Combat Resolution

Torch

2011-07-11T13:40:00.000-07:00

Strakhov's best friend...

I meant to get this guy finished up for the Lost Hemisphere Blog "Paint the target" in June, but it just didn't happen. Actually, it kinda did happen but I didn't submit the entry, nor finish the base. Anyway, I did snap a few pics finally, and figured I'd post him up here. He's 99% done with painting, and 25% done with the basing. Basically, one solid hour of work and he'll be ready to coat with a protective Matte coating. Hope you like him.

I have played with him once. I really like how well he jive's with Strakhov, espeically his immunities to corrision, fire, and his ability to see through clouds. I'm not sure how competative my list is, but with Strakov, assault kommandos, Grey lord Tenerian, and Gorman, I am pumping out tons of clouds and gas, and him seeing through it is sweet!!!

As a quick aside, I really like PP's idea to create these Jack kits for their existing plastic warjack kits. It's a really cool idea, and while maybe not always as unique as a Drago or Thunderhead, it certainly allows them to pump out more character jacks, which I think is a good thing. What do you think? Would you rather have more character jacks by using a small upgrade kit on the existing plastic jack frame like Torch, or would you rather have fewer 'Jack upgrades, but have them be totally original sculpts like the Avatar of Menoth?

Deathwatch!!!

2011-07-08T17:03:00.001-07:00

It's been a while, which is ironic since I'm suppose to have more free time in the summer. Funny how that works.

Anyway, I should have a couple posts up over the next week, as unlike my blogging, my gaming has been quite active. The first thing I wanted to share with you was my new Deathwatch mini. I've been playing in a small Deathwatch campaign with Maniple (you can now find his blog here: http://theuppercrypt.blogspot.com ) since blogger apparently deleted the old one, his two brothers, fellow blogger FJC, and there buddy Thom. This is really my first foray into RPG's, and I'm enjoying playing it in the 40k universe.

When selecting the team, I was hoping to play a Raven Guard Assault Marine, but one of our group had already rolled up an Assault Marine, so I went with my second choice, which had the 2 advantages of being a) completely unique in our group and b) probably as close to my personality as a Space Marine can get. I rolled up a Tactical Marine, and chose to have him go down the leadership path. We spent an afternoon busting out a ton of Space Marine bits and building our men. I then began painting him, and I'd say he's about 80% complete. Special thanks to FJC for making up the sweet base he's on. It definatly takes the model to the next level, or at least it will once I get it fully painted up. To date, my Tactical Marine Brother Octavian has laid waste to Orks, 'Nids, and some nasty Bloodletters. All in a day's work.
h.

Rubber meets the road

2011-06-07T15:45:00.000-07:00

Well, here are the fruits of the faction selection tournament. It's a couple boxes of Hordes: Circle stuff. As you may have picked up, my plan for Circle is twofold. First, I'm going to play Kromac since I think that's the greatest model in the whole Privateer Press stable. Second, I'm going to play models I like, which means plenty of Tharn Barbarians. Here's my opening foray. Newly arrived.:

Hello ladies... and Sir.

This should present a nice start. I plan to sort of slow grow this faction, and in fact, there may be a nice challange going forth on this blog, and a couple others. Stay tuned for details. Coming soon.

Khadorian update

2011-05-24T20:09:00.000-07:00

Just a quick, post tournament update to show you whats on my painting table. I've been slowly plugging away at my Khadorian army. I am really enjoying painting these guys, and it's really nice to be out from under the yoke of trying to get a warhammer fantasy army done. Don't get me wrong, nothing looks better than a Warhammer game of fully painted minitures, but man that's rough to paint at times. That being said, I still find myself having to, at some point, decide that table top standard is good enough. I am seeing some improvement in my painting, but it's still tough going with no local store. Hope you enjoy them

a Completed Strakhov, ready to rock

I like these guys better painted than I thought I would

And the winner is

2011-05-20T07:29:00.000-07:00

First, the obilgatory Blog apology for not being around lately. Life has been busy... blah blah blah.

(1) Crxy vs. (3) Circle

With that said, let's kick off the championship round. To recap, we have had a defacto champion of both Hordes and Warmachine arise. For the Hordes range, the Circle have beat off all comers to rise to the top of the pack. In warmachine land, the mighty Cryx have run roughshod over all opponents to defend their number one status, going into the match-up. Let's look at how they break down.

Casters/Locks

This is interesting. I love the cryx warcasters. In fact, of that range, there are maybe two I don't like the look of: Mortenebra and the Coven. Other than that, they are all models I like and would be happy to play. Some of them, PSkarre, P/E Goreshade, and Terminus are some of my favorite caster sculpts in the whole game. I would love to collect and play all those warcasters, which is a huge draw.

On the other hand, the Circle is warlock's are a study in extremes. On one hand, you have my favorite model(s) of any models in the whole PP universe, Kromac. I love this guy. The human sculpt is so sweet, I must at some point own it. There are 2.5 other Warlcoks, I really enjoy. I think Baulder is sweet and I also like Mohsar. The .5 is my anticipated enjoyment of EBaulder. The problem is, I really don't like the sculpts of any of the other locks. I'm interested in Kaya and Krueger, but the sculpts are ugly IMO. I can't stand Cassius, nor do I like the look of Morhvahna. So, their isn't a lot of variety lock-wise. That being said, one could question how many warlock options you need from your second faction. As sweet as Kromac is, there are 6 Cryx Caster's I'd rather own,paint, and play before any one else in the cicle, so i have to give them the edge

Advantage: Cryx

Models

Lot's of goodness on both sides. I consider the models crucial b/c although I like winning, and having a competative army, I much perfer to have an army I love the look of. This is mostly due to the fact that I spend considerable more time painting and modeling than I get to game. Also, I suffer from some misguided desire to not use the most powerful and dominate force, unless it's actually my favorite. Model wise, both have strong options. For the Cryx, I love the look of most of their non-deathchicken jacks. Notible credit for the Skorpian themed Reaper.

The units are solid, with my personal favorites being the bane knights and thralls, as well as the Withershade. Cryx solos are pretty solid as well, with special mention to Tartarus and the Skarlock. I really do like undead pirate theme of the army overall. The one draw back to the force is I'm getting a bit sick of painting armor plated jacks, especially b/c I feel like I don't really hav the skill set to do it as well as I'd like. It's daunting to start a new faction of that.

For the Circle, I really like some of the beasts. The Gnarlhorn and Feral Warpwolf are amoung my favorites. I think the constructs are just fine, especially the Wold Guardian, who I constantly confuse with Megalith, b/c in my mind If I was going to call someone MEGAlith, it'd be the Wold Guardian model. The units are sweet. Of particular interest to me are the Tharn. Sticking to my love affair with Kromac, I'm a huge fan of the Tharn Ravengers and Blood Trackers. Solowise, Lord of the Feast is super cool as is the Ravenger Whitmane. I like the nature feel of the Circle. I'm not a huge fan of the wood elf-esque portions of the faction, but I like that they have expanded to all aspects of nature. I also feel like a few models are sort of outdated for PP's standards and show their age, and I really look forward to some of the new releases for the faction. Overall, it's really tough to call. I'm very tempted to call this a draw, but I think the cryx armor plats mixed with the sweet Tharn models force me to pick Circle

Advantage: Circle

Cost Effectiviness

Confession time, I own some Cryx. I had originally, well before this tourny, bought some to use as a second force for teaching the game. I bought a battle box, Skarre, and a pistol wrath. So, from a cost effectiveness standpoint, there's a point for Cryx. It's unlikely I could convert those models to an equivalent set of Circle models. That aside, the Cryx seem much cheaper to me. First, they have a plastic jack. Next, I can use their battle box models. Based on the lists I've made with Circle, the battle box doesn't fit into that. Additionally, the models I want for Circle are all super expensive. Starting with the caster ($30) and an infantry unit that goes for around $50. Compare that to my favorite Cryx caster, Skarre at less than $10. One other factor, is the way PP does expansions. They put out one book, with new stuff for all factions of Warmachine or Hordes. If I collect Cryx, I only have to pick up the Warmachine expansions (like Wrath) to have the new stuff for my Khador and Cryx army. Now, will I probably pick up new Hordes expansions anyway, yeah, probably, but I don't have too, and certainly won't feel the need to get it as soon as it release. Where as, if I have a Hordes faction, I'll want it right away. As an aside, I know this is an expensive hobby. I've been doing this long enough to accept that, however, resources are finite, so I think I'd be lying if I didn't mentino this consideration, b/c it is one. Clearly, cost effectiviness goes Cryx.

Advantage: Cryx

Playstyles

Both armies have playstyles that are quite different from Khador's big armor, big axes, big trouble for you style. I love the souls, incoporeal, and undead aspects of Cryx. I also enjoy the movement shinnanigans and tricks of the circle force. I dont' really have enough experence with playing with or against either, so I can't really call which I would enjoy better. The crucial thing is that both seem to be much different from Khador, which is something I'm looking for in a second army. Dang you Skorne!

Advantage: Draw

X-factor

This is basically a catch-all for things about the faction that really want to make me play them. I'll discuss a bit for both.

Cryx has a lot of cool fluff. That sounds lame, but I do like the idea of the 13 pirate kings and the all powerful Dragon (Turok) trying to take over the world. I can totally get into that. I also love the undead theme. I've always wanted to have an undead army, and this is the first one in a game system to play in a style that I think woudl be really fun. I also like to challange the norms a lot, and Cryx is a great faction, but I'd love to use them and play some of the less obvious units and casters. I think that's fun and challanging. I also think PSkarre is a great model, and I'd love to build a force around her. On the downside, I've heard some of the Cryx models are a terror to assemble, and I will confess that assembling models is my least favorite thing to do.

Circle is a hordes faction. I can't stress enough the alure of getting into that game. I have some buddies playing Hordes, and as a facilitator of our group (we have no store locally) I'd like to learn the aspects of that game that make it different so I can help those guys out. Further, a big part of me starting a second force now (instead of building up Khador a bit more) is so I can demo the game, and grow the hobby locally. While many woudl argue it makes sense to have two of the same faction, I know Warmachine and its models won't appeal to everyone, so I want a hordes faction to showcase that side. Also, Kromac and the Ravengers are sort of the Barbarian army I've always wanted to play, but never really seen in another system. To be fair, I get the GW Chaos mortal thing, but I hate Chaos and won't play it. I also feel like my painting skills will look much better on Circle beasts, and that's a huge draw as well. On the down side, I do feel that some circle models really show their age, and I would defiantly stay away from them. Also, do people really like the Extreme Feral Warwolf? I wouldn't buy it for $5 honestly. Gotta go with the desire to play Hordes though

Advantage: Circle

overall, it's a close and tough call. I could literally see myself going with either faction and being happy. In fact, if/when I expand to a third faction, I fully expect myself to choose the loser of this match-up. In the end, aesthetically, it's too close to call. Circle has a few models that are my absolute favorites in any range, but Cryx has so many great models, their quantity more than makes up for it, especially since I find some Circle models to be real dogs (no pun intended, though it's a good one). Cost is a factor, but at the end of the day, it's an expensive hobby, so can I really quibble over an extra $40? Probably not. I think what this really comes down to is my desire to go with a Hordes faction. This is such a close thing, that I almost ought to pick it randomly. However, I won't do that. I have to make a decision. So, that being said, the winner is....

Circle!!!

again, both are great factions. Both bring a lot to the table, in the end it was my desire to play a Hordes faction that pulled it out for the boys in green. This will lead conviently to some future posts that are upcoming, with an exciting new feature here on combat resolution.

ps - anybody whose interested in swapping for a nicely assembled but completed unpainted Cryx battlebox, PSkarre, and a pistol wraith, let me know.

Tournment - end in sight

2011-04-15T12:14:00.000-07:00

Ok, this is cheap, but I'm a busy guy, so let's cut to the fat. I have four factions left. In their current contests, it might be fairly close, b/c each one of them has strengths I like, and versus each other, they are an equal match. So like in Cryx v Trolls, Trolls have a shot b/c of my strong desire to play a Hordes Faction vs my love of the Cryx models. In the Circle v Mercs, my love of the interchangability of the Mercs is up against the desire to play a Hordes faction, especially one with my favorite caster. These are semi-tough, but honestly, I probably know the winners.

However, when you compare the warmachine factions together, and the Hordes against each other, a curious thing happens. It becomes very clear who the winners would be. In fact, it's not even close. Both winners are clear run aways, so I figured instead of laborious going through each faction, I'd rather just tell you and put the top two into the final. Then I can spend my time and focus debating them. b/c honestly, it's a real toss up. So here's the other match-ups

Cryx v Mercs - easy win for Cryx
Trolls v Circle - easy win for Circle

Thus the true, hard to call final looks like this (1) Crxy vs (3) Circle see ya soon with hopefully a good post!

Final 4

2011-04-01T06:55:00.000-07:00

Here we are with the next installment of the New Faction Tournament. It's time to finish up our final 4, and set those match-ups. Let's begin...

(3) Circle Orboros vs (11) Cygnar

Classic match-up here of the Cinderella darling versus the highly-ranked powerhouse. Certainly the Cygnarians have to feel fortunate to find themselves into the elite 8, being much maligned coming into the tournament. The Circle on the other hand has cruised to an easy first round victory and is looking to do so again. I hate to cheat you, the avid reader, of the drama, but this isn't going to go well for the men in blue. Coming into the tourny I really wasn't a big fan of Cygnar, probably owing to my alligence to Khador, my preference for up close combat versus ranged attacks, and my disdain for most of the lanky Cygnarian 'Jacks. I was suprised as I dug deeper into the faction though to learn about the variety of play styles they have, as I really, really dig the lightning aspect (Thor FTW) of the faction, and the models that go with them. I'm still not a fan of the jacks, although I'll admit I find the Thunderhead to be really cool. It was upon closer inspection that I also realized how many of the Cygnar casters that I think are generally cool models. So, some cool casters, some fun with lightning, and the fact that I love the concept of the trenchers makes Cygnar a strong contender, but they aren't going to win.

There are really 3 factors that really make this a run-away for Circle. First off, one of my local buddies picked up a pretty serious Cygnar force, and in a small community, variety is key. Second, as much as I like some of the Cygnar models, Circle has a model that outclasses it in ever respect, including my favorite model in the game (TBA later). Finally, I have a strong desire to get a Hordes faction, so a Warmachine army really has to out class a Hordes army to advance by them. Cygnar fails to do this.

Things end for Finn just like they did for Tony Montoya

Winner (3) Circle Orboros

(4) Skorne vs (5) Trolls

This is by far the tightest match of the tournament thus far. Let me give you a little insight into each faction first.

Skorne, visually is probably my second favorite faction from head to toe behind only Khador. there are a few models I don't like, such as the Agoniser, Makeda, and the Basalisks. But overall, it's an army that I think is just super, super cool looking. Their casters are awesome, their warbeasts (Titans and Cyclops) are fantastic, and the units are super cool: who doesn't like them mix of vampires, roman legions, and samauri. It's so great. They also have a heavy close combat lean, which I also like. However, I quickly realized that Skorne, while certainly have a few differences, felt a heck of a lot like the Khador of Hordes, right down to the predominatly red color scheme. The whole purpose of a second faction is to have a little diversity, so this is a huge strike against skorne. Another issue is one of best friends just picked up Skorne for his faction, so again, in a small community like ours, that's a negative for the Skorne.

Trolls... hmm. Where to begin. I started off hating the trolls. I just don't care that much for the giant chins/jowls, and I especially hate the female models. However, much the Ogre Kingdom for GW, as I started to read the fluff, and thought of alternate paint schemes, I began to come around. From what I can read, they are a very fun faction to play, and they are seen as the protaganist in most of the fluff, which is definatly something I can get behind. Furthermore, after looking a little closer on battle college, I discovered how much I aboslutely love their warbeasts. Their are big, they are cool, and they have awesome sculpts. The blitzer and bomber are almost worth owning regardless of whether or not you even play trolls. I don't love a lot of the casters (issue) but I will say that Hoarluk and Madrak are pretty sweet, and I'd put the new sculpt of Madrak on par with the Butchers new scuplt, which to me is just sick. I also enjoy their light warbeats, and while they are close combat oriented, they seem to rely on buffs which provides enough difference from Khador to make it feel like a different style of faction. Consequently, they've been steadily rising in my mind since then, and this catapulted them to their #5 seed.

