair than it did before. People say "PP have great customer service" and act like this is a defense, but GW have flawless customer service to the point where you can steal from them if you really wanted to, I don't see how this is a magic bullet that solves all.

The community seems to have shifted since MKII hit as well. We're starting to see less of a "everyones a bro" and more of "OMG BNF! OMG LISTEN!" with several people in the community. BNF (big name fans) belong in the livejournal communities not in the Wargaming one, we're more mature than that (or I'd hope we were). But instead I've seen several names start to pop up and favouriteism and and all the bullshit I can't stand. I could go "Bobaferret did X" and "Gdaybloke did that" but lets be blunt. I don't do BNF type bullshit and I feel the Warmachine community is now doing just that. Either I changed or it did and either way, it's making me feel like I would rather not be part of it.

To go along with the above point, the community quality has dropped below an acceptable standard. We have Podcasts like Focus and Fury, Guts and Gears and to some level Iron agenda that is just releasing terrible quality podcasts that aren't enjoyable to listen to. Then PP goes and gives the worst of these favourtism out the ass, when EVERYONE hates their damn podcast. The only podcast I feel is worth listening to any more is Boosted damage and at times they skirt the quality line as well.

Maybe I've outgrown warmachine and it's time I found a new game or maybe the community has grown, either way I've lost interest in Warmachine. MKII has killed most my interest and PP has finished off the rest of them.

Vyros uses a Trackball mouse

2010-03-02T23:40:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I finally got to play some Warmachine again for the first time in months.

I played with the following list

Vyros
-Hydra
-Hydra
10 Sentinels + UA
Stormfall archers
Eiryss
2 Mage hunter assassins

It's a list I use on Vassal and enjoy using, it's low model count but high quality and it can do a bit of everything. I knew my opponent would play Cygnar (probably Stryker) but I didn't build an anti Stryker list, I built what I wanted to play. My opponents list was thus

Stryker
-Old Rowdy
-Hunter
Squire
Stormblades + UA
Full Long gunners
Black 13th.

So he had a similar list to mine except I had another heavy and our unit sizes were switched around, then we both had a set of killer solos (even if 1 is a unit persay). We discussed his list while playing and I asked why he didn't include Jr. He had discussed it with another player and they had decided both Jr and Eiryss was "just because" and had no real point in the list and I pointed to my Eiryss on the right flank and went "Is Stryker ever going over that side of the table?" his response was "No" and then he finally got why 3 points was worth it, My Eiryss did nothing but kill 1 Stormblade all game, but she funneled Stryker into the side of the board I was controling. I only include Eiryss if I'm left with 3 points after I add the solos I want, she's not an auto include, but if I have the points I will take her as a tool box solo.

He decided to set up second, so I deployed my sentinels in the middle with hydras flanking either side, Vyros a bit back, Eiryss and the stormfalls on the right flank (hilly goodness) and my 2 MHA on the left flank.

He deployed Stryker, old Rowdy and the squire center, long gunners with the B13th mingled among them on the left flank and the Stormblades on the right with the hunter just ahead of them.

Turn 1 I moved everything up, Eiryss playing distance games with the Hunter and the stormfall taking a hill in range to attack it next turn with snipe rounds if it didn't move. The MHAs moved up and hid behind a tower.

His turn he just moved the Stormblades, Old Rowdy, Stryker, Hunter and the squire about a bit, nothing exciting.

Turn 2 the hunter gets wrecked, Stormfalls brutal shot it to death with the final shots coming from a hydra with 3 focus. I positioned my Sentinels in groups of 4 and figured he would kill 1 or 2 in the coming turn giving me vengenace and getting some face raping in. Everything else just moved up into higher ground positions or looked scary and shuffled a bit.

His turn 2 he pops feat and stormblades kill 4 sentinelss (arm 19 is a bitch to crack) and takes more shots with the long gunners but can't crack the arm on my dudes.

So my turn 3 I decided I wanted those storm blades gone and took my vengenace move my left bubble moved towards the long gunners and my right bubble took some swings at the stormblades, 2 were dead from the vengenace attacks (arm 23 VS weapon masters, yum yum). My opponent was just like "what the hell?" and I'm like "I did tell you everything is a weapon master". I use Eiryss, Stormfalls and the hydras to clear out some charge lanes in the stormblades to get my extra dice and then charge with the sentinels, they clean up the unit except for 1 or 2, they constantly pass command checks and hold though). The other sentinels run up to engage the B13th and long gunners, with the MHA moving forward ready to hit Stryker next turn. At this point I had Stryker staring down 2 fully loaded Hydras, 2 MHAs and other nothing but Old Rowdy to protect him.

So his turn is pretty much going "oh shit.." and trying to clear out the Sentinels in his long gunners, which he fails to do leaving 2 alive and just in command range of the officer on the hill. Some sentinels die and next turn I forget my free movement and swings, which I knew I would at some point. My sentinels are pretty much wiped out as are his stormblades.

So turn 3 hits and I know I can nail him to the wall, except my dice disagree. Sentinels miss, MHA misses, Stormfall miss, Eiryss misses, Hydras miss. I just can't hit that def 16 and had it been a tournament I would of been frustrated, but it was not so meh. Old Rowdy is all up in my face at this point and I have to wiggle around his 6" bubble of countercharge insanity. I put Vyros on a hill with the sentinel standard bearer blocking the charge lane (and Vyros is just a bit out of range incase) and pass turn.

His turn 4 is trying to work out how to get an assassination, but it just doesn't happen, the B13th can't clean out the Sentinels and the long gunners can't really kill Vyros, Old Rowdy turns up and engages Vyros and we decided turn 4 was the end since we had to leave soon after.

So my turn 4 involves everything shooting at Stryker with everything it has and doing absolutely nothing to drop him below 4 boxes. I always underestimate Def 16 and it's not like Stryker has low arm either. I was wishing I had Ravyn with me as I could have wrecked Stryker, but I think Vyros's +2 arm spell is so insane on sentinels that he played a good roll in the game and I really enjoyed that. He even got to cast Elimator on Stryker at the final attack of the game, boosted to hit and just got no where.

At this point we shook hands and called it a draw. We added up points of models lost and I had killed 16 points of his stuff and he had killed 15 of mine, but it was a draw as far as I'm concerned. Both armies were wrecked and it was all down to the dice as to who won on turn 5.

I think Vyros is a competitive 'caster and can not only support the 2 Hydras but his infantry at the same time. His 6 focus is the perfect point for him, he uses 1 to upkeep Resolve then 2 to cast mobility and has 3 to play with each turn or just camp, which is generally enough to restock your Hydras if they need it since they won't spend more than 2 a turn unless they are in melee at which point your other one should still hold his focus. He has insane mobility and can threaten people from miles away if you want him to. His feat is pretty lame but it's extra focus if you really need it, the problem with Hydras is that you can't load them up only restock them due to the focus on them counting for allocation purposes, but hey I'm a focus 12 'caster already so whats a narrow feat? Sure I'd love something insane, but it's not needed.

I think I will be playing Vyros for the near future, I really enjoyed the game and found he had more options than Kaelyssa did and while you lose the focus stealing your army becomes a real problem to deal with unlike with her who just can't support them beyond "No Magic plz, oki".

Hopefully I will get to make it again next week and play some D&D (I want to play a Dwarf based on the MMORPG fanbase), but as a back up plan I'll play Warmachine. My other Wargaming club is meeting Sunday, I may venture out to it if I'm up for it.

K-9

2010-02-27T08:17:00.000-08:00

I'm in a lot of pain at the moment and not been able to do anything Warmachine related, but before I went too under the weather I managed to finish a birthday present for a friend. So I present to you, K-9.

He's found his way to America land now, but this is what he looked liked before he went.

STFU, I'm a Timelord bitch

2010-02-22T10:09:00.000-08:00

So between watching a lot of Doctor Who (Sixth Doctor era) and playing AvP, I've been trying to work out a list for the Warmachine tournament tomorrow. I had originally want to run Vyros but Maelstrom games still haven't sent my 2 Heavy kits. So instead I decided to make a Kaelyssa/Ravyn list and go from there.

Kaelyssa's list is thus.

Kaelyssa
-Hydra
10 Dawnguard Sentinels + UA + Soulless escort
10 Mage hunter strike force + UA
Stormfall archers
Mage hunter assassin
Mage hunter assassin
Eiryss

And Ravyn gets this

Ravyn
-Hydra
10 Dawnguard Sentinels + UA
10 Mage hunter strike force + UA
Stormfall archers
Mage hunter assassin
Mage hunter assassin
Narn

I think the lists pretty much speak for themselves. One is anti Warmachine with Eiryss and 1 is more Anti hordes. I'm pondering if maybe with Ravyn I should drop the one of the units for Invictors instead, but I think the sentinels are nasty and the mage hunters with snipe and her feat can kill Warlocks.

The Kaelyssa list is a bit more interesting, it will completely shut down magic against my units. Ehe Soulless makes anything but a close arc node impossible to hit them with (and if it does then that arc node is getting wrecked by the vengenace counter attack, leaving my Sentinels free to do what they wish the next turn) and the mage hunters can just have full magic denial on them.

The Sentinels are to hold objectives, the Stormfall are to clear enemy troops and the mage hunters enemy jacks/whatever presents it's self. I expect some heavy jacks to be around and my list can wreck those since everything in the list is a weapon master against them except Kaelyssa and the Hydra, who will have other jobs to do/make them stationary. I think as an all comers list this is solid and should be able to play Scenario or 'caster kill. I'll prefer 'caster kill but I'll take scenario.

I think Kaelyssa will be my primary caster due to being able to play her at more speed than Ravyn. I want to try and play quickly and not have to read my own cards more than is really needed. Every other unit I'm familar with except for the stormfall and I remember Snipe and brutal shot so what else do I need?

If you guys have any thoughts I'd like to hear them.

Tonight I should probably read the SR2010 scenarios but they all seem to be capture an area so why bother? The lighting at the club is terrible so I don't know if I'll be able to get any pictures, but if I go I'll write a report.

This blog is all about the bitching

2010-02-19T00:38:00.000-08:00

I was going to make a post on running a IABN Vassal league but then I started listening to the latest IA and just cringed.

Last week I thought the episode was bad but it feels like it's going downhill fast. I enjoy IA as a Warmachine podcast but it feels less like a Warmachine podcast and a lot more like a fratboy podcast.

I'm all for banter and chit chat in podcasts but not when that is limited to family guy jokes and your mum jokes, it gets pretty old fast.

Paranoia

2010-02-15T14:00:00.000-08:00

I don't trust Battlefoam. I know this may come across as some random internet hatred but I just have this bad feeling about the bags and Romeo. I just ordered a new carry case and considered battle foam, tried to contact them and got zero response, so in the end I followed Loftybloke's lead and got a KR case.

Any way, back on topic.. I've been keeping my eye on various forums and podcasts and I've noticed the battlefoam name leaking into more and more places. Since it's a new company this is to be expected when they hit it big with people like PP, but I've found Romeo's attitude to be.. suspicious. Every post he makes is "My shit is superior to everything, we have super secret tech, super magic glue and our bags give you a handjob when you turn them sideways." And that's fine, to a point but he's just come out of no where and is doing it.

I checked his handle online and he has a few models on Cool mini or not and that's pretty much it. For someone claiming he's been a gamer for such a long time isn't it weird he says he's only been painting for 2 years on CMON? Why does he not take part in the PP forums if he's a Warmachine player?

I'm not going to write a huge rant on this and do massive amounts of research to prove or disprove my point, but I thought it was worth expressing my thoughts on this. He seems to have got into bed with PP and many podcasts and Plykon's keep from Fell Calls is still fresh in my mind. The PP community has been taken for a ride before and can't afford another.

busy busy busy

2010-01-29T05:01:00.000-08:00

I can't remember if I posted about this before, but the LGS group has founded a games club now and it's pretty much the same thing but in a pub. They're running a 35 point tournament in the coming months and I'm going to take my Ret to it. Not sure on the list yet but I'll post about that another time.

I've also become addicted to the Shin Megami Tensei MMO and got a puppy this week.. Which isn't exactly a positive thing on all fronts. The puppy's name is Eevee and she's a black labrador, 5 months old and just starting to realise chewing things is entertaining..

But now onto the meat of the post. I picked up a cheap Orc and Goblin army on ebay (aka, I stole it because I paid so little for what I got) and I'm going to be running a build up campaign over the next 6 months, but we're starting at 500 points and going to build up to 2,000 points and I, being the idiot that I am is going to do a Goblin army.