BOOOOOOM!!!!!

So in the end, the fact that my buddy has Skorne and that it seems like Skorne is Khador with Fury, are going to tip the scales for Trolls. It's shocking really. At first blush, a few months ago, I would have said Skorne would have been my number 1 choice for a second faction, and Trolls would have been almost dead last (still ahead of the horrible elves of course), but I suppose that's why I'm doing this, to force myself to go in depth a bit, and really look at all the aspecsts of the faction. That being said:
Winner (5) Trolls

so here is the brackets as they sit now. We have our Final Four established, as well as the match-ups. With the 1, 2, 3, and 5 seeds still left, the next rounds promise to be very hard fought. As such, the final three match-ups will each get their own post, and be much more in depth. See you then!

Painting Table update

2011-03-25T07:29:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd throw a couple of my models on here that I've been putting the finishing touches on. The first shot is my battle group. I'm not a huge Skorsha fan so I've replaced her with Strakhov, who with the Butcher, are my two favorite casters in Khador. Strakhov is a fantastic sculpt, and I've had a lot of fun putting him together and painting him. I apoloize for the pic quality on all these, as a) I'm a poor photographer, b) I have no light box and c) I took these with my Droid camera b/c I was short on time and it's the easiest way to post them. I really wanted to capture the bases, as that's pretty much what I've touched up and finished since last time.

Next up is a close-up of Strakhov's base. I'm going for a Tundra feel. I don't love them, but i'm fairly happy overall. Any thoughts or suggestions are definatly open.

finally, one of my goals with Warmachine, since it's so many fewer models than Warhammer is to take the time to model up effects for the table top. I don't just want to put a 4" circle on the table to represent rough terrain for the spell "Rift" or put a 3" pringles lid down to represent smoke from Gorman di Wulfe. I want to model that stuff up. I've started out by modeling the effect for rift and a couple wrecked Jack markers. The markers are still pretty rough, but I'm almost done with the rift marker. I was going to paint in between the rocks to look like lave, but I think it's a little more hassle than I want, and I kinda like black, as it looks like deep crevaces. I'm not totally done yet, I want to hit one more highlight, but I'm pretty happy with it so far. Comments welcome
On my table right now is a unit of assualt Kommandos with Flame Thrower UA. Also Gorman is fairly close to being done. I'll hopefully have some pics of those units soon, then it's on to the butcher 2010, which is an absolute beast model! Can't wait.

A newbie's guide to starting Warmachine

2011-03-23T06:45:00.000-07:00

Let me preface this post by saying that I am no expert on this subject. I have been gaming for 15 years in minitures games, but most of that was spent in GW products. Recently I've become fed up for a variety of reasons, and currently find myself getting very excited about and into Warmachine and Hordes. As any good gamer should, I have convinced some of my buddies around here to get into the game with me. These guys ARE NOT miniture war gamers, and previous to now, have not ever owned any minitures or miniture games. I tried to create a sort of checklist primer for them, for how to get into miniture wargames, and Warmachine/Hordes
specifically. I fully realize there are a lot of ways to do this, and a lot of techniques. I'm simply suggesting this as one way for someone totally new to the hobby to get involved. With some small modifications, this is also how I'd get into Warhammer, 40K, Malifaux, or even Dystopian Wars. Read it and let me know what you think.

The idea is the following info is a check list. You can plug yourself in, wherever you are on the list. There are various ways to do this, but this is how I would do it, assuming the following things are true.

You desire to collect a playable force in Warmachine
You want to paint and assemble your own force
You want to learn the ins and outs of the game
You are new to miniature war games

(1) The first step is to pick a faction that interests you. Warmachine is completely compatible with the game Hordes. Between the two, there are 11 different factions as well as a few sub-factions within those. That means that there is a force that's playable for everyone. There are lots of factors that go into selecting a force such as looks, theme, background story, power level, and play style, but I think the most important ones, especially when starting the hobby are the look of the models. You are going to spend a ton of time painting them, and if you don't like the models, that's not good. The second key aspect is play style. Is it a melee "beat face" army, is an army full of tricks and gimmicks, is it a long range shooter army, if you can figure these out, you can pick one that plays your style. A great resource for seeing the models and learning about play style is Battle College http://battlecollege.wikispaces.com/

(2) The next step, once you've decided on a force is to purchase some models. Most armies have a battlebox or Warpack, which are basically a Warcaster (mandatory for all games) and a couple warjacks/warbeasts. This is a great deal b/c it gives you a relatively balanced force to play with at a reduced price. It may not have all the high powered models, and it may not be the exact warcaster you want, but it's such a great starting point, it's hard to pass up. If there is not battle box, you've got to do some buying on your own. As a short aside, I am assuming you know someone with the rulebook. If not, you should buy it. Also, the rulebook is very affordable, and every Warmachine player should have a rule book (Warmachine or Hordes depending on your faction) at some point. You may substitute it at any point in the following list I provide. I've done some discussion of this subject elsewhere, but let me give a short synopsis of what I'd purchase and in what order. Battle box, alternate caster (if you don't love the battle box one, otherwise skip this), the Force book (which details background and all model rules for your force), a unit of your choice, a solo or two, if you have money to spend another unit or warjack/warbeast, and go on from there. Shoot for 20 points to start, if you have the funds. Remember, if you get the Faction book, you can learn more about the units, solos, and extra warjacks/warbeasts available before you spend money on them. That's really, really smart.

(3) Next is purchasing modeling supplies. All these models will be provided unassembled. There are some basic supplies you need to get started. I highly recommend buying these supplies at a Wal-mart or hobby shop like Hobby Lobby. That will save you tons of cash. The basics you need are super glue (Gorilla glue from Wal-Mart is great), an exact-o knife, plastic glue (testers model glue works great) and some files for filing off mold lines and extra metal flashing. Remember, this is an initial start up cost that stinks, but you'll be able to use this stuff for a long time.

(4) Buying paint supplies. If you want to paint the models, and believe me, you do, you need to have the painting supplies. There is tons of painting advice out there, and lots of people better than me, but here's how I'd start. First, you need a primer to prime the models. Black works awesome. It can have some issues if you plan to have lots of white on your model, but for beginning painters, nothing is better than a black primer. It will make your painting look 5x better. I recommend going to Wal-mart and getting Krylon black primer. Cheap and good to use. Next, you need colors. Do not skimp on this and do not try to use Testers model paints. It will be a disaster. Beginners need to use miniature paint produced by miniature companies. For Warmachine/Hordes, I think it's easiest to buy the privateer press starter sets they offer for each faction. It's a collection of 6 paints that should help you do a basic color scheme of your faction, which will be outlined in your force book. I have seen this used to great effect by a first time painter. From there, you add additional colors you need as you go along. For brushes, I would recommend getting 2 hobby brushes from the same place you get your miniatures and miniature paint. The are expensive, but well worth it. I would also get a pack of small, cheap brushes from a hobby lobby or Michael's as well

(5) Assembling models. It’s not time to put your models together. Plastic on plastic can use the tester’s plastic glue. Metal on metal, or metal on plastic needs to use super glue. Before you glue stuff together, use your knife and files to file off any flashing (excess metal) or mold lines you see on the model. This is the most frustrating and time consuming process for new people to the hobby, and its super tempting to skip right to gluing and painting. Don't, b/c those lines and flashing will really look bad once paint goes on. Once it's cleaned, you can glue together. Really complex or heavy parts may need to be pinned. If you can't get a piece to stay glued, Google "pinning". Most models don’t' have to have this done. Models can be glued to their base at this time, which helps in a lot of ways for beginners.

(6) Play some small games. Now, this step can occur at any point once you've assembled your figures. And ideally, it should continue during the next few steps. I've simply put it here b/c as soon as your models are assembled, you are good to go on playing. I absolutely think it is best to play with painted models, but I do not think it's best to wait to play until you've painted your models, so play away. To play, what you will need is a copy of the rulebook and/or an experienced player to show you the ropes. Both are the best. You also need your models, duh. You need some tokens to represent fury or focus. These can be anything from scraps of paper to glass beads you see on wedding reception tables to official (read expensive) game markers. You need a few 6 sided dice (standard dice). 6 seems to be more than enough, with two working in a pinch. You need the cards that come with the game models, which should be placed in clear card sleeves. You then need a dry erase marker to mark on the cards, which you have in sleeves so you can wipe the cards off, and play with them again. Finally, you will probably need a copy of the templates, but you can shell out the cash for this or simply photocopy them from the back of the rule book. I recommend this for people already outlaying a lot of money. Terrain is important of the game, but to start with, this could be some soup cans and boxes of dry food. Not nearly as impressive, but you're learning. When playing games, I strongly suggest starting off with some battle box games. This means, even if you bought some extra stuff (which if you had the money you did) just play with what comes in the battle box. That usually means you have your caster and 1-4 jacks/beasts. That’s a great size to learn the game, and not get too overwhelmed. Especially if you are brand new to miniature games. If you start too big, your brain will fry and your experience will be poo.

(7) Priming is the next step. This is very intimidating, and while your initial paint job may not be the best, the best way to become a better painter is to paint. Cliché' but true. The first step is to prime your models black. The whole model should be coated, but be careful to not spray so long and thick that you obscure detail. Again, countless videos on how to do this, but common sense should be fine. Don't be afraid to give it a quick spray, and come back for a second coat.

(8) Painting. I've already outlined what you need to paint. Don't forget to have a old cup with water so you can wash out your brush between colors or when it's going dry. I suggest having a water cup for both regular paints and metallic paints, as the metallic have shiny stuff in them that you don't want in your regular paint. Having a paper towel to wipe excess paint on is good too. The biggest thing with painting is just start. I've been painting for 15 years, and I'm not very good, however, my stuff looks fine on the table top, and I now really, really enjoy the process. It's very enjoyable and therapeutic for me to paint. It seems daunting, but just start. As an aside, I really like listening to podcasts while I paint. I listen to nerd podcasts about gaming and warmachine, as well as ones about soccer and NFL football. If podcasts aren't your thing, you might try digital books or even movies you know by heart. It makes the process even more enjoyable.

(9) Basing. The last step is to add a basing material to your model's base. It's amazing how much this little step can add to your model and make your paint job pop. Below average painted models can look 5x's better with a base. Basing is the process of adding a flock (like they use for train sets) to the base. I usually apply a while Elmer’s glue, glue some flock down and let dry. Then I water the Elmer’s down, apply a very wet, milk like coat, and let that dry. Once that's done, you'll be impressed. Basing can be a very involved and complex process, but you'll learn that as you go. For your first models, keep it simple.

(10) Varnish. The last step is to spray a varnish on the models. The varnish dries clear, and protects the paint job you've done. I prefer a matte varnish, as a glossy makes the model too... umm... glossy. This process is still one I'm struggling with, and sometimes the matte varnish can turn your models a bit cloudy, which sucks. This is an important step, and protects your paint job (from wear and tear while playing) as well as your basing. I suggest just using a krylon matte varnish, and if you want more details, Google it and learn from those much wiser than I.

(11) Buy more crap. As you go, you will want to increase the size of your force, as well as buy stuff that is more effective for your play style. That is normal. I suggest getting some games in, reading some fluff, and trolling the internet a bit to figure out what you want. If you are like me, and on a limited budget, early on you need to strike a balance between getting a decent size force and not buying a bunch of stuff you will end up not using or wanting. That's why, even if I had a bunch of money to spend, I'd buy the battle box, a unit, a solo, and my favorite faction caster model. That's it. Save the rest of the money once you know what you want. Plus, if you've never painted before, the more models you buy, the more daunting getting it all painted will seem. Trust me, less is more!!! Besides models, this is the time to start pimping your other stuff. Maybe pick up the real warmachine/hordes templates. Expand your paint collection from 6 pots to 10. Get another brush. Buy some extra basing material. Get some special dice. Make terrain or you own gaming board, etc. Just remember, this hobby will gobble up as much cash as you will give it. Be smart, and be patient. Don't expect to have everything a guy like me, who’s been in the miniature gaming hobby for 15 years, has.

Ok, that's it. If you follow these steps, you will be on your way to playing warmachine. A couple points. The internet is your best and worst friend. It has amazing tutorials, great pictures, and lots of strategy. It also has a lot of idiots who profess to know all there is to know on everything. Take stuff with a grain of salt, especially tactics stuff. If you want to collect a unit, and people say they are crap, get the unit. Play what you want. Learn the game with the stuff you want. Remember too, this is a community hobby. If you have questions, ask. There are tons of people, including myself, that would be happy and flattered to answer any questions you might have.

Plug yourself in on this chart and have at it. Remember what I said, I'm no expert. I'm not saying this is the best way to do this, but it's a way. Give it a shot, and modify it to taste by all means.

Narrowing the Field

2011-03-18T18:51:00.000-07:00

Hello, and welcome to the next installment of my pick-a-faction tournament. It's taken me long enough that we've actually, ironically, gotten into the real March Madness, which reminded me I needed to get my next post up. I've got two match-ups for you today.

(1) Cryx vs (9) Pirates

The first match-up in the round of 8 is a pretty lopsided. I don’t want to focus on the Cryx too much, as they’ll be getting their due later, so let’s look at why the Pirates aren’t going to survive this round.

Pirates are cool, but I’m not a pirate guy per say. I like many of the models in here, but overall It’s obviously a fairly limited range. Captain Phineaus Shae is a decent model, but for pirates, he’s all you have. Another big draw is the cannon, which in game mechanic terms is pretty beast, but to be honest I don’t love the model and I’m not that keen to put artillery into play in the game anyway. I do enjoy the idea that all the various solos and pirate characters synergize welll with each other, and create some really cool and amazing combos. That’s a

definite plus. Ultimately the biggest nail in the pirates coffin the is the fact they are part of the Mercs faction, and the Mercs are still in play. Why confine myself to a very specific part of the faction, when I can take a more expanding look at the faction. So, It’s a little cheesy, but I can eliminate the pirates without totally eliminating them, so they are out. Let me also say though, there is a reason the Cryx are a #1 seed. I love this faction, so it was always going to be an uphill battle for the Pirates.

Decent pirate leader

Fantastic Pirate leader

Winner (1) Cryx

(2) Mercs vs (7) Gators

The Mercs and Gators are an interesting match-up. The Gators are a fairly new faction having just been codified in the new Minion book. They’ve got a limited selection of troops and casters due to that newness. The Mercs, for a long time, enjoyed or perhaps suffered a similar status as the Gators. They were seen as a not-quite-a-faction faction. Now, with the release of their new book, they seem to have enough casters, fluff, and troops to be considered a true faction.

Both factions have excellent models. The Gators warcasters are limited to two, but I’d be happy to own either or both. They are great sculpts with lots of character. The Mercs on the other hand, have a good selection of warcasters, and they are really great too. In fact, 2 in particular are very intriguing to me. I love Captain “Broadsides” Bartello. It’s a great sculpt, and defiantly the kind of Captain I love seeing. I’m also a fan of the Magnus sculpts, both his prime and epic form, and I’m alos intrigued by his fluff. I’d give a nod to the Mercs here. As for Jacks and Beasts, it’s a draw. The Gators have some cool beasts, but they don’t have a lot of them. The mercs have a few cool Jacks like the Nomad and the Mule, but there are also a lot lemons as far as my tastes go. The troops is a clear advantage For the Mercs. I don’t rate the Gatormen Posse sculpts, and a lot of their allies are models I don’t like. On the Merc side, I love the steel heads, many of the solos, and pirate troops.

For the X factor, I see a drawback for the Gators and a plus for the Mercs. For the Gators I have to knock them down a bit, b/c although I think they look fantastic on the website, I’ve got a lot of concerns about being able to paint the gator skin in a manner that I will be happy with. For the Mercs, the X factor is defiantly how well they synergize with my Khadorian forces. What’s great about having a Merc force is if you have a warmachine army, many of the units and solos will work for you other army, given me great cross over compatability and utility. This is even more prevenlent with the new Warmachine releases from Wrath. The Mercs are a great value and a cool faction. The Gators are cool, but just a little too unfinished to be my back up faction. Gotta go with the Mercs here

Get him a bit more support and I'd love to own him!