I laid out all the models and took some pictures, all of them (except maybe the night gobbos) will be stripped and repainted or just have the sprue remains removed from them and painted as is in the case of priming. In an ideal world I would clean them up and paint them all to display quality and base them and blah blah blah, but this is a "STFU and play" army. It's going in a carry case and if it gets broken or whatever then it gets duct taped together and done with.

Here are the pictures

The orcs can be ignored, I may include the old shaman but nothing more, I like the idea of a gobbo horde.

I'm not 100% sure on the quality of this but I'm looking at about here. There is shading on the face and shield but nothing more. They can be done in 30 minutes each, which is acceptable. The thing I'm pondering is the teeth, it wouldn't be hard to pick them out and it would increase the quality quite a bit, but messing up would take more time to fix than it's worth, so undecided.

Now back to Shin megami tensei! I'm turning 24 on Sunday and I think I have enough 50 years of life to waste and better get to wasting it in a construtive way!

Playing the game instead of being played and WiP diorama

2010-01-22T05:44:00.000-08:00

I think I may have found a way I can play GW games and not hate them. So I thought I would write a post on this and how I managed to play systems that don't fit me.

I'll start out with this. I don't like GW, I will not buy anything from GW except paints (the only good products they do and not all of them are), if I'm buying models for a GW game, then I will buy them from Ebay used and fix them up. I do not like the company, I do not like how it acts, I do not like it's attitude towards the games they release. The only reason I am going to play GW games is to have a back up plan for when no Warmachine players are around.

One quirk I have is I love unusual things, not 'omg I'm a goth, I'm so strange' unusual but strange objects, weird traits, odd colour choices. My pink Retrubution idea is a prime example. I do strange things for the sake of doing strange things, like I will play Halo and wear pink armour and refuse to shoot any one just to see how people react to it. I love pushing buttons and seeing what happens, even if pushing those buttons is not my best option at that point in time.

If I play Warhammer fantasy in a "quirky" way then I know I'm not trying to "win", I'm trying to push buttons and see what happens. I'm making an interesting situation, and I can enjoy that part of it rather than hate the bigger picture it's contained in. If you enjoy the shiny thing, you don't notice it's a chainsaw about to cut your face off.

So with that mentality in mind, I decided I should play Goblins. They're weak, can't really win and yet they are full of quirks and random fun. If I'm not trying to win, just trying to mess around then I can do that. The same way in Magic multiplayer I often play a deck that just causes complete chaos, I don't intend to win, just to see some awesome stuff happen. And that mentality is something I must force into my Wargaming..

I remember the time when my Arcanist killed a Great bear, I don't recall killing every 'caster I ever have. So I'm trying to make that happen rather than win, that way when the rules screw me over I can shrug, I was playing to see my Goblin kill a Dragon or to see how many Goblin units flee turn 1.. I'm going to try applying this to my painting for Warhammer as well. Get the basics down and leave it done, no shade, no highlight, tabletop basic as can be. Maybe in 2 weeks time I'll flip out and be my usual control freak perfectionist self again when it comes to Warhammer as I am with Warmachine but we'll see.

My gaming group survived, we have a new venue, I'll blog about that in a few weeks time when I have more experience. But for now here's 2 pictures I'm working on for the WAMP diorama contest.

I'm bored!!

2010-01-15T12:12:00.000-08:00

Is anyone else getting tired of MKII? It seems every podcast is talking about the fieldtest or the MKII books/new models and it's just leaving me completely burnt out. I'm at the point where I'm losing interest in Warmachine due to MKII being so damn forced in the community. I say it's about time we stop the theorymachine and reviews and start doing some tournament and displaying some toy soldiers.

Life hates me.

2010-01-13T04:24:00.000-08:00

So yesterday sucked ass and can be summed up with "My dog dropped dead 2 hours before I was meant to go wargaming, then the wargaming got canceled 1 hour later". So I spent the evening playing Borderlands and Bayonetta (Bayonetta dressed as a cheerleader is scary, every single groin shot is suddenly much much dirtier..), but enough of that, Warmachine time.

The new Menoth cover is out. Sucks to be you guys, by far the worst one so far, the art is bad, very bad. It's almost as if they got someone from a furry deviantart gallery to colour it. It's got absolutely no colour balance and just plain looks crap.

I picked up some magnets to use on an interchangable heavy 'jack at some point in the future. They are pretty damn strong and making a hydra/manticore mix shouldn't be too hard. But it does bring up one issue WM lacked and has now gained. Warmachine kits always made sense, how long is it before we see little kits "kitbashing" jacks completely wrong and having to rip them apart?

I want to try and get some more games of Vassal in, any one interested? I need me a fix..

I also may have ordered an Orcs and Goblin army off Ebay on a whim.. it was so cheap and gives me an alternative if GW is my only outlet for wargaming, it just included -everything- and I figured why not. I may also pick up an Ogre Kingdom army being sold (amazingly) cheap locally. I'm thinking if I get it and paint it up to a solid standard I can sell it on for a BIG profit. Even if I only managed to sell it on at 50% retail it would still be a 200% profit (at least). I know I have the skills to do it, it's just a question if I have the health to work through it.

Either way this decade blows. We need a new Decade, in pink.. oh wait that was last Decade!

The Friday interview : Jon Webb

2010-01-08T16:23:00.000-08:00

Okay guys, I decided to try and do a weekly community interview. Poke some of the Warmachine community members and get to know them better. First up we have Jon Webb from Boosted damage. The interview is novel length, so make sure you have a pack of biscuits before you start reading.

Hi guys, as some of you know I am Jon (beard/hat/teacosy) Webb of Booosted damage. Stephen has asked me to put up some thoughts about my experiences with PP and Warmachine. What follows is the rambling diatribe of my addled mind... so enjoy :)

1) Most people play multiple factions, but you only play Cryx. Could you tell us why this has come about and what it is about Cryx that has kept you interested in them for so long?

Heh, three things: Zombies, Goths, Pirates.

Put simply Cryx tick all my boxes. I love the figures, I love the pay style. When I started PP it came down to Khador or Cryx. Cryx won out. Way back in the mists of time I was living down in Bournemouth and I used to visit a little LGS. One day the owner showed me these four boxes of robots, each with some random wizard dude (or dudette) At the time I was a huge GW player, trying to get a job in the store. The models looked cool, in particular the black box with the chick and three little chicken leg models.

I decided not to buy, but picked up a poster (the quickstart rules) and went on my merry way. A couple of years later, I had been with GW for a while and was getting burned out. A buddy asked if I fancied playing Warmachine. I had some idea of what it was from reading Harbinger (a now defunct UK gaming mag) and I suddenly remembered that poster. The intro was interesting... he didn't explain that you didn't need to charge to get into melee and he was using Stryker so my poor Driller kept backing away. also, we rolled 1d6 for every point of damage to scatter around the grid, making killing things take a while. Still, the experience was great and I was hooked.

After that I started casting around for models, picked up NQM and was pleased to see a mag in the style of White Dwarf of old and had recently discovered the joys of internet forums. I had another buddy who had picked up the Cryx box set but never done anything with it. One small cash transaction later and I was away.

When it comes to the factions, I am a purist. I own almost everything for Cryx and am always filling up the gaps. I don't use mercs to fill holes in the play style (God I wish we had a shooty unit or two sometimes!) and I am always trying to find new ways of dealing with the enemy.

With the event of MKII I am finding things that were previously of limited use have really stepped up. I have so many plans for themed lists and new paint schemes I just don't have time for other factions. Plus they just are not as cool. I've painted pretty much every battlebox, models from all over the place and I always come back to the dead guys.

With models like Epic Skarre, Morty and Cankerworm there is such character and interest I just can't think about other factions. Plus PP has the best release strategy of any game I've played. By drip feeding us new stuff and creating new interactions the army always feels fresh.

I admit I own a battle box for Khador, Mercs, Cygnar and Ret, as well as Skorne and Circle. I'm thinking of taking the ret to 35 pts as a back up, but every time I think about other factions I remember I have yet to ever field Terminus, the Deathjack (really!) Soulhunters of cephalex and realise my time with the Cryx is far from over.

2) As a player what do you think your strengths and weaknesses are?

Awesome good looks, the tactical genius of Sun Tzu, charm, wit and the sexual prowess of Ron Jeremy.

Nah, not really. I think what my real strength is, is that I am 100% invested in the game and the hobby as a whole. I eat, sleep and think wargaming. My missus might say it is actually a weakness though...

I read voraciously. NWM, rulebooks, gaming literature, websites and so forth. Not just PP. The more I read, the broader my pool of info to draw from.

I game as much as I can. I think things through, I play hard but fair. If I lose, I try to see how I could have changed the result and like to talk games through with my opponent afterwards.

The real strength is knowing the game intimately. Denny sleeps with me at night you see. I mean.. Umm... heh. I have played so many games with my armies I know their limitations. I am always keen to reduce chance as much as possible. Clever use of support spells and in depth knowledge of the rules will allow you to stack the odds to earn you the win. I don't mean be a rules lawyer, but knowing how things pan out ahead of time lets you set up kills.

Added to this is a little luck. This is mostly gamer psychology and bullshit, but my Cryx dice tend to roll well. Ask the Snape. If I need nine or ten on 2d6, somedays I will risk it for a big win.

My weaknesses are Epic Hayley. :) She stumps me.

Seriously, I have moments where I get so excited by a plan I forget to activate properly, or allocate focus or stupid things like that. However, that then creates an interesting process where I have to replan on the fly. I'm a fairly good lateral thinker so I can spitball things on the fly.

Sometimes my sense of distance lets me down (I swear its ten inches). I try for ridiculous charges or to get unreasonable kills. However, judicious use of the control area measuring help me out.

The other thing is I always look deadly serious when I play. I find people think I am quite intense when I play, sometimes a bit serious and dour. However, its because my tiny little brain is working overtime so my social functions shut down. I'm a nice guy really.

Other weaknesses are that I can't drink and am a vegetarian which makes me a pussy in the eyes of my fellow gamers. Also, without my hat and beard I have no super powers and will be easily defeated.

3) How do you see Warmachine and Hordes moving forward in the future?

Its crunch time in PP land. MKII is massive. PP is evolving as a company. I hope they will see it through and continue to provide the best damn games system on the planet. I have faith in them.

Its always good to see new gamers and we are seeing growth in UK numbers. Hopefully MKII will see this only increase.

I am ultimately expecting (but kinda dreading) a switch up in game size. I love skirmish level and PP fills the gap between skirmish and full scale combat. To continue growth, the game can only get bigger. This is a worry.

The story continues to interest me, its the main reason beyond painting that I play these silly games. I'm hoping some of these damn warcasters will retire or die one day (I know why PP won't, but I'm happy with death. I've still got the rules and models so its all gravy). Hopefully it will continue to push things forward, opening up new combat fronts and new technologies to batter each other to death with.

Maybe some new games in their IP. Ship combat would be great, although uncharted seas is kinda taking that one up.

Looking forward to the relaunch of the RPG in the dim and distant future. I love the IK as a world, so the fluff books only increase my enjoyment.

Ultimately, I hope PP manages to balance growth and profitability with creating games and minis I want to play. GW ultimately lost me with their attitude and behavior. PP has made a good career out of avoiding many of the pitfalls. Long may that continue.

4) As one of the "celebrities" in the UK Warmachine community, how do you think the UK community and US community are different? Many people seem to think the US tournament scenes are more vicious than the UK, have you found this to be accurate?

We are smaller. Pure and simple. The PP scene is still evolving over here. GW continues their stranglehold over the gaming market and people are still put off by the MTG analogies. However, every tourney I go to we see bigger numbers and new faces. Press Gangers are popping up all over the UK and new groups are joining in the fun.

There is some talk about the USA being super competitive, with one day events, Hardcore and so forth. Many of the guys on the UK scene are ex GW tourney players. This brings other tourney ideas, soft scores, two day events, team events and so forth.

Having sworn never to be part of the tourney scene after my experiences working in GW, I accidently fell into it after moving to London. I don't have the emotional attachment to the UK style tourney, so I love the balls to the wall mentality of the PP tourney set up. I get annoyed when tourneys are not decided by victory alone. Sportsmanship and painting are fundamental to any event, but they should reflect in other areas.