Winner: (2) Mercs

Well, with those 2 match-ups in the book, we need to take a look at the latest brackets. These match-ups were on opposite sides, so despite having 2 of the Final Four set, we don't have a confirmed match-up for the next round yet. Tune in soon for the next two match-ups which promise to be much closer run affairs I assure you.

The Elite 8

2011-03-08T09:47:00.000-08:00

well, this tournament has been pretty enjoyable for me to think about, but I do realize I haven't given the early rounds as much coverage as I want. The demands of a certain 8 week old little girl have seen to that. That being said, I'm enjoying it, and even if I do a bit of a fast forward through some matches, I think that will be ok. Hopefully it won't disappoint the 2 people reading this. haha.

(6) Everblight vs (11) Cygnar

It's cinderella time. When I first started this thinking about this, I found myself thinking two interesting things. First, I disliked Cygnar enough that I almost ranked them last. Second, I considered Legion an early dark horse because back in Warhammer Fantasy I'm a dark elf player, and I love the contrast in play styles between Legion and my base faction, Khador. In retrospect, I was wrong. First off, what I didn't realize about Cygnar is they have some awesome models. I love 5 of their warcasters, including Siege Brisbane and the Han Solo-esque Allister Caine. Addititionally, I love the Thunderhead, trenchers and attatchments, and the strom blades. All are great models. On the legion side, I can find 3 casters whose looks I can stomach, including both Thragoshes, and really only E Thaggy is a model I really love. I do like the Nyss, but overall, I'm just not too keen on the Beasts, for much the same reason I never fancied the 40K Tyranids. It's just not a really good visual range, to me. Furthermore, I love the trencher theme and the lightening theme of Cygnar. Either would definatly be a theme I would try to build around. Overall, not a huge fan of Cygnar's long armed jacks, they look a little too weak to me, but I'd take them over the Legion Beasts. I do like the Legion Fluff though, and the play style definatly has appeal. However, in the end Cygnar just has too many more cool models, and the playstyle is different enough from Khador that I think it could be very Fresh.

Stop: Hammer time

Winner: (11) Cygnar

(8) Pirates vs (9) Pigs (Thornfall Alliance)

I'm not really a big pirate vs ninja guy. Pirates are ok. I liked the Johnny Depp movies, but I've always been much more of a Master and Commander guy rather than a Jolly Rodger guy. Still, I will confess an affinity for the Privateer Press models. They have a lot of character, and some of them are pretty cool looking to boot. I like Phinneus Shae, and it sounds like bringing the Commodore Cannon would be a ton of fun. I'm not counting Bartolo Montador amoung these guys, but if I did, that'd be another huge bonus. I love that model a ton, as you'll hear about once the Mercs have their first match-up. on the otherside, I'm not a huge fan of the piggies. They don't have a lot of models yet, and the ones they do have are, eh... The two notable exceptions are Lord Carver and the War Hog which are both AMAZING models and almost enough to bring me into the faction, if there weren't so many other great choices. Also, I must admit, I'm a sucker for humans. I always choose humans when I can for things b.c I feel like I can get into the character of them, as opposed to playing the role of Bacon. In the end, the pirates have been around slightly longer, have a better theme (to me), and more choice.

This Model is almost BA enough to buy a faction for...

Winner (8) Pirates

and with that, we have advanced to the elite 8. The pretenders are gone. I will probably speed through the next round a bit too, and save the real detailed match-ups for the final four. See ya soon, and be sure to look below for the next round match-ups.

more painting

2011-02-28T12:24:00.000-08:00

Still working on my Cygnar v Legion results. In the meantime, I've been doing some painting. The following is a test model for my Assault Kommando Unit. I don't necessarily love the models mostly due to their weird helmets and some of the poses, but I wanted to have some, since they are Strakhov's unit, and necessary for any Tier force I might do. However, I'm finding that in painting them, I'm at least getting to a place where I can live with them. Let me know what you think, or any suggestions you might have. This guy is about 75% done.

A little dark, but you get the idea

Moving right along

2011-02-16T12:12:00.000-08:00

In looking over the brackets, it dawned on me that a couple of the next match-ups were pretty one-sided. Additionally, I didn't want to spend a ton of time highlighting all the benefits of some of the winning factions, only to repeat myself later when they were in a real dog fight. So what I thought I'd do is run through three lopsided match-ups with this post, and explain more why the faction that lost, lost, rather than why the winner won.

Match-up 2: (4) Skorne vs (13) Retribution of Scyrah

I absolutely can't stand the Retribution. I like the idea, and in truth I applaud PP for such a radical departure, conceptually, from all their other stuff. The problem is, it has a very anime type feel, and I can't stand anime. I would go so far as to say I loathe it with every fiber of my being. That being said, these models are an absolute wash for me. I can't even begin to get into the fluff or play style b/c I know I wouldn't paint a single model in this range. No cinderella story this time.

I hate you Anime

Winner: (4) Skorne

Match-up 3: (5) Trollbloods vs (12) Rhulic Dwarves
I just don't like the Dwarves jacks to be honest. I'm ususally not a fan of dwarves/hobbits in general, but sometimes I can enjoy the right models, and PP has some nice Dwarf infantry. In addition, it's not the most cost effective faction given that there is not battlebox. But honestly, Dwarf sized jacks just aren't doing it for me. This is even more potent when compared to the sweet Troll warbeasts like Mauler and Bomber. Also, it's a very limited faction since really, it's a part of a faction that many people, until recently, didn't even consider a faction. All in all, too limited.

I'm digging the British Hats!

Winner (5) Trollbloods

Match-up 4: (7) Blindwater Congregation vs (10) Protectorate of Menoth

Well, this probably is a bit closer than I'm letting on, but I simply can't pick Menoth. There are a couple reasons. First, our fledgling Warmachine community already has 3 guys who have bought Menoth stuff. I don't want to add to that type of gluttany. Second, I'm not a big fan of the models. They have a few models that are amazing such as Amon Ad'Raza, the Paladin of the Wall, the Alligiant, and the Knights Exemplar. But many of them, I just don't rate. Also, the fluff just doesn't do much for me. I just can't get into the religious fanatic mindset. Third, I just don't get a sense of excitment from the faction and it's play style.

Too bad Menoth doesn't have more of these guys!

Winner (7) Blindwater Congregation

So, the current Bracket looks like this:

Now that we have all the "gimme's" out of the way, next time we'll have our first real match-up: (6) Everblight vs (11) Cygnar.

Modelling updates

2011-02-09T15:16:00.001-08:00

well, I've been a bit slammed lately so I'm still putting the finishing touches on the next round in my warmachine "pick a new faction" Tourney. Until I get that up later this week, I thought I'd throw up a few pics of my fledgling Khador Force. I've got 2 'Jacks completely painted, although they still need based. I don't know what I want to do "base-wise" yet, so if you have a thought, drop it in the comments!

Here is an inside and outside shot of the 'Jacks. I am doing a bit of an alternate Khador scheme obviously. Let me know what you think.

Next up is the maneater. He's probably 95% done. Just a couple straps left to do here and there. This was a really, really fun model to paint. Sorry for the poor lighting, but in person, I really think the skin looks very nice on this model.
here is a couple real works in progress. My 2 favorite Khadoran casters, as mentioned previously are Strakhov and the Butcher. So I've been painting up Strakhov, with the Butcher waiting in the wings. Also, I had to make an early purchase on one of my favorite models in the whole range, the Merc Gorman di Wolfe. Not only does he look sweet, he synergizes well with Strakhov. As a side note, I love the model but hate the breathing aparatus, so I cut it off. I like it much better that way.

And a close up of the just the main man himself.

Match 1 - Khador v Circle

2011-01-26T17:40:00.000-08:00

Time for the first match-up in my choosing a new faction tournament. If you're not sure whats going on, see my previous post. The first match-up features the #3 seed Circle Orboros versus the #14 seed, Khador.

Now, if you read my first post, you know this isn't really a fair fight. My primary faction is Khador, so obviously, my second faction isn't going to be Khador (thus they got the lowest seed). However, I thought it was important to include them for two reasons. First, some of my friends might be reading this blog to learn a little bit more about Warmachine, and so for completion's sake, I'd like to make sure I address my favorite faction. Second, I felt I could use this match-up as a demonstration of how I will look at each faction when determining a winner for each round. So for this match-up, I will save my thoughts on Circle until the next round, and just concentrate on explaining each criteria I'll use, and how Khador stacks up to that criteria.

I should point out, as a veteran minitures player, I will be placing a fair amount of weight on the modeling aspect of the factions. Play style is big, value for a buck is big, background is important, but I've learned over the years I spend a heck of a lot of time modeling and painting, so you'll see a bit more weight applied to those aspects as I go through. If you don't like what your painting, it's a project that's not going to get done.

Khador
Warcasters/Warlocks: Its the meat of the game. Every game must involve one one of these guys, if not more. Additionally, in this system, swapping out your warcaster can make a huge difference in how the army plays. I'm not sure there is another game around where a $7 to $20 purchase can make such a drastic change in how your army plays. For this reason, it's critical to have not just one, but a few casters you're excited to play. Obviously, the more casters I like, the more incentive there is to play that faction. Additionally, since a caster is the life of the army, having an caster who I like the look and fluff of can dramatically "make" the army.

Khador has a ton of casters I love. My favorites by far are Strakhov and The Butcher. As soon as I decided on Khador I knew I needed to pick up Strakhov. He's a great model with a super cool background. I love that he's an assault kommando leader, and he gun and trench knife are too cool. Fro theom a gaming standpoint, I was really intrigued by his ability to ignore cloud effects, and the fact that he was a new model when I got into the game let me feel like I was getting in on the ground floor of at least one part of the army. The Butcher is one of the coolest models I've ever seen. His play style seems a bit too straight forward to me, but he's got such a great model and fluff, how could you not like him. Additionally, I love Irusk, Vlad, and Karchev as well. I'm not as interested in the Khador ladies, but to fair I'd not be oppossed to playing any of them either. The only warcaster model Khador has that I don't immediatly love or at least like, is the Old Witch, and to be fair, I've not given her much of a look over.

Cost Effectiveness: This category looks at the cost effectiveness of collecting a faction. It's never cheap getting into a miniatures game, but it's always nice if you can save a few bucks. The most relevant factor in this category would be the usefulness of the battle boxes. While I don't pretend to know enough to speak totally to the power levels of each box, certainly choosing a faction with a battle box caster and/or models I want to use is cost effective, since they are a discounted buy. Also, playing a faction that has models that can be used across various armies (Mercs and minions) is a bonus, as is access to free or reduced priced models for a faction. This could be models I already own or that a buddy will sell me for a good price. Finally, access to useful plastic kits is cheaper than the metal versions.

For Khador, as I said, I don't love Skorsha, but she's certainly a caster I'd be willing to try occasionally. Also, with a small investment in her Epic Cards, I get two casters for the price of one with her. I do love the two Jacks that come in the box set however. I'm not sure how good they are, but they look cool, and seem at least serviceable in most games. They also seem to be great Jacks to learn with as one is close combat and can do throws and other can shoot, with an AOE no less.

Models: This category is where I look at the best models, medium models, and worst models in the range. As I said, given my hectic schedule and lack of local gaming store, I tend to spend a lot more time painting and modeling than I do playing, so the look of the faction is crucial. If I don't like the models, especially the really good ones gamewise, I'm not going to want to paint them, and I'm going to lose interest in the faction.

For Khador, I love most the models. Jacks like the Kodiak and Drago are AMAZING. additionally, their troops and solos are generally amazing. The Iron Fang Pikemen are great, as are the widowmakers. For solos, the manhunter is absolutly BA looking, as are the Great Bears. The only models I really don't love are the assault Kommandos, the Man o' Wars, and the regular Kayazy. I will say though, having bought some Assault Kommandos they are growing on me a bit, and the UA flamethrower is awesome, and gives me hope if the do a Kommando resculpt in the future.

Other Players Locally: Pretty self explanitory. Varity is the spice of life, so if another faction is played locally, or by someone I know, that’s going to downgrade it. Not as big of deal for me, given the few players I know, but if you decide to do this, something to think about. Another thought here is if you hope to get people involved locally, are their certain factions you can assume they will play or will want to play. Not always applicable, but sometimes you know…

Nobody plays Khador that I know, so green light there.

Playstyle: How does the army play. Is it in your face close combat, is it long range shooty, or is it a fast glass cannon. Finding an army that plays the way you like is crucial. Additioanlly, It’s important to consider in a second army creating some gaming variety for yourself. If you have a long range shooty army, are you really going to be excited to play another long range shooty army with different models? Perhaps, but for me, I want to find some variety in my games. If I don’t feel like shooting at long range, I’d like to have a close combat army.

For Khador, they are slow, powerful, and great at close combat. I don’t love how slow they are, but there are ways in the army to mitigate that. Also, I defiantly do like the in your face close combat feel, and their ability to shrug off damage and keep coming at you. Very cool. As for the second thought, it’s my first army so no variety issues here.

Fluff Bonus: – it’s always more fun if you can get into the ethos of your army. The look , feel, and history of your force can be crucial in bringing you into the game. Relating to your army can really be a great way to get maximum fun out of the game. It seems like at tournaments the guys having the most fun are the guys who seem to really, really dig their army and know the fluff.

Khador is great. I love the Russian/Eastern European feel. I love the fact that they are humans. I always want to play humans in any game I play (I was always a human in WoW for example). I also love the fact have they have this storied, military tradition, and that they feel they have to right the wrongs that have been perpetrated on them in the past. I have loved reading all the fluff I’ve had on them, and I can really get into the fluff. Huge win here for me.

“X” Factor: - This is sort of a catch all category for anything special that might be a tipping point for an army. For example, if I have an awesome idea for a theme or paint scheme, that can be a difference maker. Maybe a faction has a warcaster or model that is just so awesome, I absolutely want to include it in my collection. Maybe it’s a story or visual I’ve come across that really fires me up about a faction. Another example might be my desire to keep things simple by staying in Warmachine, or conversely, I want to really get a Hordes force to learn the rules differences and nuances . There are a large diversity of things that might give an army bonus points, and this is a great spot to make

mention of that.

For Khador, it was just the whole look and feel. There was very little I didn’t love about this force. This force was just head and shoulders above anything else I saw in the Iron Kingdoms, and in many other game systems for that matter. I just loved it all, so I had to go with them.

Hope that helps explain the process I will be going through in these matchups. So for this round, Circle moves on by default. See ya soon.

Choosing an new faction

2011-01-20T09:53:00.000-08:00

I love choosing armies, factions, gangs, crews, etc.

In fact, it might be one of my favorite aspects of playing miniature board games. Is there anything better than exploring all the possibilities of each faction and deciding which group you're going to cast your lot with? I love pouring over the rule books, model ranges, and forums to figure out which army I want to play. Lots of factors go into the decision, and it's fun to dream and think about all the possibilities before making that first major financial commitment. When picking a new army for Warhammer Fantasy after finishing an old one, I always liked to create a tournament bracket of all the armies, and make one v one decisions as I whittled it down to my next army. Usually I do this process with my buddies in a car ride home from a tournament. It was pretty quick and dirty, and had a lot of gut reaction built in, but it was fun, and I, as well as my buddies, enjoyed the tournament format.

Now, I've just recently started getting into Warmachine. It's a fun game, and I've really grown to love the rules, models, and of course the way Privateer Press does business. It's been very refreshing to get into a new rule set and system for a variety of reasons. So, with a new game I had to choose a faction to play. This I did, and actually it wasn't that hard. One faction, Khador, stood out head and shoulders above the others and so I began collecting them. I am not even close to being done collecting Khador but it's time to pick a new faction. The reason for the second faction is that I need a faction to demo the game with. We don't have a a local gaming store, nor do we really have a local community, so if I want to grow the game, I've got to have the resources to play and show someone else how to play.

To that end, I need to pick up at least the basics of a second force. I don't want to drop a ton of cash into it, but i'd like to have at least a small force to demo the game with. In my mind, if I'm going to invest $60-$90 in a demo force, I'd like it to be a faction I can later expand into a full force, and to do that, it needs to be a faction I can love. That leads me to engaging in one of my favorite aspects of the hobby, picking a new force.