Its different strokes really. I'm sure there are soft events in the USA and I'm sure we play hard sometimes. It depends what you are after from the game. I think one of the major strengths of the PP games is that they were written with tourneys in mind. The way a PP game goes, it is hard to feel down about losing most times. When you lose, you lose hard, outplayed and out maneuvered by a stronger foe. This actually makes the games more fun to me, and gives a stronger event overall. The concept of soft and hard events is slightly adrift from the way the game plays. Its a hard game. Hence the pg5 mentality and play like you have a pair and so forth. It is often taken as a negative, but I think it is an honest reflection of the flow of the game.

This is a hard thing to explain, not sure I am conveying what I mean very well, but its almost like there is no hard or soft in a PP event. There is only the PP game.

I love the concept of celebrity status. Hell, the adoring fans and crowds of baying woman that singularly fail to materialise says it all. Does anyone even listen to our show? I have been recognised by voice twice now, but to be honest the UK scene is so close we all have grown to know each other pretty damm well.

Add to that my erstwhile colleagues Conrad and John who have been renowned characters on the UK scene for so long and you see I am just a bit part character who likes the sound of his own voice. (Actually, I don't even like that. I hate being the posh sounding one despite my mundane state education). Since joining the London crowd I have met some brilliant guys through them, many from the Warhammer scene, and been exposed to a whole new side of Wargaming. So cheers for that lads.

5) It seems many Warmachine players clash with Warhammer players (especially 40k). Have you had any experience with this before and why do you think the two communities have generated hostility between each other, when most wargamers tend to get along despite system preferences?

I really pissed my boss off at GW one night after spending a whole vets evening promoting PP. Whoops...

Ultimately, PP trod on GWs shoes a little. However, GW is still this lumbering behemoth, ambling through the forest of gaming. PP, Rackham and so forth are little nimble (though lamed in Rackham's case...) creatures slowly encroaching and picking away at GW's territory.

I think most gamers are not that bothered. Hell, I still keep up with GW, I just grew bored of their game style and find the new models, while technically brilliant, are really lacking in a style and character I relate to.

Ultimately its vocal fan boys. The silent majority are looking to get a good game in. Nothing more, nothing less. They are happily playing whatever system they want to. But one or two fanboys get jumped up and start baiting each other. Its a vicious cycle. Often based on ignorance .

Having played my fair share of GW, PP and others, I have grown to love the PP game. Its right for me. This doesn't mean its right for everyone. I would say to people, try it out, ignore the hyperbole and crap surrounding any game. If it works for you, go crazy, if not then find what does.

6) In your opinion, how do the 6 Warmachine factions rank in power in a tournament setting?

Errmmm...

CRYX
CRYX
CRYX
CRYX
CRYX
CRYX

hehe...

The MKII meta is still settling. I haven't played a fraction of the combos, tricks and casters yet. However, I am seeing an increased strength in the shooting and denial meta. Casters like E Hayley (notice a theme?) are proving real sticking points to me, but other factions and layers will decimate them.

Menoth got out of MKII really well, and Cygnar are strong. Khador seems to be the most akin to their MKI format so I guess I know how to kill them. Doesn't make it easy. Mercs are always the wildcard as you don't see them much in the UK scene. Hell, there were so few Warmachine players here anyway. everyone played Hordes, with Circle and Legion taking top spot.

Cryx have completely changed in playstyle, to more closely match their fluff. Our jacks have really stepped up and our magic dependance has started to die away a little so Cryx players are having to relearn the rulebook and find new strategy.

Once we get a few tourneys in we will see how it shakes down. At a push I would say the following:

Menoth/Cygnar
Retribution... need more toys, but they have some crazy options. I don't think they got the MKII memo ;)
Khador/Cryx.
Mercs (wildcard, could be anywhere)

7) Do you think the Hordes and Warmachine factions change in the tournament scene and if so how would you define each faction's character compared to casual play?

In MKI, there were obvious choices. Cryx had two units. Bile Thralls and Bane Knights.
With MKII we are seeing a better spread. hell, I have yet to play either unit. I think MKII has seen a massive change for the better with many units stepping up and balance being restored. Is it perfect, hell no, but its a lot better.

With the advent of tiers we will hopefully see some strong themed armies, and I am expecting a doubling up of thematic units to create strong visuals. EG: Mid based and cav banes, Satyxis Pirates and so forth. We are seeing this with the Winterguarde and Trencher options.

Once the hard core guys start to work through the lists we will see the strong competative builds come out, but hopefully MKII has enough internal balance that EVlad, Sorscha, Denny and so forth step away from THE caster to become part of a balance whole.

8) How has doing a podcast changed your wargaming, do you find you look at the game in a different light now or find people look at you differently?

Women... Again, I jest. I think the podcast is an extension of our gaming community. We sit chew the fat about games all day long, often while we should be working. By putting our thoughts on to the recorded medium and putting them out there we open that up to others.

I am a trained, but unemployed journalist. The podcast is currently the closest I can get to writing about my true passion. My college portfolio is full of gaming related articles so I aim to take these ideas further and embrace the power of the net (its not just obscene porn you know!)

I did work for the sadly deceased Firebase for a while, taking on the Specialist Games. I'd love to be part of a gaming mag again, but the UK is too frightened of such a thing and the industry panders to Supermarkets, making a breakout startup mag impossible. Hell, I even approached the UKs biggest publisher as well as an indie mag produced by an ex White Dwarf editor to see if they were interested and they wouldn't tough the idea with a barge pole. Maybe I need to fire some ideas off to PP about stuff for NQM? Or if they want to offer me a job :) "General gaming guy" could be my title.

I am hoping that the cast continues to grown and people continue to interact. The best bit is knowing people are listening and responding. Things like this communication with you are great as it shows we are creating bridges and finding common ground to share ideas with people.

I wouldn't really say people look at me that differently. Most people don't know who I am. In the club maybe I get asked a few more questions about the game, but that's more down to being a Pressganger. Not that I always know the answers.

I think my only real worry is that I seem to spend more time on the net talking and reading about gaming than actually doing it, but such is the price of (non)fame

9) You're known as the painty one over at Boosted damage and as such, what modeling tools and techniques do you swear by? Is there any technique you really abuse?

To be fair to the guys, all the BD boys can paint. Conrad is really stepping up and that keeps me on my toes. He brings models to the table that make me question my skill and buck up.

Chris has a very bold and direct style that I think is in part to his colour blindness. Much like other painters I know who are colour blind he highlights with dramatic layers that really make his style stand out. He has the paint fast ability and I've seen him churn out stunning retribution force in the time its taken me to paint four models.

John is also a good painter. He's just happy to pay others to do his dirty work. It kept me a roof over my head while I was looking for work so I'm not complaining. He is a gamer first though ,so his stuff is always that blend between quality paint and good to go.

I am always looking to step up. I have won a few trophies this year, but continue to doubt my work. I think its a hang up from Art School. I see all the amazing work out there on the net, and look at my dark, muddy little creations and it makes me sad. But always I try harder.

In terms of tools, I use pretty much all the paints out there. I grew up with the classic GW round pots with the white lids (Coat d Armes in new money). They were great, and I used to try to emulate the 'eavy metal style. After working for GW I was exposed to new ideas and broke old habits. I moved away from a dependance on ink for shading and now I favour paint washes.

Contrary to Snapey's belief I don't blend, instead using thin paint for semi transparency and glazes to unify highlights. I use bone or flesh to highlight most colours and use a lot of natural colours. PP's palette is pretty good in this respect as many of their colours are drab and neutral.

Devlan mud is a secret weapon. It shades so much, along with Badab black I rely on them to get my current scheme working.

If you look at my armies, from my Dark elves, to my Rackham forces, you see a lot of silver, black red/crimson and grey. I just found a way of painting these colours that looked good and applied it.

My advice is be an anti social git. My friends at school stopped playing so I had no choice but to paint my models. Each model painted taught me a new lesson and my skill grew. Joke is until PP came along I never used fully painted armies. I had so many ideas and played ever GW game that I couldn't commit to one project.

Also, good brushes. I own W&N series 7's, but am often too afraid to use them. Instead I use good quality mid range sable brushes. A size one, size two and a 000 for detail work is about all you need.

The more paint you own, the more options. While I am comfortable mixing, I prefer speed. By buying a good range of paint and experimenting you can find colour groups that help ease things along well.

Don't get too despondent, always ask for ideas and don't be afraid of positive criticism. While sites like CMON are awe inspiring, remember you are painting to play and NMM is an evil sent by Satan ;) Develop a style if you can and just keep painting.

10) Do you have any single model you are most proud of and would you be willing to show us a picture or two and run through how you painted it and explain why you love your little toy soldier so much?

Its usually whatever I ma half way through painting. Then I finish it and feel sad that it doesn't live up to my expectations. However, my test model for my as yet unpainted Revenant crew was a high point. Once I figure out a decent varnish regime I might actually get round to finishing the units I own. EAshpyxious was pretty good, but he has a few rough patches.

Anyway, this has turned into quite an epic so I will leave it there. Hopefully someone will get a positive note or two out of this. Apologies if it got dull. If anyone wants to get in touch to ask questions or discuss anything further please don't hesitate to drop me a line at webb@boosteddamage.com

Enjoy the show, keep rolling sixes and hope to meet you across a gaming table
soon.

Jon.

Jon was awesome to talk to and we tossed around a few e-mails, a great chap in general. Hopefully some time in the future we'll get to throw some dice and have a war of the teacosy hats.

If you guys have any comments or suggestions for future interviews drop a comment below.

Dat Assassination attempt. and why I hate Hordes

2010-01-07T04:55:00.000-08:00

So between bouts of Bayonetta I managed to get some games in yesterday against Lofty. I felt like a jerk when I ganked him turn 2 with Kaelyssa, but hey it's a lesson all newbies must experience at some point, we all walked into it at some stage. So instead of ranting how awesome Bayonetta is (although at the end the cut scenes are a BIT excessive and need more crotch shots) I decided I would rant about Hordes and while I'm selling my Skorne stuff.

I need to point out I'm not a complete idiot (although some will disagree), but I find the fury mechanic is too complex for me to enjoy using. Now here is the thing, it's not that the system is complex but it's the options it gives you make the game slow to a crawl when you're a person like me. I look at the situation and consider every option I see for maybe 5-10 seconds then move onto the next, in Warmachine I have my limit of focus and as such I think my options through at the start of the turn/my opponent's turn and then I put it into action. Where as with Hordes every time I boost or use fury in any manner my situation has then changed and become a new set of options, which a control freak like me then has to take a minute or two considering. So lets take a scenario and play with it.

We'll have a generic Warlock and a heavy and a light example here.

I charge a Heavy beast in, I spend 2 fury on attacks and I'm left with 1 open. Now I have to spend a minute debating if I want to leave the heavy open for transfers and use the light to finish the enemy model, or do I want to use the light else where or even move it to a better position and let my heavy get hit a little? All those options come from a single charge and then whatever I decide I must then do something with my Warlock to get the fury off, which takes a couple of seconds to decide too.

Now when you spread this over even a battlebox game, the fury mechanic is not enjoyable to me. As a control freak who must consider everything giving me too many options doesn't make it harder (I can do it), but it makes it frustrating because I feel like an asshole because I'm spending so long thinking, but if I don't then I'd feel like an asshole for not playing my best.

I think focus also fits my balls to the wall style, with fury if I want something done I can always play around with fury and get it done, which leaves the risks a little more managable, and as such I'm less likely to take the big risks I pride myself on taking. If I'm completely in a corner than I will find a way out of it with focus, with fury I'm more likely to just go "HULK SMASH!" and miss chances. As I played Lofty yesterday I noticed this, I left Mordikar wide open because I was losing the attrition war and instead of trying to beat Stryker (I had a chance to Essence blast the Canoneer and Cyclops Savage right on top of him), I fell back on trying to beat an Ironclad with a very hurt Canoneer. I had so many options that instead of taking the risky one that could win me the game (as I should have) I tried to play it safe and let the fury mechanic pull me back into the game instead. I should point out that Lofty is new and I could of gotten away with it IF I hadn't of pointed out to Lofty his 'clad had Mordikar dead if he just walked over to him, but I feel like I'd rather be punished for screwing up than beating a new player due to his inexperience, plus it helped Lofty learn to look at the game a bit differently.