I will lay out how I go about this, so that if you want to do the same process, in Warmachine or another game, you can. I highly recommend giving it a try, it's a lot of fun.

First, I needed to figure out how many factions I had to choose from. Since I'm open to playing Warmachine or Hordes, I put the count at possible factions at 14. Let me explain. First, there are the obvious 9 factions: Cygnar, Khador, Retribution, Cryx, Menoth, Trollbloods, Everblight, Skorne, and Circle. For Mercs, I felt I could break them into 3 seperate factions: Dwarves, Pirates, and general Mercs. For Minions, they could be easily split into 2 factions: Gators and Farrow, so there is my 14 factions.

Next, I needed to drop the teams into a bracket. It's always best to use brackets that are in multiples of four. So for 14 teams, I used a 16 team bracket with 2 first round byes. Also, to try to prevent getting a great faction knocked out too early, I wanted to seed the factions just like the NCAA basketball tourny does. At first this may seem crazy, as ranking them would seem to to negate the need for the bracket, however, the ranks a simple gut feeling ranking without much insight. When I've done this in the past, I've found that rarely do my initial rankings pan out exactly as I ranked them. So, I quickly ranked the fourteen factions, and then placed them in the brackets. You can see the brackets below.

From this point, I will take each match-up, and compare the factions in various pre-determined categories . I will discuss those categories in my first match-up post. After looking at all the categories, I will use the information gained to declare a winner in each round.

Next time the first match-up. 3) Circle of Orboris vs. 14) Khador

2011-01-15T12:56:00.001-08:00

coming soon

coming soon

On the Painting Table

2010-10-12T13:02:00.001-07:00

well, I've been away, but not really. This is always my busiest time of year with the new school year starting, and being a football coach, so I haven't been very active on the blog, but on the bright side, I've been putting what little free time I have into doing some painting. I have tabled my Ogre Army for right now, despite hitting on a pretty sweet skin reciepe for my ogres, in favor of painting some stuff that currently has my fancy. That would be Warmachine and Bloodbowl.

On the Warmachine front, I have begun working on a Khador army (while simulaniously assembling a Cryx Army as well). I have thus far purchased the battle box set, Strakhov, and a Manhunter. I am going to mix up the color scheme a little bit and I think go for a dark blue and light gray, rather than the traditional dark gray and red. I am happy with how it looks to this point, but we'll see. Perhaps the Warhammer enthusist in me, but I want to stamp a little originality on my army...

A very early work in progress.

Onto Bloodbowl. I currently own 2 fields and 4 complete teams, as well as pieces of 3 others. So I am hoping to get my Wednesday night gaming crew playing a season after the Descent campaign. I am not sure if I can make it happen, but I figured to prep for it, I better get my fourth team painted up, so I have begun work on the High Elves. It certainly won't be my best painting job, but I think it will be serviceable for the field when it's all done with.

early days, but coming along....

Master of the Hunt - in the lead

2010-09-09T08:14:00.000-07:00

well, the crew assembled for our 2nd official game night last night to continue our Sea of Blood campaign.

When we last left off, the heros had conquered two levels of the first duengon. This had gone pretty slow, due to the fact that we were all learning the campaign rules, and so had lots of rules to look up. We've played some Descent Vanilla, but are still fairly newbish to that as well. I figured tonight, we would zip through the last level of the duengon (which I preassembled to save time) and get on with the campaign. The score going into last night was Master of the Hunt 17 - Heros 10.

So, with plans to get the last dungeon done, and get some new stuff (maybe an encounter!) in, we began playing. It did not go quick. After two and half hours, we found ourselves just finishing up with the dungeon (The Hideout). Things did not go well for the heros. The Master of the Hunt (my avatar) and the Master Naga guarding the third level. The heros probably should have cut bait and run, but they stubbornly pressed on and eventually defeated the dungeon. Of course, by that time, The master of the hunt had picked up 16 victory points to their 7, and I increasted my lead to 33 - 17. Not a bad night. The party chose to continue their journey. I got one VP for time passing, and then bought the Darkwind Lt. The party tried to go to the next town, but rolled a sea encounter on the way. Since it was late, and we have NO experience with sea encounters, we agreed to table it until next week. Should be fun.

Sea of Blood

2010-09-03T12:17:00.001-07:00

First night of the Descent: Sea of Blood campaign went great. It was a bit slow due to us still getting to grips with all the rules, but overall, we had a blast. The game when a bit long, but we did an island assault and got through two levels of dungeon. I played fairly crafty as the Overlord, and that, combined with a tough level 2 dungeon meant we finished the session with a conquest total of 26, with me having 16 and the pathetic heros having 10. I'm pumped for next week!

Descent, Warmachine, Fantasy, and more

2010-08-24T07:27:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted, but I've been up to hobby goodness.

First off, I am in the process of getting a local Descent: Sea of Blood Campaign rolling. I have been playing some regular games of Descent to familiarize myself and the group with the rules. Additionally, I have been painting up some of the minions from my Descent game to add a little punch to the game. I have done a Manticore, a Spider, 6 beastmen, and am almost done with the skellies. I will post some pics soon.

Also, I have been working on some Warmachine figs. I finally busted out the rules, and played a couple games with RPA. We played very small encounters. The first was his Cryx vs me playing a buddies Protectorate. We each fielded a caster, 1 heavy, a light warjack, and a unit. It was interesting and fun, but very slow as it was my first game ever and only his second. A couple days later we played again, this time I ran my Khador with the boxed set jacks and Strakov vs his box jacks and Skaare. It was a lot of fun, and I ended up pulling out a victory. I enjoyed the game, and I have become quite fond of the models and fluff. I upp'd the ante a bit by ordering the Khador book, a manhunter, a crxy box set, Skarre (love the model), and a pistol Wraith. The idea is I will have enough minis to teach the game to others and see if they want to play. I can see it appealing to some people that might not love the cost and hassle of warhammer. I thought about getting a hordes faction, but that meant buying the rule book, and learning all those rules as well. Also, and this was the big issue, I really like the Skorne models, but I was fearful they played too similar to Khador. That, combined with how much I like the look of Cryx sent me over to the dark side. I thought about everblight, but just couldn't pull the trigger.

as for fantasy, I haven't had a game in a couple weeks, but I have redoubled my efforts on painting my OK army, and I have to say, I really think my flesh is looking good. I will post some pics of that soon as well.

finally, I have been prepping my Lady Justice Malifaux crew as well as playing some great board games like "The Adventurers," "Tomb," and "Mr. Jack" Maybe great is a bit strong, but definatly fun, and the adventurers I absolutly loved.

Thats all for now. I'll try to get some pics up soon.

Early 8th edition thoughts.

2010-07-19T21:42:00.000-07:00

I have played 6 games against 5 opponents. I have used Dark Elves against VC, Empire, Skaven, Orcs, and Beasts. I am far from an expert, but here are my thoughts.

8th Edition thoughts in general:

Magic is very random, but it's one of the greatest changes they've ever made. Taking a variety of wizards does give you an edge in the magic phase as it should, but not one that is going to make your opponent hate life. With normal rolls and some solid magical support, over the course of a 6 turn game, you should have 2 phases where your magic is very powerful, 2 where it's ok, and 2 where it's pretty underwhelming. That seems about right to me. Additionally, the various "levels" of many spells allows you to compensate for whatever amount of dice you take. It really works amazing. The best endorsement I can give it is this: If you go magic heavy you will deal with some randomness, but it can win the day for you. On the other hand, you can also take no magic and most phases, you won't suffer. It feels, after 6 games granted, incredibly balanced.

The new initiative striking system is very cool. It is really important to have a high initative, and lots of attacks, but it's balanced very nicely by the step up rule, b/c it's even more important to be survivable and whether he's hitting you first, or he's hitting you after you go.

Hordes have some merit, but I don't think you will see a bunch of them long term. I think you will see units of 40, but deployed 5 by 8 rather than 10 by 4. Most units that are cheap enough to field 10 wide, aren't powerful enough to want to field that wide. however, the new magic system, with all it's buffs, could change that a little.

BSB's are the new scroll caddy. You won't take any army without one unless you are an idiot. Even then, you'll probably take one.

The reform rules makes so much more sense. Quick reforms are cool and intuative. The fact that you can reform after winning in combat and chasing units down is great too. It really encourages you to be be aggressive as it doesn't leave you hanging out in the wind with your Driver out. That's so smart

shooting is much more devastating. Shooting in two ranks is amazing. My unit of 10 crossbowman take up a frontage of only 100 mm but pump out 20 shots a turn. That is amazing, and quite fun. This sounds horrible for close combat armies, but....

The board is smaller. The armies start closer together. While this isn't actually true, the ability to march even within 8 inches of an enemy (with a LD test), the fact that your average charge range (for an elf) is 12 where your max charge range use to be a 10, and the ability to do some other things means that you are much closer. I barely lost to RPA's Empire Gunline today. A lot of factors went into that, but a big one was me not just driving forward at his units. I tried to sit at the back, and paid for it for 3 rounds. When I finally moved up, I found i closed the gap quickly.

rolling lots of dice is fun

Terrain rules aren't as stupid as I thought. Forests are much different, but not bad. 2 cavets to this though. 1, I would never play random terrain in a tournament setting, or even in a friendly setting unless playing a buddy I played all the time and 2) the hill rule is stupid. For the NIYF tourny, we played hills as having a height of 1 foot, and a unit being partially on it was able to be seen and see anyone not behind a hill. I suggest everyone do this.

true line of sight is ok, but i Think it's better if you just consider models to have the same height based on base size. I don't like the idea of penalizing conversions or things.

The rules are so much clearer. As I have told many of you, I strongly considered leaving Warhammer for Warmachine b/c I was so fed up with rules disputes, unbalanced armies, and the complete lack of clarity in the rules. I have only played 8th edition 6 times, but I feel like I have so much more understanding and clarity with it, then I ever did with 6th or 7th. Charging is so smooth now. I love how you premeasure, as that way you know the roll you need before you roll the dice. If it's super close, you may dispute what you need, but it happens before the roll. This eliminates so much chippiness and bitterness. Simply measure closest to closest, agree on the roll needed, roll the dice, then move them in. Simple, obvious, and set up to drastically reduce the disputes and bitterness of the old system. I'm not saying I like every rule, nor that everything is crystal clear, but the improvement is much more than signifigant. It's an epic sized improvement, and it makes the game fun. Understanding a game makes it fun. They have made understanding this game much easier, and much more attainable. I love that. I feel like I can confidently list my Warmachine models on Ebay tomorrow and feel good about staying in Warhammer for the foreseeable future, or at least for the next 5 years.

Ben

Game 2 of 8th Edition

2010-07-16T07:53:00.000-07:00

Played my second game of 8th edition today. It was a battle of 7th edition top tier armies, with my Dark Elves facing off against Fr. Jason's Vampire Counts. sorry this report isn't more detailed but I have my brother's wedding and small invitational tournament to run this weekend, so needless to say, I'm crunched for time. This was his first game of 8th, and would prove to be my first full game of 8th, as RPA and I had to end early on Tuesday.

I went with a different list than what I ran in 7th. I decided to go for an infantry based army, and back it up with a little more shooting than normal. My list was

Dreadlord: on foot with Regen armor and +3 Str Ogre Blade
Sorceress: level 2 with sac dagger
Sorceress: Level 2 with Feedback scroll - one use only, wizard must roll number of dice used to cast spell, is wounded on any rolls of 5 or 6
Cauldron: BSB, and some Khanite stuff, no big deal
20 spears with shields with armor pierce banner and both casters in it
10 Dark Riders w/ crossbows, yes one unit
5 harpies
10 crossbowmen
10 crossbowmen
20 black guard had general in it
14 witch elves
hydra
2 reaper bolt throwers

Fr. Jason went with a surprisingly fast VC army

Vamp Lord - level 3
Vamp BSB - Regen Banner
Necromancer on foot
30 unit of zombies
30 unit of ghouls
20 unit of skellys
10 strong unit of black knights
10 or 15 strong unit of dire wolves - classic bus with general and BSB with regen
5 man blood knights
Black Coach

I plopped my 3 main battle units in the middle: my Black Guard, Cauldron, and Spears from left to right. Outside the BG was a bolt thrower, and then a unit of archers deployed in the woods and the Witches on the extreme left flank. To the right of the spears was the hydra, crossbowmen, and the 10 man Dark riders. He had, from his right to left, hoarde of zombies, black knights, skellys with necro, ghouls, black coach, dire wolf bus, and blood knights. I won first turn and started trying to blast him. The game was pretty fun, with him doing quite well easy. In the end, I pulled off the victory. I think the keys were using my shooting to force him to come at me, using my harpies to pull his blood knights into an infilade shot by my bolt thrower, and the hydra. The key moment of the game was when my spear elves, who got charged by his dire wolf bus, rolled insane courage and held. this allowed my hyrda to counter charge and use his breath weapon. This negated the regen for the REST OF THE COMBAT ROUND, and I tore him to shreds, and then smoked his characters with melting wounds. It was awesome, and he had no way to recover after that. I found the combats a ton of fun. My witch elves were rolling (with the cauldron blessing) 36 hated, poisen attacks. It was sweet. They seemed like all-stars, but I think this is b/c they took on zombies and skellies. Magic was also a lot of fun for both of us I think, and didn't seem overpowered at all. he did miscast, but got off easy on the roll of 8, which failed to wound any of his casters. I did have quite a few failed charges, but the swiftstrider rule makes Cav fine, and striking on initative and stepo up made those missed charges survivable, where as in 7th ed, It would have been game over.

I am basically 1 and half games in, but I am very happy so far with the rules. The early forecast is that 8th edition has saved warhammer for me, and I am very excited about it. In fact, I registered for the Northstar this week.

Errata... yes please

2010-07-09T06:29:00.001-07:00

GW has posted there much anticipated Errata that will allow players to convert their armies from 7th to 8th. Hopefully this has had some thought behind it, as some of these army books could be years away. I've been really happy with most of the changes to 8th, so I've got my fingers crossed, but I will checking this out with a fair bit of trepidation. If you want to check it out, go here

Back to painting

2010-07-08T12:23:00.001-07:00

after a fairly lengthy break, I have once again broken the paints back out and am returning to work. No doubt this is in some part due to the emminent release of 8th Edition Warhammer. I have to admit, I was awful bummed about Warhammer a couple months ago, but since then, I've been pleasently suprised with many of the rules changes, and I am VERY excited to give the new edition a shot. We will see how that goes. My book, as well as my brother from Italy, arrive Friday, so I am hoping to give the game a test run by Sunday at the lastest.

couple quick updates from my painting table. The first is my Ogre Ninja. I primed him a rusty brown, and while I like how that looks with the skin, I am finding hitting all the cracks and crevices a huge pain. I will probably go back to black after this. We shall see.

After that, we a have a couple shots of my Malifaux band, the Ortegas. The Ortegas are coming along fairly nicely. I just have a little more paint to put on the Executionar, as well as finish off the bases. They look better than they do in these pics, as the glue was still drying when I took these. The last bit then is to fix Nino. He's a great model and a powerful piece, but what a pain. He is connected to his base by one little limb, and of course mine broke, so i am trying to deal with that now. Hope to have him done soon.

A concern of characters

2010-06-24T21:04:00.000-07:00

Some of the forums and e-mail groups I am on have expressed a concern about percentages coming back to Warhammer, and how the age of Herohammer may be once again upon us. I don't agree totally with this fear, and here is why.

I can certainly see why people are worried about Herohammer. I remember coming into the game in 5th edition and spending all night with my buddy tooling up a Bret Lord that had a shot of taking down my brother's Slann Mage Priest of Destruction. It was fun to try to counter such an uber hero, but would not have been so much fun in a tournament setting or against a player I didn't know.
That being said, one thing I really like about the percentages system being instituted in 8th Edition Warhammer is the chance to take multiple heroes, and have those heroes in very specific roles. Sure, you can take three Black Orc bosses, but honestly, that's not a ton of points left to kit them out, and this makes them vunerable. What I think will be more fun, and hopefully more likely, is people using those percentages to fit in some cheap characters that provide the army with something very specific. For example, how many engineers did you see an empire player take? I never saw people running then, and for good reason. You had four characters. You had to take a lord (1), you were crazy (or at least very ballsy) not to take 2 mages for magic defense (2), and that left you with 1 choice left. So naturally, it's pretty hard to slide past a captain or a warrior priest. That meant, despite having some cool rules and nice fluff, you just weren't going to see an engineer. There are other examples of such problems through out the army books. My hope is that the new percentages will give rise to characters who are weaker, but more specialized. Consequently, you will have a chance to use and play against a wider variety of builds and characters in a competative environment. Sure it can be abused, but so could the army restrictions from 6th/7th... thus the never ending comp debates.

There are definately some things I am concerned about (from what I have heard) but I am actually excited to give the percentages a try.
Could this old boy be seeing some action in 8th edition? I sure hope so...

It's Here

2010-06-15T15:27:00.000-07:00

The new Warhammer 8th edition dropped for pre-order today on the GW website. This monsterous 528 page tomb is full color, and comes in at a hefty $75 price tag. Fairly expected, but still, if you get that, a unit of great swords, and some blood knights, you'd have to mortgage your home...

Still, pretty exciting. Check out this link for more details.... http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/blogPost.jsp?aId=10500132a

Assasinate!!!

2010-06-04T06:39:00.000-07:00

I played a game of Malifaux last night against RPA and his Pandora band. It had been a while, so I was a bit shaky on the rules, but he has been playing a little recently, and helped me out. To be fair though, both of us are still learning our factions, so we played for fun and had a nice time but neither of us probably played optimal with our crew.

we played a 25 SS game on RPA's beautiful Wild West town terrain. To spice things up, we had a train rolling through the middle of the board that caused damage if people were hit by it, or thrown into it. It moved a random card length each turn. It was very cinematic and fun. We each deployed on table halves (3x3) with the train running down the middle. Our factions were:

His Crew:
Pandora

Baby Kade

Candy

3x Sorrows

My Crew

Perdita

Santiago

Nino

Excecutioner

I love Perdita, but have found she is much better with soulstones, so I have been leaving one extra character at home to pump those up. I took Santiago b/c he is always a beast in my games, and b/c I love, love, love the model. Nino is a great, long range threat, and with buildings he's very good to post on a roof. Finally, I don't think the Excecutionar was the best choice for this game, but he's my newest model, and has some paint on him, so I wanted to try him out.

We both drew the Assasinate Strategy, meaing we got 4 VP for wiping out the opposing crew, and 2 VP for leaving only Master's alive. For my schemes, I took body guard (+1 VP if alive at end, +2 if you declare it) on Perdita since I knew I'd want to keep her alive and she's so fast, she can boogy out of danger. I felt confident enough with her to declare this scheme. I also took bodyguard on Santiago b/c he can heal damage and b/c he's such a beast when he get's wounded, I thought maybe RPA would ignore him. In retrospect, I should have taken one of my bodyguards on Nino, since he hid on the roof all game. I didn't find out RPA's other scheme, but he did declare break through, which meant he had to get more of his models in my deployment zone than I had. He had me outnumber 6 models to 4, I knew he was counting on that to help him.

- to start the game, we both advanced towards each other. I got Nino forward on a roof, and put Perdita by the Exec while Santiago came up by himself. I opted to spread out a little, as he could dump his guys anywhere he wanted in my deployment zone and win. He linked his sorrows and crew, and advanced. Below you can see santiago pushing up, the neverborn on on the otherside of the tracks.

- next turn the train got in our way. I contemplated rushing perdita across the tracks, but I knew it would make her very vunerable, and so help back. I did try to "obey" candy in to the train, which worked, but failed to cause any damage. Nino could get a bead on a sorrow, and blew it to hell. Pandora saw throught he gap in the train to Santiago, and caused him to blast himself, and run away. Candy failed to cause the Excecutionar to "self Loath" himself. Below, you can see the crews moving towards each other. Santiago is about to run, and Candy has not yet emmerged from the General Store.

- Next turn saw major action. RPA probably got a bit too anxious, and used Candy's ability to "phase" through the train. When she failed to make people run, this opened her and her Sorrow up to a combined barrage from Nino, the Exec, and Perdita. It didnt' go well for her.

- In round four, the train passed far enough for Pandora to come around the back. The highlight of the game was her attempt to get the Executionar to run and panic 3 times, and to fail them all. This was absolute luck from me, as I drew high cards and RPA drew low ones. The Exectionar even charged her, but failed to do any damage. Later in the round, I popped Baby Kade and Perdita's sorrow, and RPA conceeded.

It was a fun game. I got some lucky cards at critical times, and that swung things. We both could have played better, but we are still learning. It also took to long, but that was 100% my fault, I am rereading the rules again this weekend. Great time though.

Mo Lifaux Mo Problems

2010-05-27T07:15:00.000-07:00

well, with school ending it's a pretty crazy time of year for a teacher. Add in the release of Red Dead Redemption, which is a great game, especially if you like Westerns, and I haven't found much time to paint. That being said, I have put a little paint to models, and thought I'd show off my latest WIP of my Malifaux Ortega crew. I am finishing up the box crew which leaves me with Nino and Papa Loco to paint. Nino does have some work done, but I've broken him off his base, so no pics of him right now. Papa Loco is about 85% done. Additinoally, I needed to beef my forces up for 35 Soutstone games, so I bought the Excecutinar. I figured he could give a little close combat punch to my army, and it's a pretty sweet Model. So without further adu, here they are. Sorry the pic quality is so poor, I am still trying to figure out how to take good pics.

Skin that smokewagon...

2010-04-21T17:23:00.001-07:00

well, I've finished my latest malifaux figure, Santiago. Santiago, besides being a sweet duel wielding model, is an absolute beast. Well, actually, he's more like the Hulk. He starts out ok, but when you put some shots on him and damage him, he "hulks" out and turns into a bulldozing nightmare for your opponents. Just ask Rasputina. I really love how he plays, and it was nice to get him all painted up. I just need to do his base, but I'm going to base the whole family together at the end. As for my remaining three crew members, Papa Loco is about 75% done. Nino and the Executionar are both in the beginning stages, but I gotta be honest. I am not enjoying painting Nino, he's very weedy, but the Exec is an awesome model. I am loving painting all the skin. Should be fun!

updated pics

2010-04-01T07:41:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

here is a few updated pics of my crew. I'd say these are about 90% done, including the work that needs done on the bases. Comments and Criticisms welcome. Hoping to take the Ortegas out for a spin sometime in the next 7-10 days!

Here we see Francisco, Perdita, and then a shot of them together!

enjoy.

Getting the Gang together

2010-03-23T15:53:00.000-07:00

Started putting paint to model on my Malifaux gang. I am about halfway through the gang, and nobody is totally done, but I'm happy with how it's going. It's pretty fun to take a break from fantasy models and paint some wild west stuff.

I also really enjoy this game. I have taken my "Crew" out for a spin a couple times. The first game was a practice game, and the 2nd was a draw against RPA's Rasputina. The most recent adventure was last Thursday against RPA's Pandora crew. For Strategy I got Treasure Claim (or something like that) where by I had to grab a treasure in the middle. I could then score 4 VP's for possessing it at the end fo the game or 2 VP's for having it in my deployment zone. For my scheme, I took the one where noone is in my deployment zone, as I knew I'd be hanging out there guarding my treasure. RPA rolled up the recinoiter (I think that's the name) whereby he got 4 vp's for having 1 model in each table quarter, or 2 vps' for being in 3/4 quaters. He took the same scheme as me. We had diagonal corner deployment.

as the game started, I used Perdita to rush up to the treasure in a building and grab it. With fast ability and quick walk, she can cover 18 inches in a hurry. RPA advanced cautiously, not wanting to get in range of my guns too quickly, an d having to attatch woes to his crew. We also had some questions on what exactly Pandora and her mind tricks could do to my Ortegas, especially Pandora, and that hurt RPA's aggressiveness some. The rest of game involved me retreating to a building in my deployment zone, giving the treasure to Francisco hiding in the building, and then staging an Alamo-sytle defense of my table quarter. Some sharp shooting from Perdita and Nino took down Baby kade and Candy, and at this point, RPA conceeded, realizing I was going to get 6 VP's (Scheme and strategy) and at most, with his reduced forces he was going to get 5, and probably more like 2.

Overall, it was really fun. I think RPA's lack of expeirence with Pandora and our confusion on Immune to Influence vs. Pandora's tricks hurt him. there is little doubt in my mind that his crew will be a lot tougher when he gets some more experience with those guys. Regardless, we had beautiful terrain, and it was a fun game.

here's a couple shots of my crew as a work in process. I am happy with how they are looking, espeically on the table.

Malifaux part 2

2010-03-10T08:07:00.001-08:00

Got another Malifaux game in. I took on RPA and his Raspitina gang. He took 'Tina, an big ice golem and 3 of the small ice golum. I was shocked by how good she is at casting, and how potent her ice magic can be. I took Pedita and the whole Oretga contingent. We both drew Assasinate for our main objective, and decided to not play any secondary ones to keep it simple.

RPA deployed in a cluster in the middle of his deployment zone and used his forces to project 'Tina's spells into me. For my part, I split my forces go around the hotel building in the middle of the battle field. I should have played more and cat and mouse with Perdita, but I didn't and ended up getting her shot up by ice magic and killed. I now had to get to 'Tina to get the draw. He contiuned to blast my forces and I lost Papa Loco and Nino while only taking out one of his small golems. However, the game saver for me was Santiago. He got blasted down to four wounds, and began hulking out. He used his improved skills and healing flips to mow down the Arcanist scum and pumped about 16 rounds into Rasputina's body. She didn't get up. It was amazing how good he becomes after being damaged, and his ability to stay on one wound and then healing flip was pretty sweet. He was definatly my MVP.

result - draw

spring break starts next week, and next Thursday we should have a chance to get all the big boys out as it looks like it might be an all day Malifaux fest! I will be sure to have pictures to go with the write-up.

Malifaux

2010-02-17T10:35:00.000-08:00

Played my first game of Malifaux this past Wednesday. Well, to say I played a game is a little generous as we mostly just trotted out our models and gave it a shot to familarize ourselves with the rules and mechanics. We didn't play with any strategies or things like that. I took my Ortega gang, and my opponent, my friend Jason, took his proxied Nicodem force. We both sorta trundled forward, and in the end, I blasted him to pieces, taking very little damage myself. I think this has mostly to do with the ease of playing the Oretgas vs Nicodem for beginners. The highlight for me was Papa Loco running into the middle of Nicdems force and blowing up for huge damage on everyone, including himself. Great fun.

The game is really fun, and much different than other things I play. I was very happy to have bought it, and look forward to playing it some more in the near future.

A myriad of projects

2010-01-22T08:34:00.000-08:00

well, it's been a while since I posted. I haven't been quite as busy on hobby stuff as I wanted thanks to the holidays and x-box, but I have been doing somethings. I finally hauled the camera down to the basement "nerdery" last night and squeezed off a few pics of what I've been working on.

Lately, I just haven't been able to throw myself completely into the Ogre project yet. I think this is due to the fact that I have a couple guys partially painted, and getting back into the detail work to make them look nice just doesn't appeal to me. I am slowly progressing on them. On the bright side though, I have sort of started a lot of mini projects, and so that is cool. What I am currently working on is the following:

Magnetizing the bases for my Dark Elves as well as redoing the base of my carnasaur to function as my Hydra. I just am not a big fan of Hydras, I hate the multiple head thing. On the other hand, I'm a HUGE fan of this mondel, and wanted to include it. Putting it on the big base has also helped with my huge problem, namely this guy falling over more than a co-ed at 2:30 am on an icy night in Cedar Falls.

Painting up my new plastic Dark Elf Cold One Knights - something I've wanted to do for a year but just lacked the motivation for. Stuff like this is why I'm kinda glad I haven't jumped full throttle into the OK, as I do want to flesh out my DE's a bit more.

doing test minis for my Space Hulk game - my little brother loves the game, and I want to get us playing with some painted minis. tried priming black, which is a paint. Am also going to try the white prime/red wash plan too. Also, of course, d0ing some small work to the Ogre Iron Guts I started a while back.

Painting up my Malifaux minis. very excited about my Ortega clan, and have begun doing some work on those so I can get them on the battle field soon.

Thats all for now. more pics hopefully in the next week.

The Wutang Clan

2009-12-01T12:18:00.001-08:00

As my life slows down some from the chaotic Fall of getting back into teaching, coaching football, and playing a pretty sweet Rugby team, I find myself having some time to get back into an aspect of the hobby that I have grown to really love, painting and modelling. Of course, this painting and modeling time is despite the best efforts of FIFA 10 and Modern Warfare 2 to keep me from the hobby.

If I was a dedicated and smart hobbiest I would spend a couple months fleshing out my Dark Elves, and getting a few of those units done that I want to play with, as well as getting my magantized bases done. However, I find my motivation crushed by the fact that my painting has really improved since I started them, and to go back now is just frustrating. Plus, I am super excited about my new project, so I just want to start it in hopes I might use it this summer at the Battle on Beale. That being said, I am sure I will do a few things here and their with the DE's to mix it up, and I will post those, and I hope to keep getting a game in every blue moon or so with them, and I'll post the reports, but for now, this blog will be mostly dedicated to my new fantasy project...

The Wutang Clan - an Ogre Kingdom's Army

To date, I have a few bulls painted up, and a start on some Iron Guts. I will post pics of those soon. For now, I will post some pics of my current project, coverting a Tyrant and Maneater. My theme for these guys, as you might guess from the name, is to play on their semi-Eastern ties in the Warhammer world and go with a martial arts theme. I also did sort of a skull-esque face paint for some 40k orks years ago, and really liked it, so I'm carrying that over as well. My goal for the theme is convert the weapons to look more eastern in origin where I can, and to have bases that will also carry this over, as my army will have no large center piece model - rhinox riders are illegal where i play, I hate giants of all kinds, and not keen on the scraplauncha model. Obviously, my characters and units will also have a Wutang theme to them. Hopefully, it will all pull together and not look like crap. On to my first WIP shots.

The base for my tryant will be the paymaster maneater. What I don't like about the model is that it seems a bit smaller to most tyrant models. However, the more I thought about that, the more I liked it as many kung fu movies have a smallish, unimposing master who in reality, is an ass-beater. Also, I love his flowing coat and stance. I am going to canabilize some models to kitbash him together. I hated his left arm, and so on the right you can see I cut it off and attatched a sword. This sword is a bit small and unimpressive, so I've since cut the sword off and made it into a boa staff, more befitting a kung fu master i think. Think Hells Wind Staff!!! Those pics to come. My additional plans for this guy is to use the hunter's head for his head and either do a custom gut plate (greenstuff) or use the tyrant gut plate with horns.

Next up is a maneater converted from a tyrant!

I really liked the girth and stance of the tryant box, but I didn't like his weapons. The one handed sword was great, but the hammer didn't do it for me. I hated the two handed weapon even more. This project is not just about making an army, but really pushing myself painting and modeling wise (which still isn't that great) so I came up with a decent idea. My plan is cut up the two handed weapon, leaving just fits, and model this guy up to look like he's in a threating Kung Fu stance. I will then put a weapon on his back to show what he should be carrying, since he is a maneater after all. I cut up the two handed weapon (top left) and have begun filling and cutting away the excess. I think my life would be better if I knew how to use the Dremmel Driver left at my house... haha. Anyway, I will try to get this banged out and more pics up by the weekend, but you can see the right hand (upper right pic) is starting to look ok.

that's all for now. Comments, critiques, and suggestions always welcome!

Dark Elf - Skaven Battle Report

2009-11-29T20:15:00.001-08:00

I got a chance over the Holiday to play my buddy RPA and his Skaven using the new book. I was also running some new stuff as I had, in an attempt to power up my DE a bit, brought some new toys I never fielded before, mainly the manticore, hydra, and Cauldron. This led to a LONG game as we both had a lot to look up, but it was also very interesting and a good learning experience.