I love the ability to transfer, but I find fury just gives me too many options and due to my nature it slows the game to a crawl. So with this in mind I'm going to... dun dun dun, sell my Hordes stuff. I really have no interest in playing Skorne at this point and after thinking through the fury slow down I think I would rather put that money into Retribution. Yesterday I picked up a box of Sentinels, Nayl and another soulless for about 35% off from the closing store, so I now have everything I want except for a UA and a couple more heavies. Looking at Ebay right now it seems a lot of people are selling Warmachine stuff and I don't think models are earning their value. So I think I'm going to paint up an army to a really high quality and sell it when the final pdf is released. I'm looking at Mordikar, Molik Kahn, Savage, Gladiator, min Unit of Venators, min Ferox, Agonizer and a soul ward and then pad from there. I think a white and red colour scheme should look unique and hopefully sell well. Doing snow bases is always impressive and I'm pretty sure I can pull this all off and paint better then 90% of the "Pro painted" stuff on Ebay. The question is how do you value a Hordes army? Warhammer is pretty easy to value as you have a lot of references but none for Hordes. I think I may just put it up at retail -10% and free postage and let people bidding decide the value on the models.

Any way I have to go play in the snow and start Hard mode in Bayonetta. Forcing angels to orgasm here I come!

P.S. I'm trying to set up more interviews, but doing something different than Gday did, as in have decent guests ;)

I think I'm going to start making puns here.

2010-01-06T03:48:00.000-08:00

It looks like I may have got my community sorted at least a bit. We're going to meet some time next week and discuss the future. I really hate the side of me that steps up and sorts stuff out when it needs sorting. Now I have to be responsible. :(

I've played a couple of games on Vassal and I've noticed the game plays quite differently. Often I can get 2-3 models in an assassination position and get the kill in 1 turn, but the games I've played so far I've been struggling to get it in 2. The player quality is just much higher and that's pretty cool.

Yesterday I played Clayton and my dice were insanely bad. The first 3 rolls in the game for me were all Double 1s. I was like "only need a 5 to hit, I'll take a pot shot". And then 1-1 and I'm just like "Really vassal?". Bad dice really defined the game. My theory is because the text is pink and there is no yellow counter balance they roll bad, you need 1 of each as discussed earlier. I took some stupid riskes, but honestly that's how I play and it's what I find fun. I've got the mentality "When you're screwed, you're at your best", and when dice hate you and your dice are at -7, you've got to take that shot! Sadly that shot was an Arcantik bolt which then proceeded to nail my Griffon and let his Mariners smash face. But I've rambled enough on this since Clayton is doing a battlereport, I must warn you that I come across as angry and pissed off in some lines, but I was laughing the entire time, I found it sadistically amusing and look forward to playing with him some more.

Since my LGS is closing down I picked up a box of Sentinels cheap and I'm going to order Prime MKII from Maelstrom some time this week. I wasn't sure I wanted to invest in Warmachine at this point, but I think getting the rulebooks and NQ at least is a good idea. I'm going to continue to play on Vassal and the information is damn useful. Plus I likes reading the books. I think when the store is truly dead I'm going to post my thoughts on it and what was done right and wrong, but until it is dead and gone I'm not going to insult it on a public forum with the Iron agenda's popularity, it's just not a good idea.

I'm hoping to get a game in against Gdaybloke in the near future, I want to play E Morghoul, but I knew Clayton was taking Bart and an Arm 13 'warlock just isn't going to cut it with all those AoEs. I know I'm good with Kaelyssa and I can get wins with her, but I want to so some fieldtesting and I'm interested in Skorne or Vayl for that.

I wanted to get some painting done today but I can't prime because there is snow every where... wait, why am I blogging when there is snow outside!? Screw you guys! SNOW!!!

DOOOMED!!

2010-01-02T11:53:00.001-08:00

My LGS is officially dead. :(

Looks like I'm going to be playing on Vassal now and grabbing the old game here and there. This makes me very sad.

2009-12-26T04:59:00.003-08:00

Merry Christmas all.

Hopefully yours was better than mine and you got all the toy soldiers you wanted.

Bye bye game store?

2009-12-16T08:01:00.000-08:00

So I was in my LFGS last night and the manager (who is a great guy and a community member as much as anything else) came up to us and said goodbye, so I was rather confused and said bye figuring he was just going home, only to find out 5 minutes later he had been laid off. I then found out a whole bunch of stock is being sent back and basically everyone knew the store was being run by an idiot from day 1 and would ultimately die. So phone numbers got exchanged and such, and we're going to look at hosting a night once a week at a local community centre. But this brings up an interesting question, What do you do when your local gaming hub vanishes?

There is a wargaming society locally and I plan to go there every other week, but can a hobby really survive on once every other week basis? Is there really any insentive to buying new models other than wanting to paint them if you play rarely? I think I might pick up the new Skarre and a Cryx heavy or 2 to paint, but whats the point in buying stuff I'll rarely use now?

At the moment if the group doesn't get set up then my only outlet for Wargaming is the local games workshop. A few of the shop members already go there/work there but I don't know if I would be happy supporting a company that thinks balance isn't important in a game and has GW policies..

I think I'm going to continue to blog on this and see how the community goes.

I suck with Ravyn

2009-12-01T17:09:00.000-08:00

So tonight I got a game with Ravyn in against Epic Kaya. Know what happens when you haven't read Epic Kaya's rules? Turn 2 assassination on your ass happens. I think Arcane Killer is a bit abusive with Dog pile and left feedback as such, but it's made me sit down and read through all the stat cards for Circle and I'll do the same for Trolls, Legion and then Warmachine factions this week, just need more printer ink to get them all printed out since monitor reading is bad for your eyes.

I think I'm going to start playing on Vassal more, I have it installed but only used it once. If I'm looking to goto major tournaments in the future I want to get in as much practice as I can and online will do that for me.

Thursday I'm heading over a friend's house to get in some MKII games, I'm tempted to take Skorne to help with the MKII fieldtest, but part of me also feels Warmachine armies need to be facing Hordes factions too, since everyone wants to use the new shiny Hordes rules, which limits testing against Warmachine and balancing the two. I'm curious what you guys think about this, will there be enough WM VS Hordes testing or will you all be playing your Warbeasty factions?

I did (not) goto a tournament.

2009-11-25T06:17:00.000-08:00

I haven't updated in a while and was planning to do a nice big review of the 350 point mangled metal tournament my local store ran yesterday. The problem was I didn't get to take part beyond the first game due to time mismanagement. Some of the players are new or a bit suspect on the rules and play slow as hell, there was meant to be a turn time limit and... it was never enforced.

So I got in 1 tournament game then played a 35 point game of MKII against one of the best local players.

This is the tournament game, in perfect detail. My opponent was a new player who I kind of mentor since I am the local Skorne player as the other moved away (and had a huge fetish for Makeda and couldn't see how Molik made a Gladiator look like a joke). So I didn't want to smash him and such but er.. yea, read on.

my opponent goes first by my choice.
He runs his beasts forward, does something with Morghoul and moves him up to.
I move up my group having my army looking like it will engage his Bronzeback, Savage and Gladiator among a forest, with Kaelyssa and a Griffon hiding behind it and phantom hunter on Kaelyssa.
He moves his army round the forest ready to engage, casts unrelenting on his bronzeback, I measure control area and watch.
I upkeep Phantom hunter, put a focus on the Griffon to be safe (figure I can steal 2 giving me 8 focus and I need 2 to shoot and 6 to boost) and move Kaelyssa up. I put a shot in Morghoul, he transfers it to the savage, I put a shot in Morghoul, take his fury and hit him for about 10 damage, I needed 8 to kill on the next shot and I got it. Extend hand, feel like a jerk.

So I wait like 45 minutes for the new guys to finish playing and honestly I was quite frustrated. Pairings for round 2 were announced and I got the bye.. Which annoyed me quite a lot. I was the top of the tournament with 1 turn 2 kill and I get the bye because no one else could compare to that, so I get to sit out round 2, when I had gone to the tournament to win it. My mind was set on winning, I walked in that door and went "I am the best player, I have Kaelyssa and I can and will win this tourney without a doubt" and then I just get kicked in the nuts for doing exactly that. Round 3 didn't work because it was closing time when round 2 ended. So instead of a tournament I got to smash a guy's face and then play a 35 point of MKII.

I was against a Butcher list full of heavy armour and my list just doesn't deal with that, I couldn't really kill Butcher and I got drawn into attrition and just plain lost. I couldn't get to butcher and that sucked. I'm thinkng of getting the Sentinels and replacing the Invictors, they can break heavy armour. The Mage hunters are a very nice unit though, they are quite nasty.

On Sunday I have a rematch against Dave's Khador. Hopefully my health will recover since I'm still recovering from my hospital visit where I spent 6 hours being sedated and messed with. Next week I'm going to get in some extra games with other locals, Another Khador played I rarely gets to play wants to get some MKII so we're going to meet at the store and give it a couple of games. Then me and the local Press ganger are going to get some Hordes MKII games in. I want to test Krueger as I'm really unsure on his feat and I intend to playtest it a few times before I write feedback going "dude, WTF?"

Painting day.

2009-11-07T04:35:00.000-08:00

Had a busy week and didn't get much done but my Mage hunters and UA arrived. So I've decided, I can't even open the boxes until my invictors and Vryos done. I need to paint 4 heads, mark 6 bases and just clean up the guns a bit here and there. Then varnish time and er.. yea. I will finish them today and post some bad pictures.

A while ago I suggested mini tournaments at the local game store on game night and they announced one next month away and it's a 350 mangled metal. I'm looking at Running Kaelyssa, but I'm not positive yet. I'm wondering if I can fit Kae, a phoniex, a hydra and a griffon. I am tempted to run Vryos just so I can walk my jacks up backwards and go "I punch you in the face, from my ass!"

On D&D news, I have totally found a group, I maybe posting a pic of my dwarf mini I will probably be using. I'm also working on some 40k minis to fit with the new playgroup and I may pick up a small amount of Flames of War, the only problem is I would want to play Japanese factions and I don't think they are out yet. I just want to correct people saying Kamikaze, cause I'm annoying like that.

I was listening to a podcast recently and there was something I noticed. Some of the "sportsmanship" discussions really stood out to me. I tend to "play the rules", never cheat but I'll stick to the rules and use minor loop holes to do things. Like firing at something out of range with a unit to "premeasure" for another unit and some people consider this to be abusive and not sportsman like. I may try to stop doing this and be more "sportsman like". I tend to take the opinion of "I play by the rules, what's wrong with that?" and I'm starting to ponder if I should be playing differently to this. I would be interested in your guy's opinions and feedback on this matter.

Chris Walton answers questions!

2009-11-05T07:58:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I completely forgot to post this up thanks to getting Borderlands and Tekken 6, but I e-mailed Chris Walton some questions and he answered them. He's an awesome guy and my favourite privateer staff member, so I really enjoyed reading the answers and communicating with him. Without further a do here are the questions and answers.

#1 We know that the Retribution Warjack designs evolved to their current state, but where was the starting point? If you had to break them down into 3 stages, how would you describe each?

Three stages…hmmm…denial, bargaining and acceptance are stages, right? Just kidding. Its hard to break down the design process in general, and the Myrmidon process is even more difficult to do that with. In the early stages; we had settled on a general shape – Matt wanted to see these big looming shoulders and he liked an idea I’d been playing with where we moved the head to the front of a prow-shaped torso – so many of the basic shapes flowed from there. I explored a lot of motifs for the Iosan ‘jacks; some drawings had them looking very knightly (almost Protectorate in appearance), some were based on organic designs where I was looking at whales and dolphins for inspiration, some were just these weird glass energy projector constructs - there were just a lot of paths that were walked down. A lot of the final designs have their roots in those exploratory drawings, though; so it was a real evolutionary process.

#2 Have you ever had a design you were unhappy with that turned into a model you loved or vice versa?

I think Wolf Lord Morraig falls into that category. After I’d drawn him, Matt was happy with the design but I just wasn’t sure I was sold. Honestly, I thought I’d slaughtered the drawing and that whatever poor bastard had to sculpt him would curse my name forever. Thankfully Steve Saunders dug deep and pulled out an amazing figure. I was blown away by that fig. I really thought it was all going to end in a train wreck and that I was driving the locomotive. Its always good to be proven wrong in those situations.

#3 What faction is your favourite and least favourite to design for?

I get asked this every so often, and I always have the same answer – I can’t really say. Each faction is a ton of fun to draw, and having a good variety of stuff to do ensures that I don’t end up bored.