My list was:
Dreadlord: manty, regen armor, Crimson Death (always S6), 2 nullstones (MR2)
Hag: Cauldron, D3 A's, BSB
Sorceress - level 1, 2 dispel
Sorceress - level 1, 1 dispel
Assassin - manbane S is always 1 higher), extra hw, D3 A's
15 warriors
15 warriors
5 Dark Riders
5 Dark Riders
5 Dark Riders w/bows
5 harpies
8 shades
7 Witchelves
5 Cold One Knights
1 Reaper Bolt Thrower
1 Hydra

(arrayed for battle)

His Army, while not exact was something like:

Grey Seer on Bell w/ huge unit of clan rats

Level 2 Warlock

Level 1 Plague Priest in unit of plague monks

2 units of slaves

1 more unit of clan rats w/ plague mortar

6 plague censors

1 unit of gutter runners

Doom Wheel

Abonination

I would say this is a pretty powerful skaven build. Granted, the Bell may not end up being as optimal as the Furnace, but in this game, it was hard as nails and couldn't be stopped. He had the two destructive Rares and 11 powerdice, plus a bound. I think if he dropped the gutter runners and brought another unit of Censors, this could be a top tourny list, but maybe that's because we don't have all the tricks figured out yet.

My deployment saw me putting most of my army in the middle, with my Dark Riders out wide to flank. I also had major concerns about his Abonination, and put my hydra to might right flank to counter his drop. My manty went behind the hill to protect it, which given his lack of shooting was probably a mistake, especially with MR 2. RPA did a great job deploying, clusturing his troops in the middle, with the Abom and DoomWheel each out to a flank.

I got first turn and advanced my army up towards his. At first I sort of regretted this, but when his magic phase came later that turn, I knew I needed to get in his face. My magic was ineffective b/c he was generating too many dispel dice. In the shooting phase, I decided to pour fire into his grey seer and see if I could take him out. I"m still not sure if this was dumb or smart. The Seer is a large target on the bell, but is only hit on a randomized 6. Once he's hit, he has a 4+ ward (which sure felt like a 2+). My problem is I didn't put every shot every turn on him, and this cost me. I should have either left him alone or just focused on him. End result, no casulties or wounds from my shooting. In his turn he started his magic onslaught and I was able to avoid taking too much damage by good use of dispel dice and burning through 2 scrolls. He did make his slaves poisened, but no big deal there. He also advaced his Abom and Wheel, getting really nice 3D6 rolls for both, and this put pressure on me early. I think one of my biggest problems this game was not knowing how to deal with these two guys.

Turn 2 saw me move up again, now committing to releasing some magic pressure by trying to kill his mages before my scorlls were all gone. I moved my Harpies up to pull his Censors out of his line, as they were head straight at my shades in the woods. Then I made a big mistake. I forgot the Abom pivots then moves. SO I moved my Hydra out of the woods and past the abom to snipe him with my flame breath. Silly me! Again, I had zero magic go through, and I killed almost nothing with my shooting. I also forgot to revel my assassin, as he might have been able to do some damage. In RPA's turn, his gutter runners turned up. He charged his poisened slaves into my shades, and combo charged my WE's with some slaves and guttern runners with a warlock engineer, and charged my hydra with his Abom, In the magic phase he again throwing lots of heat in my face with wither and warp lightning. I avoided most of the worst of it. In his shooting phase, his Doom Wheel rolled well and blasted a unit of dark riders. During combat, my shades held off his slaves, but the new slaves blow up and do d3 wounds took 2 of my shades out. My WE's performed well when the sole remaining witchelf used her cauldren granted KB to take out the Warlock Engineer and then made her stubborn test to hold.

The Hydra-Abom combat did not go well. The impact hits plus 3D6 S6 attacks were too much for me, and I lost combat and died. You can see this epic encounter below, with my proxied carnasaur and his proxied GUO filling in for our models.

Turn 3 the tide really started to roll against me. I charged the Cauldron into the the two units being held up by the WE. I also hit the same slaves in the rear with my flanking Dark Riders. This put hte cauldron at risk to die from the Abom later, as it would, but its ability to face any direction and roll meant I probably couldn't avoid him anyway. I again failed to kill much with shooting as the Grey Seer ward saved again and agian... i don't think he ever took a wound this game. I won the combat, but was forced to pursue cross my own battle line from right to left. I also charged my assassin into the Bell and my Cold One knights. My assasin with his 5 hatred attacks failed to cause a single wound to the Grey Seer. My knight did some damage, but didn't break him and my assassin was forced to break b/c he was outnumbered by a fear causer. We weren't sure how to play this, as the CO Knights did cause fear, but since the Assassin is a seperate unit, we decided he probably did have to flee. Anyone know how to play that? So my assassin who couldn't do dick is now on the run. In his turn, he had a nice magic phase. First, he rings the bell and gets a 13, which means all my MSU units got rocked. Every unit I had on the board was in range and my T3 low armor meant that every unit took 1-2 causalties. He then drops the scorch template on me and takes oult 10 warriors. Man, the new template rules are harsh!!! Then the Abom charged my cauldron and smoked it as he again rolled 3D6 S6 attacks.

In turn 4, I had turned my Manticore lord towards his Doom Wheel on turn 3. I wasn't sure if I could take him, but I wanted the option. This is also where we both kinda screwed up. We thought the Doom Wheel moved like the Abom, which is crazy powerful. But it doesn't. Despite it's 3D6 move, since it moves like a chariot, I think it can only only charge what it can see at the start of it's turn. Anyway, of course my lord fails his manticore test, and is now frenzied, and must charge the wheel. This is going to be dicey. Again, my shooting and magic was ineffective. In combat, my Lord did one wound with his 5 S6 hated attacks and my Manty did a wound with his 5 S5 hatred attacks. Coming back, the manty took 2 wounds and we drew. not good. in his phase, he again hit me with magic, and rang the the bell to get, you guess it, another 13. So again my units got smoked and ALL his clan rats got to attack my knights, finishing them off. In the shooting phase he rolled S10 for his doom wheel which refused to misfire, and this randomized onto my lord, who died a horrible death. His wheel then ground my riderless manitcore to the ground, and it was game over.

Overall, it was slow but very fun and a good experience. RPA deployed his units very well, and did a great job using the rares and his massive casting dice to keep the pressure on me. What cost me was my inability to deal with those big rares. Also, RPA rolled very well, and never once had a costly miscast, misfire, or Bell roll. He definatly outplayed me, but a little better luck and he may have lost a key unit, giving me a chance to breath and play him to a closer result. All in all a fun battle, and I think the Skaven are going to be a fun and viable army going forward.

2009-11-18T21:28:00.000-08:00

Alright, it's been a while, but since my life has slowed down some, I am trying to get back into the painting mode. Currently, I have a couple projects floating around. The first is sort of a side project, and that is bloodbowl. I am doing this as sort of a change-up. I think bloodbowl is a sweet game, and I'm pumped about it coming out for the Xbox 360. Anyway, I have collected a lot of models over the years, and I want to get some more painted up, and it's a nice change up when I get sick of just working on one army or the other. Here you can see a few High Elves I've started on, as well as a new bloodbowl ball I got off ebay. Not super high quality painting, and still very early in the process. Fun to do though.

My second project is revamping my Dark Elves. I found my build to be a little too non-competative. Thus I am revamping my list, and painting up a few things I didn't have before. Additionally, there was some touch-ups from my 6th edition to 7th edition elves I need to do as well, such as finishing my assassin and sorceress, as well as magnatizing my bases. It's sort of hard to get motivated to do the DE. I love them, and love the army, but since most of the army is painted to a standard that is not as good as I can now do, I find that zaps my motivation a bit. That, and I'm really excited to start my newest project, an Ogre Kingdom Army.... the Wutang Clan. Basically this will be an OK army with a loose martial arts theme. I am hoping to sort of stretch myself in terms of both painting and converting with this army. We shall see. Anyway, below is a couple of my Dark Elf upates. I am painting the second sorceress for my army, as well as begining work on my maticore, which will be the mount for my dreadlord. Both as still very much WIP. Comments and suggestions always welcomed!

More Angelic Goodness

2009-08-04T10:55:00.001-07:00

Thought I'd throw a couple more pics up here real quick. The first 2 are pics of the lions that I used to represent Chaos Hounds. I am really stoked with them. First of all, my buddy Shawn gave me some great ideas on colors to use, and I think the pelts came out great. Secondly, I made a couple modifications myself from watching a show on lions, and those seemed to work. 3rd, these lions are metal, cheaper than GW white lions, and really allowed me to use the lion theme in this army, which blends really well with the angels.

Finally, we have a couple more pics of the big guy. You may notice a little bear metal on his head, this is from usage at the BoB, despite me spraying a protective coat on him. I will have to repair this soon. I am really happy with the overall look of this army, and proud to say it scored an 85/100 on appearance at the BoB. While the top armies are getting 95-100, that score did put me ahead of most armies, and for me, was a huge accomplishment. that is a huge score for me, and It was very gratifying after a TON of hard work. More pics to come.

angel's complete

2009-08-04T10:47:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a while. I apologize, but I think I can have a legitimate pass as I've been pretty busy. I was so busy getting this army ready for the Battle on Beale in Memphis, I had not spare time to even post on my blog. Every spare minute I had went into painting. The fact that I was working a summer job and getting married this summer [the weekend AFTER the BoB] meant spare minutes were tough to come by. Now I'm back from the honeymoon, and getting in the swing of things. I will try to get some army shots up, as well as a detailed BoB report in the next week to ten days. On to some pics...1st off we have the leader of the group. He's a Chaos lord of Tzeetch on Disc who is kitted out to bash big nastys' faces in. I love this model because of the dynamic pose, the huge wings, and the lion pelt he wears that ties him into one of the major army themes.

Next up is the War Alter. I am happy with how it turned out. I didn't have much time to work on it, as I started it the Saturday prior to the BoB. I used the carriage from the old Skaven Screaming Bell. I then added more green stuff to make the rat pelt look more like a lion pelt. On top I placed a Bret Sorceress modelled up to look like a statue. Originally the statue was a sweet stone color, but my brother wisely pointed out a gold statue tied this piece into the army much better. I added the Bret Grail Relequie peasent to give the model some more life. IN a perfect world with lots of time, I'd have added 2 more peasents and chains.

Finally we have 2 more characaters. The first is the BSB you've seen before. The second is the level 1 scroll caddy mounted on horse. I used the mid-level Vaulten model from the Storm of Chaos campaign from a few years back. Its a sweet model, and I regret not having another week or so to work on him, but it still turned out alright.

there you go, more pics to follow!

Under a month left

2009-06-25T18:46:00.001-07:00

Ok, the crunch is starting to press in on me. I am making headway, but its going to be a tight run thing. I am pretty sure I can get in all painted with no problems, but basing, movement trays, and that stuff is gonna hurt. Add to that all the wedding stuff I have to do to make that happen the weekend after Battle on Beale and its going to be tight. This is definatly going to be my brother's Christmas and Birthday gift, the only question is, for how many years?

First pic is 2 completed angels that have been based. You've seen them before, but I included them for the bases.

Next up is 2 more angels. I don't know why except to show the chick Dragon Ogre is done, but nees based.

Ok, next up is very, very rough stage of Cav. I almost didn't put these up bcause a) i suck at cav and b) they are so rough, but i wnated you to get the idea, so here you go.

Another shot, this time of 5 Cav memeber unit.

thats all for now. Gotta get back in the basement and paint!!!

ok, the crunch is coming

Pressure mounting...

2009-06-17T22:30:00.001-07:00

well, the BoB just keeps getting closer, so I put in some more work, and thought I'd share. I was actually pretty pumped b/c, with a little color advice from Shawn O, I think I got the lion fur nailed down. This is huge as many of the models in the army have lion fur on them, and 10 are actual lions.

first, you build the armies to play, so here's two quick shots from me and Driver's game last Wednesday. This first shot is me contemplating how to utterly destroy Driver's forces...

Clearly, the shot below is Driver after I have carried out said contiplated plan. I beat Driver in another game after this one on Monday, but he learned from his mistakes and smacked me around today (Wednesday).

First, my first real foray into green stuff usage. I think it looks very nice, but fur seems to be pretty easy to do. That does not, however, diminish my pride in this model. I scraped the massive chaos symbol of this dude's back and replaced it with fur.

Next a close-up of the lion fur with highlights. Its a little harsh from this close, but you get the idea.

and the coup de grace, a more "realistic" range from which to view the models. These guys are complete except for the shields and heads to be added. I am very, very happy with the results. What do you think?

More Progress... as the BoB nears

2009-06-09T22:07:00.000-07:00

A couple quick picture updates today...

First off we have a little diversion I've been working on when I've had my fill of holy rightousness. This B.A. is going to be another character for my human bloodbowl team. I don't play much bloodbowl [thats an understatement, I've played once in the last 5 years] but its a great game and one I swear I'll get into. I should, I've got the better part of 6 teams, two pitches, and plenty of additional trinkets for it. Anyway, this is the "mighty Zug" model, but I haven't decided who he will be on my UNI Panther's Human Team.

Next up is the female angel I got. She is about 33% done, though her skin is almost complete. She will be proxied as one of the Dragon Ogres. She is off the the right of the base so she can rank up with that massive angel that I've painted already... which you can see in my earlier posts was the first one done. She is chilling next to my warrior priest. Not much done on him other than his weapon has been painted, as well as some skin work you can't see in this photo... ya good.

Close up of the female angel. I am happy with this model b/c the wings are going to be a lot easier to paint the the second angel I did.

Here are my warriors. Cloaks have final highlights... tough to see. ALso, weapons have been painted, and gold has been gone over. Also, I highlighted the black gloves and boots. Lots of small work here, most of which you can't see... I suck.

Here is my first angel, with a completed "tundra" base. Not sold on the base, i bought the stuff as a kit from Gale Force Nine. However, they included one set of brown flock that I think ruined it, so I will be omitting if from the future ones. I think this stuff has potential though, and I"m going to run with it. I will ultimately paint the sides of the base black, b/c I think that looks really good. We shall see.

Thats it. Just a quick pictorial update... hope you liked it.

Angelic Warriors

2009-06-04T07:54:00.001-07:00

Well, I've made some progress. Here is the W.I.P warriors I have so far. Sticking with the angelic theme, you can see the predominatly gold armor, the blue accents, and the off white cloaks. Still in a bit of a conundrum about what to do with the fur, but I'm working on that. Heads will be added soon, see below. Also, you can see the Warrior Priest who will be running as the BSB with Banner of the Gods. Banner still to be added, probably planted in the ground behind him.

I am hoping to get another 5 done soon. I have ordered human heads to use with the unit, and they should be arriving soon. I also would like to get some basing done, to see how they are going to look. I will try to post some more pics this weekend, assuming i make progress.

Angels Come Forth

2009-05-14T06:33:00.000-07:00

Ok, its been a crazy month. Lots of personal issues have stayed my painting hand quite a bit, but with the imminent approach of Battle on Beale, I have to start kicking this angel army into gear if I am wanting to have it ready for my brother to play by mid-July. That gives me two months. There is a lot to do in those two months, but I think I can make this happen.

I have almost completed the second angel for the army. What I need to do is make a list of all the models I need to complete the army, gather them up, and begin to construct them in earnest. Here is a couple shots of the mostly completed Angel who I believe will serve as a mobile, fighty character of Tzeetch. Additionally, I threw in a picture of the whole army for good measure. Enjoy.

DE vs WoC Battle Report

2009-05-04T07:06:00.000-07:00

well, I suppose there are 2 distinct positives to your mom having a spontanious brain bleed. The first is that spontanious brain bleeds, while super scary, don't kill you, but the experience certainly leaves you and your family with a healthy dose of realism about the fragility of life, and preciousness of time together with those you love and care about. The second positive is that if you have siblings living overseas, these type of events tend to bring them back unexpectantly, and if things go well, as they did in this case, once the immediate family crisis has passed, the additional time they have in the States is bonus time you get to hang out with them. Thus did these events transpire to allow me the privlidge and honor of playing my Brother Joe [of "roll 'em up, roll 'em, em' up Jojo" and "thats just where we're at Brother Joe" fame]. Joe is here a short time, so this will probably be our only battle.