#4 Have you ever designed a character or unit you were really fond of that got canned and if so could you tell us about it/them?

Not so much. With the amount of drawing that needs to get done, I try to keep myself focused on what needs to be produced for a book so there’s a little less blue-sky type drawing than you’d think. Now, there are directions that I go that we may not end up using, and anything that doesn’t make the cut for one project may be held onto and used at a latter time. Because of that, I really don’t share what’s been canned simply because it may be exactly what we need at a later date and its no good showing my poker hand.

#5 If you could design a faction just for your own enjoyment, what would the faction be and how would they play?

Wow, this is a seriously loaded question – any answer I give could be interpreted as that I’m working on a new faction. But, if I had my way…

Giants. They would play by kicking serious amounts of ass; all the time, every time. Just three or four giants and me on the other side of the table with a big grin would comprise an army. Unfortunately, with the sizes I’d want they would be unconscionably expensive to produce. I’m betting I’ll be waiting a long, long time for giants.

#6 Outside of Privateer games what other tabletop games and related things do you enjoy?

I’ve been a tabletop wargamer for a long time… I think 23-24 years now, and that’s not counting when I played Dungeons & Dragons in grammar school. I still game and paint when I can, but sadly I don’t have the time to devote to the hobby that I used to. Sigh. It sucks getting old.

#7 Most artists and companies tend to regard their art as "intellectual property" rather than some cool pictures people might enjoy viewing. You tend to post your art on Deviant Art and interact with the community going in the complete opposite direction, why did you decide to do this?

Well, Privateer Press certainly views all of its badass dudes, hot ladies, monstrous beasts and unstoppable robots as its intellectual property – I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. But the nice part about working at a company founded by an artist is that Matt encourages people to be proud of their work and share it with the public. Letting the community see my concept art or talking about what we do helps fire people’s imaginations and love of our games. That can never be a bad thing.

#8 Is it true Doug Seacat eats puppies to fuel his writing powers?

Yes. I can smell him grilling one down the hall and chuckling about it as we speak. It smells better than you’d think.

#9 How do you tend to react to the community feedback on models you've designed? As a designer it seems difficult to take feedback from such a large group of people and not feel personally attacked in some cases.

Anytime you put your work out there for the world to see, you have to be prepared for the fact that its just not going to speak to some people. Some individuals will love what you’ve done, while others will loath it. It’s the nature of the beast. Mostly, I just try to design in a way that makes me think “yeah, I want to paint that” or “man, this model will be cool”; if I can do that there should be people willing to jump aboard.

Negative feedback isn’t too hard to take when its provided in a useful and respectful tone. Someone who says that they “don’t like the wide areas and lack of surface detail” is much easier to listen to and take seriously than the guy who says “OMG TEH AR SUXXORZ!” Unfortunately the second category tends to be more prolific with their critique at times.

#10 Many people are hoping for a 5th Hordes faction and after hearing the Retribution were always planned for Warmachine, it seems likely Privateer have something already planned out, but I'm sure you can't tell us about that. So instead could you tell us about any new Gobber art you have worked on and give us any hints as to what us Gobber fans can look forward to in the future?

The last gobber I drew was for our Bodgers! games, so right now there isn’t much gobber art to give that isn’t out there. Watch, Matt will now wander over to my desk and tell me about the hundreds of gobbers that I’ll be drawing. That’s just how these things seem to run.

And that concludes the questions. Chris is an awesome guy and I'm really thankful for him for answering the questions. I'm going to try and get some more questions answered by various staff members and poke them a bit since I've read/heard a lot of interviews and never felt like questions I wanted answered ever got asked, so look forward to more in the future or me utterly failing!

Goddamn it

2009-11-01T17:57:00.000-08:00

No one else turned up to the tournament, so I went for a wander and found a whole new playgroup and a new press ganger. Some old friends were there and hopefully some new ones.

I found me a D&D group. So I'm working on a little Dwarf adventurer and I'm going to track down my old halfling pirate model.

As for WM/H I taught a kid to play Warmachine today, I played Retribution and tried to do cool things like throwing a ferox at some venators and just doing the cool demo game. I refused to assassinate Mordikar (pot shotted him just to act like I failed) and then killed Molik with Kaelyssa's fury stealing melee. Wasn't too bad.

I ordered the Malifaux rule book and I expect to pick up a few new games and see what pans out. Fantasy is back on the books, so I need to get my new carry case and things.

Audience involvement!

2009-10-31T22:03:00.000-07:00

There is a Warmachine tournament in 6 hours, I don't have enough Retribution to take part (it's 750) but I have enough Skorne. Do I play Skorne and goto the tournament or do I get some sleep?

You decide! Post a comment on if I should go or not, when I wake up the decision will be made and if I go, I will battle report it!

Mordikar/Hexeris
Krea
Shaman
Molik
Savage
Agonizer
Extoller
6 Bog trogs
8 Venators
3 Ferox
4 Paingivers
Swamp gobbers

That is the army list since E Morghoul is in bits and so are my swordsmen. Stuffs already packed to go, make a post and let me know!

Also, I may have found a second playgroup in my area (well 3rd, but shh). Waiting for an e-mail back and then I may have a new metagame (and a place to play fantasy).

Also Malifaux looks awesome, I've ordered the rulebook and a full+UA Mage hunter unit.

But yes comment if I should go, this post is only good for a few hours.

This blog shows what I have typed

2009-10-29T19:24:00.000-07:00

I haven't been able to play any WM this week, but I do have something awesome lined up for early next week. I sent some e-mails and stuff and cool stuff will be posted on Monday or Tuesday!

I have been using a new type of super glue lately, or testing rather. The glue is called "Liquid Weld" and it's pretty damn expensive and I don't think it's in stores yet. I found the glue to be insane on GW plastics. I took a Dryad (very fragile) glued it together with this stuff and gave it ten minutes then threw it at a wall (I was bored and it seemed a good test). The glue held perfectly, the Dryad took a beating and the glue didn't even come close to breaking, I even tried to pull it apart and I couldn't without having to break the plastic.

I then tried to glue together some metal models (a Chimera) and found it just plain didn't like metals, even when fully dried it just didn't hold the pieces well, you could pull them apart with less effort than being around in a carry case will make. So as a metal glue it sucks and I'm going to stick with my Loctite glue instead, but if you're looking for a solid glue for plastics then it's worth checking out if you can.

There is a WM Tournament on Sunday, I may attend but it's 750 and I'm a few models short, so I may just skip it and resume pick up games on Tuesday. Hopefully with my invictors fully painted.

I ganked Lylyth!

2009-10-20T14:38:00.000-07:00

Tonight I played 1 game and, pretty much played a second game by proxy. There was a new guy playing Skorne and since I know Skorne, I had to mentor him and be rules lawyer all at once. My community recently changed and some how I've become one of the veteran players.. but hey that's cool. So I mentored a guy on how to abuse Skorne then I played a battle box game against Legion.

The game went like this.

I move stuff, take a potshot at Lylyth with my Manticore. He slams the Manticore on his turn and I then move Kaelyssa up and tag Lylyth twice boosted. Extend hand.

Seriously, if you leave a 'caster open within 18 inches of Kaelyssa I am going to start taking pot shots. I don't need LoS to hit you, so I'm going to do so and do so a lot. If you don't run the hell away I'm going to keep doing it over and over. Isn't that fun folks!? I'm really starting to get Kaelyssa and she plays like Caine or E Morghoul, her army isn't as important as just getting that all mighty assassination attempt. I may even risk another Heavy kit to get her a hydra to do her shootie doom with. Either way digging the Ret.

I have some more stuff painted and I need to take pictures, but I picked up a lot of new stuff. Invictor UA, Ghost Sniper, Soulless Escort and a Chimera. I'm slowly working my way to 750 points. Which will be nice. I have a game against Circle/Khador on Tuesday, just hoping it's not Kruger, cause I'm still not sure how I deal with him, advices please?

I may also have found a D&D group..

Doug Seacat eats puppies to fuel his writing powers.

2009-10-13T14:18:00.000-07:00

So tonight I got a game VS Trolls, first time I've played them outside of mangled metal and well, it went extremely poorly. My opponent also had a really bad grasp of his rules and I didn't feel like checking his cards over and over. So he was probably cheating out of his ass and the few times I knew something was suspicious I did call him on it, but any way.

I'm not going to write a battle report because it just involves "Trolls move into middle, Borka stands at the back and I can't get to him". So I got tar pitted down in the a huge unit of Kriel warriors and just couldn't do anything but fight it out with them through the game. Champions kept making tough rolls and just yea.. Wasn't a fun battle, everything just got smushed into the middle and I was out numbered as he only had 1 dire troll for his warbeasts. The game came down to a final turn where I got Kaelyssa into a position to snipe out a furyless Borka, I moved up Aiyanna to throw harm on him and missed it. If I had got it up I would of killed him. But I started the turn with 6 models on the table and about 10 trolls staring them down, so I took the long shot.

So yea I lost, but I'm really suspicious of how my opponent played, he didn't understand Pulse and Aura, so he was like "oh I cast this and then" and I go "It's an aura, you can't do that..) and just lots of little things like this. So yea.. I'd go and read through all the MKI rules and leearn the things I don't remember but seriously.. MKII is a few months away, I can put up with it for now. The only problem is some of the newer players are.. dumbasses. They just aren't very bright, they're the scene kid type of people and just.. ugh.. I'm sorry but when you all ask 1 guy all your rules questions and he doesn't know half of them you may have issues as a playgroup. I sat there and answered every question they had, because I care about WM/H and plan to get into the tournament scene and go annoy the Boosted damage folks.

Playing Retribution makes you the centre focus in the entire store though. Everyone wants to see your models and touch them. I went to the bathroom and came back to find my Heavy being passed around the table.. Then people wanted to pick up Kaelyssa and just yea.. The world revolves around you apparently.. And everyone calls them Space Elves because the 'jacks have force fields, but last time I chcked, so did every freaking Warcaster.. But yea, Space Elves..

I picked up Dawnlord Vyros but couldn't get my Arcanist, the store didn't have him in stock and I was trying to support my LGS, so I guess I'm going to be ordering from Maelstrom games again.

I missed the tournament this Sunday, but in 2 weeks time we have a 750 I might try and make. I'd need a unit of Mage hunters and such.. but yea. I did also come to understand the value of mittens tonight, they push trolls away to avoid a huge ugly mosspit mess. Flank was pretty spiffy though and with 2 reach jacks I got to pull it off 5 or 6 times and felt it made the invictors insane.. I think keeping the Griffon with them is a very good idea.

So now I'm going to make a casual magic deck and get some more painting done. I liked the way the silver looked under lights and just.. felt happy with the army, so paint scheme is a go!

Lets be social!!

2009-10-10T13:32:00.001-07:00

I quit on the pink, I started to paint a 'jack and just said no. It's just unreasonable and in a week I got 2 models done. I switched to my original idea of silver models and battle damage them up from there.

The picture is very bad and due to using flash you can't see any real shading so it looks terrible. But I painted him in a day and I just need to add some stains and grubbiness. I have the Griffon half done and 8 of the Invictor bodies done.. I should finish my army in a week or two at this rate.

If I feel up to it I'm going to a tournament tomorrow, may report it..

I decided I wanted to try and meet more Warmachine players and get to know the wider community and to discuss things with people outside the PP forums. So I'm going to post my AIM name and see what happens. Say Hi, troll me, whatever, I just think it's a cool idea to get to know folks.

So my AIM name is AstrayPenguin . I'm usually around, so drop me a line.

Need feedback (pics)

2009-10-05T19:26:00.001-07:00

Okie dokie. I need some help on something. I can't decide if I want to do all the armour pink or if I want to do it half and half.

So pick 1 or 2. The complete dude (left) or the half and half (and unfinished) dude on the right.

Wip Shots

2009-09-30T16:04:00.000-07:00

Some quick off the hip pics

All WiP, but startinng to get there. I'm not sure if I just want to ink the cloaks and make them a dark blue or what.

Retribution debut

2009-09-30T06:50:00.000-07:00

So I promised a report of my gaming yesterday and here it is.

I played 2 games, one was a battlebox game and one was a 500 point game. The guy I was playing (can't remember his name, I haven't been in for a while and the community has been very active and loads of new guys) was a new player, but he was an experienced wargamer, so he wasn't making too many mistakes.

Rubytibution 500 points.

Kaelyssa
-Phoenix
-Griffon
10 Invictors
Narn
Eiryss
Aiyanna & Holy

Solid little list, solo assassination with some heavy hitters to back it up should I need to beat through Stryker's jacks.

Cygnar 500 points

Stryker
-Ironclad
-Hunter

Junior
-Hunter

10 Long gunners + UA

Pretty solid jack heavy list. Not perfect but still worth doing.

He won the dice off and decided I should set up first. So I set up my Invictors and Griffon infront of Kaelyssa at the centre of the board, with A&H on my left with the Phoenix and the other solos Advance deployed ahead of A&H. My opponent put Stryker on the left side with his jacks, long gunners off to the right and Jr on the right flank with his Hunter.

Terrain wasn't too bad, there was a coule of buildings on my side of the board, with difficult terrain hill right in the middle of the board.

I go first and move up Team solo (Narn and friends) disrupt the hunter with the Elven hooker and charge it with Narn to keep him safe from the Ironclad and Styker getting off easy magic on him. I ding the hunter a bit but nothing remotely note worthy. A&H run up field as I see a turn 2 assassination chance. Invictors run up towards Stryker, Kaelyssa does.. stuff but didn't do anything to effect the game until the final turns, so lets just ignore her for now. Griffon moved up to block LoS to Kaelyssa in case of snipe type things happening.

So my Turn 1 means I already have Styrker under pressure, a Hunter locked in combat and there isn't much that can be done to hurt my army at this point, seems a good first turn.

He starts his turn by moving up the field with his flanking forces, long gunners run, Junior puts Arcane shield on the hunter and he runs too. Stryker cast arcane shield on the hunter and didn't do much else, Ironclad moved up and that was pretty much the turn since the Hunter couldn't hit Narn.

Turn 2 I move Eiryss up and take a shot at Stryker but misses (def 16 is a bitch). Narn backflips over the Hunter and charges Stryker, and can't hit him to save his life.. There goes my turn 2 assassination.. So, I move up the invictors, Kaelyssa and her pet jack. Pheonix goes "Rawr, I smash face now!" and charges at the hunter. This leaves him tying up the Hunter and Ironclad. So he starts to wail on the hunter, all but shuts him down and sets him on fire. I realise now I should of hit the Ironclad once as well, so that both would be on fire. Hunter is almost dead after a good smack any way. A&H move up, cast no feats and start beating on the hunter.

Stryker nailed Narn and the Ironclad wailed on the Pheonix, my opponent rolled very badly and it hit, took down the Arc node and generator in it's activation. Hunter took a swing and did nothing, so popped it's reserve tank and tried to cover Stryker from the Invictors next turn. Long gunners ran in to try and get a line on Kaelyssa next turn. Jr and the other hunter followed the Long gunners.

Turn 3 hits and I start wailing on 'jacks with the Phoenix, Set the Ironclad on fire but just can't break armour 21 on the 'clad. Invictors move up a bit and decide the Long gunners look a bit menacing, so they start to pop them off, taking out the UA and a few extra Long gunners to lighten the damage they could do. I messed up here and spread them out, where as I should of based to based them ready for return fire. Kaelyssa threw an AoE at a Long gunner, it missed and scattered just infront of them, which stopped them advancing and such. Griffon block LoS to Kae from the Long gunners and then the Elven hooker goes "Hey Stryker.. no focus buddy!". A&H finish off the Hunter and prepare for Stryker next turn.

This turn is rather uneventful and The ironclad can't finish off the heavy with no focus. Styker is in combat with Eiryss (she assaulted him) and wasn't willing to take a 4 dice free strike, so stayed put, swinging at her and missing. Long gunners killed 4 Invictors after double tapping and couldn't get to Kaelyssa..

Stryker has no focus, couldn't pop feat and has A&H and Eiryss staring at him.. Since this was a pick up game I had no reason to do anything but take the assassination, had it been a tournament game I would of tried to finish off the 'clad and Long gunners. I think the Invictors, Kaelyssa and the Griffon could of dealt with the Long gunners easily and the 'clad should of gone down with 3 focus on the Pheonix. So any way. Aiyanna harms, Holt smashs face, Styker dies.

We discussed the game afterwards and I thought he should of sniped the Long gunners and put them in the center of the board and just trashed my army and forced me to deal with them rather than shutting them out of the game as I did and have to only deal with Styker and 2 'jacks, so in effect gaining 250 points advantage. It didn't help that I figured the Retribution's playing style was applying uber pressure and just forcing the enemy 'caster down. Getting Team solo on Stryker on turn 2 and then locking his 'jacks down was brutal. So yea, I was happy with the way the game went, I ewnjoyed the Retribution playing style and other than being pestered by a group of annoying kids wanting to know everything about my Retribution stuff and just generally annoying me I had a good night.

The 2nd game wasn't very exciting at all, it was a battlebox game and I got a chance to try the focus stealing with on Kaelyssa, it fell through and got her killed, but I wanted to try to see how it worked.

I'll post some pictures of the army later. Kaelyssa is maybe half way done and the first Invictor just needs the black highlighting and metals redoing.

Game on!

2009-09-29T22:13:00.000-07:00

Today I had my first games with Retribution. My theory on being a high pressure army that goes for the throat was correct and I felt in control of the game the entire time. The solos are the key assassination pieces, but the Invictors and 'jacks were capable just as well.

I'll write up a full report tomorrow and give a run down of each model I used and how I felt they performed.

Retribution review part 1

2009-09-27T20:13:00.000-07:00

Today I worked some more on the Ret. Started to paint Aiyanna, Kaelyssa (Boob armour!) and the Invictor is almost done. I absolutely HATE the Heavy jack and I will make a full post on it, because that kit is absolutely vile and deserves to be absolutely demolished.

But onto the main show!

I'm going to review every model in the Ret book, but using only 1 sentence for each.

The Retribution seems to have a solid theme going with adaptable troops able to hold scenarios with the solos and 'casters suited to assassination. So in SR4 Ret will either go for "you can't win" and assassination or full on Scenario abuse. Another overriding theme is pressure, Ret excel on applying pressure, especially to 'casters.

Garryth.

Melee Assassin. He's exactly like Abyslonia in Legion, except has Arc nodes. I really liked her in that, but in Ret he just doesn't feel as strong. Does make me think E Morghoul's fan will be passive in MKII though. But yea, he'll pull 'casters around and then stab them. Nothing else to say.

Kaelyssa.

She is a disruption and mind games 'caster. Her abilities tend to disrupt your opponents troops with rough terrain and cripple their warjacks/make them shake. The fury/focus leeching leads to mind games with Hordes and she is deadly against casters, but lacks the ability to set them up. She should be a strong 'caster but will take a lot of skill to really abuse. She will also be one of the first Ret epics, her fluff is all "Will be awesome"

Rahn

Rahn I really don't like, he's a scenario 'caster and that's about it. He just pushes things around and disrupts, but it's just not enough for me. Why is my 'caster pushing dudes instead of killing them on mass? Has a terrible feat and just feels unplayable to me. I love his model and will pick it up to complete the set.

Ravyn.

Emo chick! She's a really strong 'caster who applies pressure best of all the Ret. She can extend ranges, move things faster. She can easily kill a 'caster in close combat and has the ability to move things around to open lines. Her feat is just insane with the right army, it screws the def stat and lets you move forward, take some shots and then move 2 inches back to deny the charge and stabby death.. I think she is a very strong 'caster, with the Ret units and her spell list she can force people to play on the back foot and then corner them ready for the kill.

Vyros.

Ret's jack 'caster with some troop support thrown in for good measure. He's a jack of all trades and will be solid for being so, but he could do with some more ways to boost 'jacks or generate additional focus.

Chimera

It's an arc node that you can't engage. It's just a solid little Lancer style dude, what more do you want?

Gorgon

Another disruption piece for the Ret, they have a lot of pinning models in place abilities and the Gorgon excels at this. My only complaint is that I'm not sure if the Gorgon is worth the points (I'm unsure on how to value a point in MKII yet), it's going to pin something down, but anything worth pinning (Character 'jacks/beasts etc.) are going to beat it senseless. Time will tell ifi t's worth it in the meta game.

Griffon

It's a beat stick and it's cheap as hell. You could take 10 of these in 500 points. How the hell do you deal with that many beat sticks at once? With Vyros these are nuts.. speed 8 pathfinding jacks you could just swarm with. Yes, freaking, please.

I'll continue this tomorrow with the Heavy jacks and the units!

Invictor WiP

2009-09-26T17:38:00.000-07:00

I spent all day working on models, building, painting, hating the goddamn annoying heavy kit (modding it just so I never have to buy another). I'm now going to try and avoid plastic kits if I can, I just plain don't like PP plastic.

I'm running out of Thaco podcast and starting to regret the pink. It takes 4 coats to get a solid colour..

Models here!

2009-09-25T09:33:00.000-07:00

Okay so my models arrived, I'm now working on building A&H, Kaelyssa and the Invictors.

Since I'm busy trying to get all this built for Tuesday (my gaming night), I'm just going to post 1 interesting pic.

This is how many parts the Griffon comes in. And that polearm needs a brass rod.

I am the dice man!

2009-09-24T08:53:00.000-07:00

So my book arrived today (HAPPY FACE!) and I sat down to read the fluff and then got 2 pages into the fluff and went "MODEL RULES!" and proceeded to spend about 8 hours looking over it.

So for a quick run down.

I like the female 'casters and I like Rahn's model, but really don't liks his rules. I'll be picking up Ravyn ASAP and her and Kaelyssa will be my main 'casters. I got a thing for emo chicks I guess. Ravyn is awesome, I love her spell list and her weapon, I can't wait to pick her up and put her on a custom base, Position her foot so she's standing on a slant and like she's going to look down and stab someone.

So units wise I love the Dawnguard and Mage hunters, both of which I will pick up a unit of when they come ot (aka when I have more moneys, I plan to spend about £50-60 a month on models to quickly build up the Ret force. I really don't like the mittens or houseguard though. The houseguard are just shitty Gun mages and quite frankly the models are terrible. They look like Big O and Piccard had a love child and then cloned him a few times. Houseguard just don't work for me, they seem like dawnguard if you are missing a point or two, unless the models are amazing, I doubt I'll pick them up, maybe the long gunners, but probably not.

Stormfall archers need their own sentence. FUCK YEAH! These guys have an awesome concept and awesome art to go with it. Hoping the model lives up to it.

Onto the solos. There are some stunning and awesome (Narn) some are terrible like Nayl. Going to pick up most of them though.

I'm wanting to know what PP will do with the cav. Will they release a full box or do the current cav thing? Either way lots of cav, I'll probably pick them up.

So yea, I likes it. My stuff should be posted today or tomorrow, so hopefully I can get to work on them. There is a tournament here in a couple of weeks on the 11th, it's the Retribution steam roller event, so I figure I should be rocking my pink Elves. I need to check what the format is, but I'm hoping it's not mangled metal or I'll need to buy another jack or two. I am quite tempted to go for Griffon spam. They're insanely cheap and it would be fun to just beat people down with a bunch of them, while stealing Fury/Focus with Kaelyssa to power her spells.

I suppose the advantage of playing a new army is surprise, even though I'm not experienced with them. But hey should be fun either way, just got to hope my health is okay. I have to go into hospital for an entire day next week, which will cut into my painting time, plus they want to knock me out so it'll take a while to recover even when I do come out.

But yea, Ret good, very good. I'm really digging the Ret vibe, they seem to fit my style really well. My next purchases will probably be Ravyn, E Eiryss, Invictor UA and a unit of Mage Hunters. That will give me a 35 point list in MKII and I'll be closing on the 750 mark in MKI as well and throwing in a couple of solos and another jack and I'll be good to go.

Retribution colour scheme (feedback wanted)

2009-09-21T14:23:00.000-07:00

Okay folks, so my Retribution are in the mail and will be here in a few days, and as such I started to ponder my colour scheme and wanted to do a quick test. Now I'll be running a couple of jacks and need objective markers, so I looked at what I had laying around and figured I'd never touch my Cryx, so I stole the Cankerworm base and painted it up as such.

That's WiP but the pink is finished and I really like it. It draws the eye perfectly and covers well, is easy to highlight and shade. So my Ret is totally going to be that colour when they arrive. Plus the bonus is they count for the Breast cancer brawl as a pink army.