I was fielding my combat oriented dark elves that I posted here a while back. I am still learning how to use the new book effectively, and i have recently replaced my bolt throwers for mobile artillery in the form of two level 2 mages. Joe was fielding, for the first time, his Angelic Host Warriors of Chaos army. Obviously this army has a lot to still be done on it, so it was heavily proxied. Joe has posted many versions of that army on here, but this was the one with BA Chaos Lord on Disc, BSB on Disc with Banner of the Gods (125 pts) and 2 level 1 sorcerors. We were both excited to see how this army would play, and Joe was especially excited to get a little experience with the army prior to hillbilly.

The game got off to a great start by going absolutly old school, like 1998 old school, by taking place in the infamous Nietzel Dinning Room. we had 4 buildings, a nice forest, and a bridge to absolutly nowhere. the buildings were placed to my right in a diamond pattern sort of breaking up the right side of the board. The lone forest was to the left, in the middle of the battlefield. I won deployment, and joe started placing first. He planted a solid center from left to right of Mauraders, WarShrine, Dragon Ogres, Maruaders. Behind this was his BSB on disc, making this solid center stubborn. He misplaced his warriors and they ended up behind the marauders, and out of the main fighting action. His flank to my left had Knights, hounds, and sort of the left out warriors. To my right he had knights and hounds. His cheese dick move of the game in my opinion was starting his general perched on a chimney of the dwarf forge so that he could see the whole battle field with his flying movment. This guy was between the stubborn center and right side knights/hounds. I went for classic ben nietzel deployment of the warriors (with wizards) and blackguard in center, backed up by my chariot mounted BSB... which is really a unit i love. I kept my Cold One Knights in the center to support this group as a respone to his stubborn center placement, and the fact that the forest and buildings made a pocket in the middle that looked to be the crux of the fighting. To my left I placed some dark riders and chariot, and to my right i placed double dark riders out wide, my favorite. My harpies went behind my line. I plunked my shades behind building near his deployment on the right, so i could pop out and smoke his hounds, thus isolating his knights. I also dropped my general with my fast cav out right to put pressure on his general and/or the chaos knights out there. My dick cheese move of deployment was to pick up my knights to see if they could fit in a gap between the buildings. It was dumb, but i didn't place the terrain and was curious if they'd fit, i don't think it was very sporting on my part.

The game started with some jockeying. I went first and moved up to position myself for a big turn two. My two highlights were the shades popping out and making the hounds wish they'd come across michael vick on a bad day instead. I smoked them all. My sac dagger shadow mage also dropped pit of shades on Joe's Dragon Ogres killing one. Joe's turn he moved right into my face, with his only action being a crazy ass charge of his general right at my cold one knights. I had mistakenly told him I didn't have a banner, but oops, I had a banner and warbanner. However, we didn't count them as he wouldn't have charged knowing that. Despite that, he didn't do enough wounds (it was a dumb charge unsupported) and I won by doing a wound and outnumbering. He undeservedly failed a morale test, and fled. The first of many. In my turn I charged like a banshee. I sent a dark rider unit into his hounds, that were in front of his knights, and another into his other knight unit. Here's a fun tip, Chaos knights apparently get 2 attacks each and a 1+ save, so even if your fast cav with Str 4 on the charge, hatred, and a +2 CR from a rear charge can get them, pass on that. Especially if that unit has a Warbanner. [interesting rules question here. If unit A is charged by unit b in the rear, and unit A still manages to wipe unit B out to the man, at the end of combat, which was is unit A facing???] My other riders smoked the dogs, who fled into the knights, causing them to panic (yes they failed their reroll) but in hte interest of having a fun game, we ignored that panic. Anyway, my general and harpies also charged his mauraders to try to take out his fleeing general. It almost worked, but he stayed on the board by 2 inches, and set up an epic general on general battle in round 3.

The top of Round three saw all of our units in the center arrive for battle. I flank charged his Stubborn (I didn't know) Dragon Ogres who had been given the ultimate Shrine roll (4+ ward and stubborn) with my black guard and front charged them with my assasin. Poor placement of my assasin would give joe a chance to smoke my assasin, and prevent my warriors from charging later... dumb! Anyway, I did some wounds, but did not break the stubborn with a reroll DO's who had the BSB right behind them. The general v general fight went bad for me as my Lord's 6 Str 7 attacks only did 1 wound, and his flaming sword of multpilying wounds made a mockery of my regneration armor defense. I was scared of the sword, but knew his 20 inch range meant he'd find me sooner or later, so i figured the charge gave me the best chance of living. I lived, but the bottom of round three was gonna be all she wrote. I was killed. In the bottom of three he charged my Black Guard/Assasin with the Shrine (a real beast) in the flank, and had his maruaders hit my rear. My ASF BG and Assasin did well, but lost by 2. Luckily they held with their stubborn selves. Joe made a big mistake of moving his BSB behind my lurking warriors units to terror bomb them.

At top of 4, i passed all terror checks. My BSB chariot hit the mauraders in teh flank, my Cold Ones, who had been facing a builidng after repeling the general charged his DO's in the flank, and my warriors with sorceresses turned to face the lone BSB. In the magic phase I fried the BSB, and it was goodbye stubborn. In the combat phase, ASF, impact hits, and massive charges ended with a CR of 22-2 in favor of the elves. This blew the game open. I couldn't hurt his Shrine, he was still in the flank of the BG, but my 4 units overran him, and destroyed him. The overrun took my BSB into contact with teh warriors who were still struggling to make contact. They ended up smoking the warriors, especially in the top of turn 5 with help from the assassin. My BG ran close to joe's general, and he charged. He smoke the champ in the bottom four but they held with stubborn. With no one to challange in turn 5, my weight of attacks took their toll and finished him off. Meanwhile my harpies flew to strand his knights on teh left who chewed up my poorly spaced chariot, but this ensured they'd never play another role in the game. My remaining dark riders did the same to his knights on teh right, who would later fall prey to a 3D6 Str 1 no armor save magic missle that killed 3. In the end, I think joe finished with 7 knights still on the board.

It was a fun game, and much closer than the final tally showed. I think 3 things made a huge differnece for me:

1 - Joe had never played the WoC before and made some blunders in deployment and usage that he is sure to not make a second time. Nothing huge, but its tough to use an army for the first time, especially against a good book like the DE's

2 - My army is geared to fight an army like joe's. I am a combat army, he is a combat army. Virtually no shooting was done all game. Combat WoC is a really nice match-up for my dark elves. My experience with the army made me better able to take advantage of the combat heavy game we played.

3 - three key dice rolls went my way. I'm not saying all three were lucky, one was super lucky, one was sorta lucky, and one was as it should have been

a - super lucky - my harpies getting hit by a fireball that i should have scrolled in mid game. it killed 2 of 6, and I luckily passed the leadership test. This allowed me to fly behind his knights next turn and crush his spirit by march blocking them for the next 3 turns so they could play no further roll

b - sorta lucky - his general bouncing on my knights and fleeing. He probably shouldn't have fled since he was testing on an 8, but it was a stupid move for a general designed to kill big things and characters, so it was probably just desserts. still, this put his general out of the way for basically the rest of the game b/c i pressured the fleeing general.

c - expected - my black guard passing their stubborn leadership test after getting flank and rear charged. Elves should pass that, and they did, but if I fail that, my center collapses and he runs riot on me. In passing it, my BSB and CO Knights get in next round and that's all she wrote for his whole center.

sorry, kinda long. Ton's of fun though. Super glad we got to play.

Painting tan skin

2009-04-23T11:59:00.000-07:00

Blair asked me how I painted my skin, so I thought I'd post that. While Shawn is certainly 1000x better than me, I thought that this might have a bit of merit as my techniques are sort of dumbed down from shawn's advice, so that any idiot (as demonstrated by my models) can use it.

What you need:
A eye dropper with clean water in it
a plastic pallette for mixing
toothpicks
the following Americana paints - available super cheap at hobby lobby
Black (normal black)
White (normal white)
Toffee (actual name)
Flesh (actual name)
Games Workshop's Ogryn Flesh wash from their new washes line

I use the pallette and eye dropper to water down my paint. Ususally I do one small squirt of paint and add one drop of water. I then mix completely with a toothpick. Shawn recommends the consistancy of milk, but I don't drink milk, so I just get it roughly close.

1 - I start by basecoating my entire miniture with black.

2 - I then dry brush the skin areas white, so this leaves the raised areas white, the recessed areas black, and the middle areas sorta gray.

3 - I then paint the skin with toffe, which has been mixed with water as above.

4 - after this dries, I go over the skin again with toffe. Usually I might add another drop of water to really thin the toffe down, before I repaint it.

5 - I then water down some "Flesh" paint and pick out the raised, high light areas. This is a paint that has a pinkish hue, but it'll look better once I tie it in.

6 - I then use the "Ogryn Flesh" was all over the recessed areas of the model. The new GW washes are really, really good and can be used straight out of the pot. I really like them.

7 - to tie it all in, I go back to the toffee. I use a really, really thin mix (2 drops of water to 1 drop of paint) and paint over almost all of the skin area. Just leaving the very extreme edges and crevices alone. I find that this sort of blends teh "flesh," "toffee," and "Ogryn Flesh" areas together nicely.

Thats it. Its not great, but it has really been good for my skill level. It doesn't take a ton of steps, and I've been really happy with it. I had not had any successful skin paint jobs until Ogres, so I am pretty happy, and I owe most of my success technique wise to Shawn's advice. Hope that helps.

Test Angel Completed

2009-04-02T21:22:00.000-07:00

Well, I am proud to announce I have finished my test angel. Its not awesome, but I am happy with it. I think the blues, golds, and off white look fairly good together. Obviously she needs a base, but you get the idea. Feel free to comment. I also will throw in a nearly completed unit of 10 flaggelants... I need to buy some more of those guys asap.

GW vs. Privateer Press

2009-03-30T11:28:00.000-07:00

The following was my response to a discussion held on "The D6 Generation" Podcast discussion the move of Warmachine to its new rules set, Warmachine Mk. II. Specifically, the guys were looking how this move was being viewed by the community at large, and how it impacted their GW vs. PP discussion in episode 1A. This is especially relevant as many former GW players have jumped ship to Privateer Press's Warmachine and compatitble Hordes "steam punk" minitures games.

my response follows:

I found your discussion on GW vs. Privateer Mk. 2 to be fairly interesting. I am a huge GW fan, who loves the universe and Fantasy battle game. I do feel upset however by many of GW's policys and practices in past years (I've been playing since '97). I don't play PP games other than M-Poc mainly b/c I don't live by any gamers right now, and when I do get a rare occasion to play, all my friends play GW games. So while I am intrigued by Warmachine/Hordes, its an outlay of costs and time that makes no sense for me currently. I spend enough time and money on WHFB and Necromunda for the 10 games I get to play a year, that I don't need to try to do it with a whole different gaming system. That being said, I do love to buy books and read rules, as well as look at cool new minitures, so I do own Prime:Remix and I recently bought a couple No Quarter Mags while on vacation in NYC. Interestingly enough, this was in response to me picking up the new White Dwarf to buy, and seeing that it was $9. I am so disgusted by how this magazine's content has been gutted and the price has continued to rise in the last 12 years, I couldn't stomache another dollar increase. I remember the glory days of Fat Bloke, Tale of 4 gamers, inserts, and when resigning a subscription got you a box set of minitures. Now I pay twice as much for a quarter of the content and perks. Thats not just inflation at work... but i digress. Or do I? I do see how PP runs things, the content the including in NQ (thats why I got it), how responsive they are to the community, and how they put out new content all the time. Its refreshing. In fact, I feel the White Dwarf issue is a microcosim for GW in general the last 12 years. I guess to me, when I first started it felt like GW was my buddy, the local butcher or pharmacist I'd go to that would ask about my family as he filled me order. Now, GW feels like Wal-mart. Granted, some of that is probably nostalgia, but I do think that people who assert GW has become this faceless corperation who does what they want, and has an attitude that consumers can take it or leave it have a vaild point. I also believe they have realized this, and working to correct it, just not very quickly. Having said all this, I probably seem to be a disenfranchised GW fan, ripe to be swept up in the PP frenzy, but I am not. Certainly some of it is the investment I've already made in GW, some of it is because my friends whom I play with (when I can) are barely even aware PP exists, and some of it is just how sweet and diverse the GW universe and model range is, but its more than that. Here are 3 main things I think you missed in your discussion, and they are reasons I think some of flak GW gets is unwarrented.

1 - Privateer Press is still a new company. This leads us to a couple issues.

First, they still have a great and dynamic figurehead in Matt Wilson. Mr. Wilson is the driving force behind his company, and its his ideas and commitment to them that have created and driven this company. He is still around, he is still the driving force. Not only does this mean that his creative genius is in full flight, but he also gives the PP fans a leader, a rock star if you will. Whose in charge at PP? Matt Wilson. If you love somethign about PP, thank Matt Wilson. If you are pissed about something, blame Matt Wilson. How about GW? I consider myself fairly informed in GW affiars, but I don't have the slightest inkling whose in charge there. Every army book seems to be done by somebody else. Warhammer and 40K are related and yet overseen by different people. I have no idea who makes decisions for the company policy as a whole. If I love something, who do I thank? If I hate it, who should be the object of my ire? It makes a difference. Jervis Johnson, Andy Chambers, and Rick Priestly are gone... its been 25 years.

Second, being new, Privateer still has a lot of great ideas, and you are seeing those in action. I'm not talking about just game ideas, but I'm talking about ideas on how to use the internet, how to market, how to fix problems. How to sell and do right by retailers in an E-bay/Internet discount world. GW started up over 25 years ago. They have to adapt to the internet and the evolving gamer and radically shift paradigms espeically at the corperate level. PP had to understand both of those and utilize them just to start up. They were born into the current enviroment, thats an advantage.

Third, there is no greater zealot than a convert. PP does benefit from a huge fanboy base. I have nothing against fanboys, I'm probably a GW one, but many of the people singing PP's praises are people who felt burned by GW and switched. There is nothing wrong with that, nor is it unusual, but if you've left one company for another, I think you going to be quick to find faults with the old and doggidly support the new. This can go both ways, but I think PP fans are probably a little too optomistic with their game, and bitter about GW's.

2 - 40k sucks. one of my gripes with this whole debate is a lot of people, and you guys espeically seem to focus on 40k. Now, I understand that. I know that Russ was a huge 40k guy, and this love affair bore the store and the DakkaDakka site, and so its only natural that you discuss what you know. I also know that the "steam punk" aspect of Warmachine gives it some basing in science fiction, but I think this is a mistake. Its a mistake to compare warmachine/hordes to 40k only b/c 40k sucks. It does. I've played both WHFB and 40K, and its not even close. Don't get me wrong, 40k's imagery, fluff, and models are so amazing, its almost worth it. I mean, I love science fiction a lot more than fantasy, but the game itself is terrible. The problem is scale the table isn't big enough for the range of weapons or speed of the models. Either the game needs to be brought down to a skirmish game, or it needs a size reduction, which is why Epic is so awesome. Warmachine works well b/c it plays at a size that 40k should be around. I think if you compare PP games to fantasy, GW comes out a lot better. Fantasy didn't need a complete rewrite (like I agree 40k does), its a great game. Is there some balance issues, yes, but overall its a highly competative game that will see a more skilled player win 19 out of 20 times. I think its easier to extoll the virutes of GW when you look at that game system, that plays beatifully in a the 2000-3000 point range on a 4x6 table, then comparing 40k which is not a good game. I want it to be. I would love it to be, it just isn't.