The downside is basing with the pink is very difficult. I can't use static grass because the moment I do it's going to clash with the pink and look terrible. So it's down to a plain brown, a sandy flag stone or a neutral grey rubble. I can't decide on which but I'm leaning towards the rubble as the cloaks are going to be grey/blueish and the neautral grey will blend will the cloaks and make the armour all the more striking.

Well screw that

2009-09-18T05:16:00.000-07:00

I ordered my Retribution army (from the guys who sponsor Boosted Damage), woo hoo! But I'll get to that after I've had a bit of a rant on my experiences at GW yesterday.

Okay, so I've decided to give up on Warhammer completely. I'm not trying to start 40k VS Warmachine crap like /tg/ always has but in my experience I just can't take the Warhammer community at the GW store and at my LGS no one plays fantasy.

I've tried to write this post twice before and I can't do it without going into some batshit insane rant on how much I hate the Warhammer community, so I'm going to make a list and just move on. The Games Workshop is right next to my LGS, you can see one from the other, but the client base is so freaking different.

Social skills
Mine suck, but they sure as hell don't scream "DON'T TALK TO ME!", almost everyone in GW seemed to have a screw loose or was so obviously a fanboy. Community quality is just bad. I'm going to throw hygiene in here too.. yes, it was THAT bad.

Attitude towards the game
The store had the new Space Wolves codex in and my friend was playing it. Now as he ranted about it all I could think was "This has no freaking balance" and everyone there seemed to find this a positive thing. I can't possibly relate to that and find it freaking stupid. I play Skorne and a benefit from my stuff being killed, but at no point does the game outright design it's self so that you can win by getting your models killed, Space Wolves codex has a model that does exactly that. I'm sorry but that's just bad game design and people eating it up doesn't please me at all. WM/H has some balance issues but at no point do I ever feel something is so good that I can't find a way to handle it, how do I handle giving my opponent free victory points or being killed?

Miniature care
On the same merit, also the way people treated their miniatures needs to be addressed. If my models die I set them aside, base flat on the table, some where safe. I do not in any way shape or form put them all in a pile. If I knock a model over I cringe. The players just had no respect for their figures and that bothers me to no end. I play between £1 to £25 per model for my toy soldiers, if you don't have respect for that kind of investment then I don't want to play with you.

Army use
Over the past week or so I have gorged myself on Warhammer podcasts (and The Batman cartoon series..) to get myself caught up with the meta. What's good, what's bad and what to look out for. So I heard Daemons were broken, Dark Elves were good, as were High elves and Lizardmen. So I went into GW expecting a nice range of armies being played but saw nothing but those I just mentioned and I'm sorry but NO, BAD COMMUNITY. That is so bland and pointless, I just refuse to be part of it when you're all playing Net decked armies. I know GW has bad balance issues (When tournaments start to punish you for taking your best options there are balance issues). but why the hell do I want to take part in a dead metagame? There is no life in an eco system that has 4 creatures stuck in an eternal loop until a 5th creature devours one and resumes the system.

So this is the 3rd time I have tried to get into GW games and been put off, so I'm sorry Wood elves but you're going back in your box under the table and staying there. I've come to see why people say the WM community is so good, even our worst members would be top quality members in any other community.

Now onto a happier note. I ordered the following

Kaelyssa
Eiryss
Aiyanna & Holt
Narn
10 Invictors
Heavy Jack
Griffon

It comes to about 500 points in MKI and I'm quite happy with it as an assassination list. I think it suits my style and also gives me some more Cygnarian models.

I've been thinking of a colour scheme for the army and originally I wanted to go with a silver theme to make them look like giant suits of armour, but now I'm not too sure unless I make everything metalic on them to add more colours. When I look at the Myrmidons I see Neo Zeon and Gundam X style design and it makes me tempted to paint them that way. I've always loved the Bertigo from Gundam X (http://www.mahq.net/mecha/gundam/x/rmsn-008.jpg) and now I'm tempted to do a metalic version of that colour scheme. I think the large plates would suit metals well and using metallics dyed with inks would make for an interesting army. My only full decisions so far as they will be silver and purple/deep pink. I really like the colour scheme, the only problem is it also temples me to do one like Kamen Rider Decade (The pink and white guy here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fz-uBxgPHeA). Maybe I'll do a second heavy like Decade but with metallic colours. I really like the idea of a metallic scheme as it will give a more.. vivid look to the pieces where the colours shift and sparkle a little as you move around the model, implying the energy field a bit more.

I'm currently working on a wreck marker (also known as the Canker worm's base) since I will be looking to represent Retribution at next years UK Nationals and want to have -everything- I need.

Fate is weird..

2009-09-16T06:45:00.000-07:00

So today I woke up to find my Retribution issue of NQ wrecked.. I had left a bottle of blackcurrant squash on the window ledge.. and blackcurrant is the only liquid known to stain worse than red wine.. it fell off the window ledge and burst... damn stuff got every where and covered the NQ.. So now I need to buy a new copy.. Either fate is telling me something or it's giving me a chance to cut my magazine up and lamenate it..

Either way I bought the Retribution book today since I've decided I'm going to buy all of them since I am an information whore and I want to have access to all the Warmachine content.. So 11 books.. at £22.50 each... yea, there goes a lot of cash.. But maybe I'll skip Menoth, Circle, Cryx, Legion and Trolls, since we all know those factions have terrible fluff, bad models and are really just there to be completely broken or completely useless ;)

Unfortunately my health has gone to hell again so I'm spending a week or two high on pain killers and doing nothing constructive.. Oh well yesterday was at least amusing when a doctor said I had a positive attitude and my response was "Well I either kill myself or get on with life, I don't have any real options do I?"

For something useful and constructive I thought I'd post the MKI Ret list I was pondering.

Kaelyssa
Chimera
Griffon
Unit of 10 invictors
Eiryss
Narn

Then whatever else fits.

General idea would be to just clear a lane to the caster and assassinate, abusing Kaelyssa's "10 focus" ability by stealing focus and fury off things to get extra shots on her gun while the Chimera will allow her to disrupt enemy armies from a distance and stop them effectively defending their caster. The list is about 100 points short of the 500 mark (common play level in my store) but I need to get the new NQ and see the release scehdule before I commit. I can throw in A&H and then another small unit give or take an invictor or two. I think I want to run 9 of them instead of 10 because I can get the defender's ward bonus better that way, The great bears triangle seems the best way to run them, that way they have to kill 2 to drop the bonus but you can still spread out a little. I'm not sure on the griffon but it's dirt cheap and It's going to stand by Kae to cover her and threaten anything that tries to get at her. I expect her to be skirting the mid range mark most the game and just blocking charge lanes to her will be worth the points.

If any one has any suggestions for improving the list it wouldn't go a miss. I'm looking at the army entries I have access to right now and building a list similar to my Skorne set ups but with a more Stryker style caster. A solid shootie unit always forms the core of my armies, I like a beat stick and I've been craving a good arc node for freaking ever and her AoE spell absolutely begs for one.

I'm also hoping this list will be more interactive. I find that Mordikar and E Morghoul don't interact with opposing armies beyond "I pop feat" or "He died". They have nothing really offensive or disruptive in nature. They just play their own game and either you move into position and win or you don't. Playing with your opponent's fury/focus, removing 'jacks defense and making terrain makes for a much better game style imo. I can win with E Morghoul and I do, but am I really playing a game or am I goldfishing? It's like playing combo in Magic. I really enjoy combo, but what is the point in playing a game if you're not exchanging models and abilities with each other? Is Denny arc node assassination really playing a game or are you just zerg rushing bone chickens until you get to roll some dice? I think people should consider interaction more and see how they can improve on that, it is one of the few issues I have with WM/H, it is very easy to make an army where you don't care what your opponent does because you will always play the same way and either it works or doesn't. Maybe the IABN could take the time to consider how interactive each of their 'casters are and give them a rating of 1-5 (5 being the most interactive) to see what factions interact well and which don't. I would be willing to do this with Skorne but it's kind of pointless if every faction isn't done.

Also Mercs aren't a real faction.

Help!!

2009-09-15T05:12:00.000-07:00

I think I'm going to start a retribution army tonight.. I've read through the MKI stats from the last NQ and I'm really starting to dig them and think their style maybe fun for me and I could play them well (I like combined arms forces). Someone please for the love of all that is holy stop me doing this. I'm going to proxy an army up tonight and buy Eiryss (yes, I don't own her) and A&H (or them, cause I never play my Cygnar..).

I'm thinking of just a solid silver colour scheme for the armour with Shadow Greycloaks and robes. It's a simple colour scheme but the armour will make them look like giant suits of armour 'jack wise..

so please someone stop me, I'm already buying WET and Halo ODST this week and my wallet is looking at my groin and going "left foot or right foot... screw it, I'll take turns with both of them".

Painting frogs and one eyed monsters!

2009-09-12T20:51:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated for almost 2 weeks now, so I thought I should get down to it and well... update.

I've mostly been building and painting my Wood elves but I have been trying to push forward on my Warbeast painting too. I finish the two Basilisks and I've got the Shaman maybe 80% done. They're just tabletop but it's at least a step forward and I hope to get my full 750 point list fully painted. I did have E morghoul almost done but I decided to strip him and repaint him up because his pose is just so.. difficult to really get at, so I'm going to put pins in him and then paint him in sections. I'm tempted to buy a Primal Morghoul and put E Morghoul's torso and arms on him rather than have his weird "I'm falling off my epic base" pose he has now, but I don't want to wreck my Primal Morghoul in case I want to use him for tournies in the future.

Oh and this guy is getting painted up as best I can, I think he deserves it for running through half a Menoth army in his first game.

I need to find a new gold recipe for him though, my current gold just isn't suitable to larea areas and his shoulder plates are HUGE. Which is also why I'm going to be free handing a Skorne symbol on his shoulder and left the spike off to do so. He is a character Warbeast and will be up in my opponent's face every single game so he needs to look pretty.

On the Fantasy front, I hope to get my first game in on Thursday or Tuesday, but Tuesday will probably be me taking my Skorne to the local store instead. Either Hexeris or Mordikar will be played, probably with a list very much like the one I played last time. I like that style of army, although I may (GASP!) drop my 3rd beast and risk running 2. Maybe Molik and a Shaman or a Krea. We'll have to see how it goes.

Moliktastic

2009-09-01T14:59:00.000-07:00

Today I finally got to play with Molik. Yes, F'king please! Molik is absolutely insane and more than made his points back. The guy was a new guy and had never played Skorne before, so I didn't want to pull too many weird and dodgy models out and start bouncing around and ignoring everything. So I went with a list as follows (roughly)

Mordikar
Krea
Molik
Shaman
3 Ferox
6 Venators
Swamp Gobbers

500 points.

I played against a jack heavy Menoth list using Kreoss and the choir. First time I'd faced a lot of these models. A Crusader, Guardian, Dervish and the Bastions were all pretty new to me, but I still did pretty well until the last turn.

Molik cut a wave of destruction through the enemy army. On like turn 2 he wrecked the Crusader then proceeded to eat the Choir pretty soon after and was ready to threaten Kreoss the following turn. His animus is just sweet sweet awesome, he makes the Shaman into one hell of a trickster. you use the animus then charge and get some insane distances off most of your army. It's even useful on Warlocks to cast stuff then retreat.

The game ended with Mordikar getting hit in the face by a Paladin when he had no fury on him. Two reasons for this, we were being rushed for time (someone else had booked a table before I got there and the 40k players had stolen it, so we tried to get the game wrapped up asap for them). And I didn't measure my control range. I wanted to cast Void walker on the shaman and move him up to Kreoss to threaten him and force him to pop his feat, so I could send in Molik and smash him into a pulp. The problem was my opponent was holding his feat back and I didn't want to commit to any sort of attack that involved everything falling over in front of a Paladin. So I goto cast void walker (didn't pre-measure) and I'm out of range, so I move Mordikar in removing the 2 fury he should of had to transfer. Plus the Paladin pretty much rolled 4 6s on his dice and just 1 hit killed him.

I really enjoyed the game but I learnt a lot about my playing style. I look at the board and tend to want to keep things alive when I'm playing Mordikar or Hexeris, I put high value on every unit and don't want to sacrifice any of them, where as when I play E Morghoul I consider every model except Morghoul to be disposable. And that second attitude is so much more natural to me. I like playing high risk and putting off fancy tricks to win games. Dancing around the table with Morghoul makes me much happier than sitting back with Mordikar using Manifest void (which is insanely over rated IMO, it rarely does -anything-). So I think from now on when the chance for 750 comes up I'm going to be fielding E Morghoul, he fits me so much better than anyone else. A good example of this is earlier I had the perfect Morghoul charge lane set up from where Mordikar was. I charged in, stabbed the paladin, teleported to Kreoss, used the feat and fan to disable his focus and then I just plain killed him with the 3 following attacks. It felt so freaking natural to look at the board and see assassination runs, it's just how I see the battle. I've pretty much always thought this way in and out of tabletop though. I'm rarely the guy running in head first, I'm always the guy looking for a flank or a weak spot to exploit to rip the enemy apart from an angle it couldn't cover. So I think I'm going to play Mordi at 500 but Morghoul at anything higher. So sorry Mordikar fans but Morghoul is just my dude.

Before the game I also had an interesting conversation with the other Skorne player in store. He likes Makeda (cough Makeda fanboy cough) about Molik and Gladiators and comparing the two. I've never found a gladiator to work well for me, but Molik just feels so damn right. I would take Molik is he just had his animus and his weapons. That animus is freaking sweet, I can be half the board away one turn and right up in your face the next. The double move lets you resposition and bring him back into the battle where I've often found once a unit or beast is out of position there is no way I'm getting them back into the fight. As I said earlier Shaman and Molik make a nice little team, you can get them way up the field early on or move them where you need them to. While road to war makes Gladiators better, Molik's utility is just so freaking high that the extra power and such just doesn't do much for me. I'm thinking I may replace the Cannooneer in my 500 points list with Molik. I love my ranged element (always have venators and an extoller, they come with the Warcaster ;) ), but god damn is Molik sweet.

I'm thinking of doing some painting tutorials, but I'm not quite sure yet. I don't think I have enough readers to bother with something like that and I'd feel bad about posting the blog on the PP painting forum with just a link here. On the other hand I maybe posting some pictures of a WIP Lancer. I decided I wanted to do some Cygnar (my 2nd faction, although so are Legion technically, but I don't enjoy playing Legion and my Cygnar haven't been out in a while even though I like Stryker a lot) in a pink sheme for the Paint pink thingy ma jiggy. The problem was I suck at painting pink, it just shows brush strokes so bad that I thought I'd do something different. Battle damaged pink Cygnar! This lets me use a darker purpleish colour scheme and only using pink in limited ways, while still having it a pink army.

As the Lancer stands it has a broken shoulder that's been messed up to look like it got hit with a mace, I'll probably paint it to look like it was hit by a flaming mace when I get that far but it is quite a way off currently. I'm tempted to cut the hand off the shield arm and model it as if the shield is strapped to the arm and wirings and cogs are all that's left of the hand now. Make it look like a really roughed up Lancer. I think the key is going to be making it look worn not wrecked and this will apply to the entire army.

But that's enough of this for now. If I play some more this weekend (my Stores 2 year anniversary), then i will blog about it but if not hopefully I will on Tuesday or at least get my Drake painted up to table top.

Yellow Dice : IABN

2009-08-21T05:19:00.000-07:00

I haven't been able to play any Warmachine lately due to health issues but I did pick up Molik and started to paint the Canonneer and the frogs. Krea is done, which gives me a couple of beasts painted a unit (Gobbers count!) and Hexeris.

Hopefully soon the game store I play at will be running a hardcore 350 Mangled metal tournament on a games night. If they do I'll be taking part with a list like.

Mordikar
Molik
Shaman
Krea

I think that gives me enough utility to deal with just about anything and if worst comes to worst I can pull off some stupid tricks with the Krea animus (if they brick then I can use it twice on two targets next to each other) and then have Molik beat the crap out of some stuff. I'm also hoping to abuse the Molik animus on 3 models at once to dance around the field and get off some really weird set ups. I mean who wouldn't want to move 3 of their models 15" a turn? It tempts me to get another shaman to have my entire army stupidly mobile and to set up mobile lanes for the following turn. The only problem with this would be leaving Mordikar a bit low on fury and exposed but against some casters and careful placement I wouldn't mind this so much. I mean using his feat, using fate ward and running molik right next to an enemy caster has got to be one of the most vicious things you can do in any skorne list.

In other news I just sent in the required stuff for the Iron agenda blogging network, so hopefully the blog will be up soon. Welcome to all those who followed the link over here.

VS Khador 01

2009-08-11T15:17:00.000-07:00

Blog time!

I got in a game today with Rory ad his Khador. Neither of us played serious lists and I was just wanting to try Mordikar out and see how he did with Beasts. I learnt quite a bit about Skorne by using the list I had and I doubt I will ever make another Skorne list without an Extoller.

Lists were as follows.

Rory
Old Witch + Scrap jack
2 Juggernaughts
Iron fang Pikemen
Doom Reavers
Alton Ashley

Me
Mordikar
Gladiator
Cannoneer
Savage
Shaman
5 Paingivers
Swamp Gobbers

Deployment.

Deployment was simple, Rory won the dice roll and decided to go 2nd. Skorne brick time! Since I was running so many beasts I couldn't do much else.

Round 1

I move forward edging away from his Doom Reavers flanking me and put up Gobber smoke to stop Alton pulling any of his anti beast crap. I load up the Agonizer and rile everything up for Mordikar to refuel for next turn.

Rory proceeded to move pretty much everything towards me, which is hardly shocking considering the armies. Casts Iron flesh on the Iron fangs and the world's most exciting turn ever ends!

Round 2

My pictures get a bit muddled here and I think this is Round 2. I moved a bit away from the Doom Reavers ready to use Gobber smoke to stop them getting first hit the next turn and just try to close space.

Rory moves his stuff more forward! Man this is such a crazy tactic, it's like he wants to kill my stuff or something! He puts the Iron fangs as a central wall and casts Massacre of crows.

Round 3

At this point I can't stop the Doom Reavers engaging my stuff, so I try to block them with the Gobber smoke and offer a few sacrifical Paingivers to take the shot for me and then I can Spirit in Amber them back and get some stabbing going. I did mess up this turn when I tried to use Mordikar's sacrifice to spray spell and couldn't target the doom reavers so ended up wasting a model to spray at a juggernaught and do diddly squat. Agonizer runs forward and starts to cry, Khador jacks aren't getting any focus and Scrap jack isn't arc noding either. I expect it to die this turn but it me control the damage the jacks are going to do when they hit my lines.

Cyclops gets poked by the paingivers and pulls off a Cyclops missle. Wailing on a Juggernaught it drops 1/3rd of it's boxes and is expecting to die next turn while sitting on 3 fury. I had meant to pop feat this turn but forgot to do so before I had finished with Mordikar.

Rory's Doom Reavers then proceed to eat some paingivers and the Swamp gobbers, which then flee and die the next turn to free strikes. But still they did an awesome job of just being in the way and stopping Alton molesting any of my stuff before I could get it into position.

Agonizer proves he's tough as hell and takes a beating from all sides but only goes down when the Old Witch finally spends some focus to take away his last wound. He ended up crippling a couple of jacks for a turn then wasted a turn of firepower to get rid of him. 30 points well spent.

Round 4

(The template isn't Gobber smoke, it was just difficult to remove it with 2 dudes on top of it)

This turn I moved up the hill and popped Mordikars feat, brought back a couple of Paingivers and started to pick apart the Doom Reavers. Rory had been trying to take out my Shaman for most of the game but due to Elevation and some bad dice on Rory's part (or so he says.. everyone else could roll his dice fine ;) ) it had been surviving quite nicely and would end up being a key piece in the game. So the Savage continues to beat on the Juggernaught, rips it's arm off and just generally acts like a badass that he is.

Rory's turn comes and he decides to start swinging and he ends up playing pinball with his models. Everything is going in every direction imaginable and he once again claims his dice hate him (Rolling 1 dice is rarely a positive thing either way..). He tries to pull the Shaman out with the Scrap jack and misses, Shaman makes a dash towards The Old Witch. I didn't have any plans for it at this point but my beasts were clustered together and it wasn't a good situation to be in. Old Witch pops feat and my next turn seems suddenly a lot less exciting.. Rory takes another shot at the Shaman and he casually wanders up to the Old Witch. I thought he was just out of range but he was in and the plan fell nicely into place, Shaman takes a nasty hit from the feat but

Round 5

My turn comes and any one who knows me knows I play assassination games. I have a bucket load of fury on the board and totally forgot to manage it less turn, so I start throwing some dice and everything passes. Gladiator is still full of fury and the Cannoneer has 1 on it, but both remain in control (I had wanted the Gladiator to go nuts as it was engaging a lot of stuff and a throw would of been sweet to knock down the Old witch). So any way Mordikar activates first. I move him so he has line of sight to Old Witch, She's Defense 19 so I have to boost and slap Deathmark on her. I didn't think the Shaman could kill her with 3 fury. I had to transfer off a free strike from a very angry Doom reaver as mordikar went to get LoS, but the Cannoneer took it and didn't lose anything for it. So Mordikar has 2 Fury left on him and is standing pretty damn close to some very angry Doom Reavers, I either get the assassination or he better have a get out of the abyss free card again. So I heal the Shaman's Mind and end Mordikars activation. Shaman starts swinging with 3 attack dice, hitting 3 of his 4 attacks, Dice -2 was damage, but apparently all I can roll is 4s. Old Witch lives with like 6 boxes left and I figure I'm screwed until I see the Cannoneer sitting on the hill with 3 fury open and a nice long ranged attack. So it wanders up, Defense 19 old witch, needing 15 on 4 dice. And it misses.. Roll the scatter dice and it still clips her, so I boost the damage and hope for the best. I roll exact and down she goes. Caster kill and I win while Rory tries to figure out how a cannonball fits through a gap in the bases far smaller than the cannon nozzle.

Things I learnt.
-I want an Extoller in every list I make. They bring so much utility and solve so many problems. I don't care what I have to sacrifice, Extollers are so freaking sweet!
-I want a Cannoneer next to the Extoller. I had considered dropping her but she is a really nice finisher and fury battery.
-Agonizers are worth the 30 points but they only work for 1 turn because they have a huge target painted on their heads.
-Mordikar is a very good troops caster and Paingivers and Bloodrunners will be insane with him. 1 Fury to kill a model with no way for an opponent to punish you for it is nuts. Scenario play is his sweet spot because 'void isn't so hot when both casters are half the table away behind a wall of big nasty things
-Shaman is a nice utility beast and worth running 1 of if only for the ability to bounce around.
-Cyclops missles are fun and including a Savage in lists just to wail on things is not a bad idea. I just need to remember to keep it in my caster's control area.
-Rolling 2 yellow dice is a bad idea, rolling 1 yellow and 1 pink dice gives much better results.
-Make sure you remember feats are in play when Rory goes "move stuff! Go on you pansy!" and figure you'll shut him up by sticking a knife in two Doom reavers..
-I like playing assassination lists. I struggle to care about units and fall into the school of "They take too much effort to kill, screw it". I had been considering switching to Mordikar and Hexeris for a few months but I think E Morghoul needs to return. He fits me so damn well and I enjoy using him a lot more then a board control caster. I can fit everything I want in a Morghoul list and I win games, so I think I should just suck it up paint his annoying figure and play him some more.
-Take notes when blogging about an event.

New blog

2009-08-08T08:58:00.000-07:00

So I finally started a blog about my Wargaming habbits.

I mainly play Warmachine but I'm getting into Warhammer fantasy and will blog about both and some general modeling advice. I'm going to try and update the blog every week at least but hopefully a couple of times a week. I have a two local gaming stores, one being a Games Workshop and the other a FLG, which run game nights on Thursdays and Tuesdays respectively.

My main faction in Warmachine is Skorne and I've been playng them for about a year now. I'm currently working on getting a 500 point list painted and then will jump up to 750 and 1,000 from there and probably play that list(s) until the next book release. I think it will help my player skill to stick with 1 list and learn to use it well.

Warhammer wise I'm trying to find a way to paint Wood Elves quickly and effectively. I'm currently trying to use an airbrush to add shading and highlights and then inks to add colour. I will post results when I finish the first model.

Once in a while I may ramble on about my other interests. I'm a huge fan of Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, Gundam and play far too many Video games, so I would expect those to appear when I do ramble, as well as some Magic : The Gathering rants here and there.

So Welcome to the blog, hopefully I can get some content up soon.