3 - Size matters i felt like you guys sort of touched on this, but then passed over it. Size is a huge, huge factor in this debate. GW is massive. Its a monsterous corperation that has a lot more people employed worldwide than PP. It produces 3 major miniture games that all independant of each other, and while using similar D6 mechanics and charts, are not interchangable at all. PP produces 2, though I'd call it more like 1 since while they use different mechanics (focus vs fury) they are interchangalbe and not unlike play an Undead army vs. a dwarf army. Within each game, GW has double the factions or even 3 times as many if you consider warmachine and hordes to be totally seperate entities. When PP does a release for everyone, they only have to release for 4 factions (maybe 5 if you count mercs). Compare this to GW, GW has to release for 12-14 armies. Not only is this a huge difference in terms of number of model and rules needed for a joint release, but also consider this. PP has four factions, so they only need to keep 4 distinct flavors to their armies. This isn't tough. GW has 13 distinct armies. It becomes much harder to keep these 13 armies feeling different in terms of fluff and rules. No one wants to buy the Tomb Kings Army book repackaged as the Vampire Counts book. There has to be distinction. This Distinction is easier to achieve when you produce all the units for one army in a book together. But it leads to long intervals between new armies. This lapse in "real time" leads to people departing and changing jobs, and so codexs and army books are being written by new people all the time it seems. This creates a lack in vision and clarity, as well as consistant language. I do blame GW for this to some extent, but its hard. Additionally, I know some people are upset their special army no longer exists or is supported. it sucks, and at times it has seemed dubious by GW, but again, this is an issue of size. As Russ has smartly pointed out various times, stores don't have the SKU room to carry more and more armies, especially for 3 systems. The Size of GW makes them much more inflexible and slow to change. Its not an excuse for all their transgressions (Slayer armies, no online store listings, White Dwarf Pricing, horrible retail support) but it does make things tough on them. The assertion that GW could easily switch to a card based system where all cards were released for 13 WHFB armies and 12-14 40K armies is unfair and honestly, in my opinion silly. I'd like to see them create decks of cards, but to try to do this 2 or 3 years out for a new army just woudn't work. I suffered for years with terrible dark elves through most of 6th edition and part of 7th, but its the price I am willing to pay to have an army level game with the diversity of options that WHFB has. I would love for GW to operate more like PP, but I wouldn't want it at the price of being reduced to 4 or 5 playable armies.

Necro Update

2009-03-24T11:24:00.000-07:00

Played my first game of Necromunda with my Goliath Gang. Perviously, I had rolled up a Cawdor gang b/c while I loved the gang models for Goliath, I noticed on the forums they weren't very good in the long run. That being said, I came to the realization that I probably won't play enough for this to make a huge deal, so I decided to create a Goliath Gang. Additionally, this is the most fun part of the game anyway, and we realized in our previous game we had screwed up some of the money parts. My gang looked fairly similiar to the Goliath gang I posted below, but I dropped a heavy in favor of another ganger and bringing a hired gun - in this case a scavvy named "Dirty Harry." He was underwhelming, and I might go with a ratskin Scout - Tonto - for next game.

The game was very fun, but I have to say that my luck was not impressive. I had 5 guys take a wound, which wasn't unusual persay, but all 5 of them rolled a "1" to be knocked out of action on their first rolls! Thats 5 natural 6's following 5 wounds... ouch. We played a straight gang fight, and when I finally bottled out, I had 7 guys rolling on the serious injury chart. Highlights of the postgame festivities included my Leader losing an inch of movement due to a bum left leg. I also had a Juve drop a ballistic skill from 2 to 1... ouch. Get that fella a knife! On the plus side, I had a juve score 5 kills. That, along with his survival bonus, gave him 3 upgrades. He rolled pretty well getting +1 WS (yawn), +1 W (BEAST!) and the weaponmith skill. I also lucked out and found a Juve recruit for free from my settlement.

All in all, it was a fun game on great terrain, and we had an eventful and wild post game. Everything Necromunda probably should be! Below is 3 of my gang models. As I said earlier, I did not really paint these models. All I did was repaint the pants and paint a blue circle around the base. I saw Driver do this with his gang, in red, and I really liked the effect. The middle model is my leader, and I am painting him from scratch. He is still in progress, as you can see, but I'm happy with how he looks thus far. Comments welcome!

Angels - the beginning

2009-03-24T11:10:00.000-07:00

I have finally begun construction on some of the angels for my brother's Warriors of Chaos "Angelic Host" army. The first model I have begun to paint is a test model of sorts. I need to sort out the wings, armor, skin, and additional colors in my quest to create a decent looking angel plan.

The wings are rough. I sought some help on the wings, and originally tried to paint them white, wash them black, and then highlight them white again. That didn't look to good. Driver came up with the idea of using gold to accent the wings, and i think it looks pretty good. I am going to have to get the angel totally done and take a look at it before I declare it decent. I am happy with the cloth. I painted it a sand color, washed it brown, and then highligthed it with sand/white and finally a very thin line of white. It is also not done, but i like its look for now. The skin and armor are both in very, very early stages, so please be patient with them and don't judge them to harshly.

I am hoping to finish this guy off by the weekend, solicite some advice, and then correct myself and begin the other angels next week. And here... we... go.

Necromunda

2009-03-12T12:48:00.000-07:00

our little foray into Necromunda appears to be building steam. Mr. Driver has purchased some scenery, Mr. Finke is begining construction on his first foray into gaming, and I have bought and recieved my first "real" gang. Its a gang of House Goliath. I love the minatures, and fluff, so I decided to get them. Unfortunatly, I am reading on the forums they are worst gang due to their skill tables. Oh well, I'm not sure we'll play often enough for me to feel the ill effects of a less potent skill base. Anyway, here is list. I have based their names off of real nordic names from some baby name website, to sorta stick with the massive, weightlifter theme.

Leader - Thor - Chain Ax, Autogun, Bolt Pistol
Heavy - Aksel - Heavy Stubbor
Heavy - Oden - Grenade Launcher, Frag 'nades
Ganger - Torsten - Shotgun, manstopper shells, massive axe
Ganger - Balder - Autogun
Ganger - Bjorn - Autogun
Ganger - Asger - Massive Axe
Juve - Sigfinn - autopistol
Juve - Egil - Laspistol
Juve - Ull - knife
Juve - Hans - knife

I have very little idea of how this will play, but we shall see. The models I ordered came painted to an ok standard, defiantly playable. I am modifying them a small amount, and should have them done this weekend. I will post pics when I have them done.

Terror?

2009-03-02T20:01:00.000-08:00

Terror is in intersting rule in Warhammer. Causing all units starting their turn within 6 inches of the bearer to take a panic test can be a huge boon to a side. The infamous terror bomb has been the undoing of many a warhammer general's best laid plans. This is all the more true for armies with low leadership such as Orcs, Skaven, Ogres, and even some Empire builds. In 6th edition, every army strove to have this strategium in their arsenal. Interestingly, the newest books in 7th Edition, which are the consensus "hardest armies around" seem completely uneffected, or at best mildly annoyed by this rule. The Vampire Counts and Deamons ignore the terror bomb while the Dark Elves massive leadership and liberal sprinkling of Fear causes seemed little troubled. What has happened is the terror bomb has become ineffective against the toughest armies around, while still remaining a potential game breaker against the weaker armies. So the question stands, in your tournament army build, how important is it to get a terror causer with high mobility into your roster???

a couple updated pics of the "Faithful" mauraders as well as a couple angel models. The two on the sides will be part of the dragon ogres while the one in the middle will be the deamon prince.

Stubborn

2009-02-22T19:42:00.000-08:00

I was listening to one of my favorite podcast recently, and the hosts were discussing the Ogre list. The topic at that particular moment was the Ogre giant, and how many people felt that it was vastly inferior to the normal giant, because it lacks the stubborn ability: that is, the ability to roll break tests on its unmodified leadership. The hosts pointed out it was too harsh to condemn the Ogre Slave Giant soley on this fact. Despite my intense hatred of giants in Warhammer, I would agree with this point. However, the hosts went on to justify their point by saying that relying on stubborn means that you are losing combats (true), and that if you are in combats you are planning on losing, you are not playing in a manner thats going to win you the game. Now, as a general rule, losing combats in Warhammer is not a great reciepe for success. However, it depends why those combats are being lost. Charging your Giant into a fully ranked unit of Chaos Chosen containing a Standard and Warbanner when you know you won't beat that static combat resolution is not good tactics. Charging into said unit assuming your lose to pin them in place so that your savage boar boys and General can snap off a flank charge the next round and crush the unit IS good tactics. And thats the point. Counting on Stubborn to keep your units around in isolated, losing combats makes no sense, but counting on stubborn to keep your units around so that you can blunt attacks for countercharges or pin mobile units in place is great tactics. In that sense, having stubborn troops is great.

I think the best use of stubborn troops is against knights. Almost all units of knights outside of choas knights count on a devastating charge to smash and break enemy units. Whether its Cold One Knights, Bret Grail Lances, or even Inner Circle Empire Knights, those units get a lot worse on the second round of combat. Often, if a unit can find away to stand up to the devasting charge these elite and costly units can deliver, than those cavalry units become extremely vulnerable in following rounds of combat. This, to me, is the best use of stubborn. Bait those knights into your Empire Greatswords or Black Guard, and watch your opponents face turn to dispair as he realizes his mobile strike force is going to sticking in one place next round, delivering 1 mighty S4 attack each.

on a side note, here's a couple updated pics of my initial models for the Angel's army.

Angels Army

2009-02-18T06:47:00.001-08:00

My brother and I have schemed up an angel army based on the Warriors of Chaos book. The concept is steller, and I think we have a fun, fairly effective, and thematic army list. The issue is going to be, can my meager modeling and painting skill do this army justice. We shall see... I humbly present, the first photos of the new army. They are very W.I.P. These models actually represent mauraders, but in our army will be termed "the faithful." They are mounted with flails. Comments welcome

A viable tournament format?

2008-10-30T12:10:00.000-07:00

This discussion came up on a small warhammer mailing list I'm on. If i was running a tourny, here's how I'd do it.

I’ll be the first to admit, I’ve never run a real warhammer tournament. That being said, I have run other tournaments, and organizing is something which I greatly enjoy. Furthermore, I have a gut feeling that our annual “nitz-in-your-face” gathering of warhammer buddies at my house will eventually turn into Iowa’s first major tournament… we shall see.

That being said, if and when, I run a tournament, here is how I’d like to do it. As seasoned tourney goers, I’d love to hear your feedback on this system.

Battle Score – 100 battle points + 10 bonus points = 110 points possible.

Each game is worth up to 20 points. I would use the Aussie system I discussed previously whereby each player starts with 10 points a piece, and every 150 points you win by increases your share of the 20 points by 1 point. Furthermore, I would have players vote for the best tactician they played against. Each one of these votes would give the player a bonus 2 points, so if you played 5 games, the max score you could get would be 10.

I really think this system has merit. I disagree that it would discourage bad players and cause them to have a bad time. In fact, I think the better declination of scores would mean bad or new players would be much more likely to face others at their level sooner in the tournament. A player who lost 8-12 in the first round would not be playing a player who lost 0-20. The current system of 5/10/15 makes it much more likely the new/bad player could still play a much better player than themselves in the first round… not to mention the guys who sandbag game one to get in an easier bracket. Also, with my overall points system, one loss will not sink your whole tourney.

Sportsmanship Score – 100 points +10 bonus points = 110 points possible

Each game your opponent will give you a sportsmanship score between 1-10. This score will then be doubled, so you will receive a score between 0-20. In addition, each player will vote for the best sport they played against. This will garner that person an additional 2 bonus points. Again, with 5 opponents, the max score a person will receive is 10 points for this.

I like the 10 levels of declination for sports. Giving a specific idea of what each level should entail with a brief narrative should help people decide what to score each other better. Granted, sports scoring is never perfect b/c guys can tank each other, or a lot of guys just drop 9’s and 10’s, but I’ve used a 5 point system before and to me, it doesn’t offer enough options or flexibility.

Appearance Score – 50 points +10 bonus points

Again, this would be determined by the organizer, and scored during a break. I think there are a lot of good scoring guides for this out there, and I’d simply steal one. Each player would vote on the best themed/painted army they played, and this would be worth 2 bonus points per vote, so again, the max you could get in this category would be 10 points.

Composition Score – 50 points + 50 points +10 bonus points = 110 points

For comp, I would have 3 sets of scoring. First, 50 points would be assigned by the organizer. If I were doing this, I’d get a loyal band of henchmen who are well versed at using stealth cheese to help me comp out an army. If there were time, I might even give people who turned in a list well in advance a chance to redo a list to improve their scores… but this would depend on time. The other 50 points would be scored by the opponents. It would be a 10 point scale, and they could adjust it by +/- 1 after the game. I like this plan b/c it helps regulate the craziness that is comp scoring. If I’ve never played a tomb king army, how can I comp score it? This way, players get some imput, but only half. In addition, each player votes for the best designed army they played, and that army gets 2 bonus points… so each person could max out at 10

Ultimately, this leads to a tournament where the max score possible is 390 points. Battle scores account for 28%, Sports is 28%, Appearance is 15%, and Comp is 28%. Overall would be decided by highest total score. In addition, I’d award these awards
Overall – top 3 – total points of all scores
Best Warlord top 3 – Battle score + Comp scores
Best Sportsman – top 3 – Sports + Appearance
Best Tournament player – top 3 – all bonus scores (and bonus only) added together.

If I had prize support, I’d never give it to winners since I think that adds too much competition, and is counter-productive to the vibe most tourneys are striving for. I’d make all prizes drawings open to everyone. A random prize can make a day of getting your ass kicked much better. Winners would get a plaque/trophy.

This is how I’d do it. Thoughts?

Victory Points at a tournament

2008-10-29T12:49:00.000-07:00

I was listening to podhammer this weekend [you can download it at http://podhammer.net/] and at the end of another great show titled "pew, pew, pew," Jeff was kind enough to answer an e-mail I had sent him. The e-mail concerned scoring in Aussie Tournaments. I had heard him and guys discuss on multiple occasions their tournament games and how they had faired. What confused me was when they got around to discussing victory points, they mentioned a 20 point system. Each of the players would get some combination of points, so that the total value of the points awarded would be 20 (ie: 20-0, 16-4, or 10-10 for example). This is much different than any tournament I had been to.

American tournaments award points on a set basis. Traditionally, a victory is worth 15 points, a draw is worth 10, and a loss is worth 5. In addition, there may be certain scenerios that allow a person to accrue bonus points. Usually the number of points determining victory is around 400.

As Jeff explained, the Aussie system is much different. Each game, both players start with 10 points. For every 150 points a person wins by, they gain an additional point, while their opponent loses a point. So, if player A beats player B by 340 points, then that would be a 12-8 victory. If player A won by 99 points, it'd still be a 10-10 draw. And if player A won by 1500 points or more, it'd be a 20-0 victory.

This system has two great advantages I can see immediatly. First, it does a much better job of declinating the participants. For example, lets say player F wins his first two games by 1500 and 1700 points respectively. Player G wins his first two games as well, the first by 420 points, and the second by 600 points.

Under the American system the standings would look like this:
Player F - 30 points
Player G - 30 points

Under their system, the standings would look like this
Player F - 40 points
Player G - 26 points

Their system seems to offer a much more realistic view of how the competators are actually doing.

Secondly, the Aussie system seems to encourge better game play. First of all, the hit and run armies that try to get 500 victory points and then play points denial can still win games, but will never have enough battle points to find themselves on the podium. This system encourages aggressive play. In addition, no matter how bad the situtation turns, both players have insentive to keep up the fight. Even if I find myself down 1000 victory points with no shot of winning, smart tactics and good decisions might allow me to eek out a 2,4,6, or even a few more battle points, rather than just resigning myself to a loss and 5 consolations points. This encourages people to keep playing and finish games, and also can help mitigate some horrible luck. When a guy loses the game in the first turn due to some henious roll, he may not be able to win, but he can at least battle back and try to secure some points. To me, this creates a game that has competative and meaningful elements throughout the game, regardless of how earlier turns may have gone.

What do you think?

Whats in a name...

2008-10-29T12:46:00.001-07:00

I was trying to think of a good name for my blog, and this seemed most appropriate. This is a blog about my favorite hobby, Warhammer. I am not convinced that I will have much to say that is worth saying, but I frequently like to type out my thoughts on warhammer to my friends scattered through the country, and then then send them via e-mail. I thought this way, my friends could avoid long posts from me in their inbox, and instead check my blog. If, along the way, I picked up a couple strangers that enjoyed reading my musings as well, so much the better. Additionally, I was hoping this might inspire me to think on and write about my favorite hobby a bit more.

I chose the name "combat resolution" because its my favorite aspect of the game. I have heard some people complain that its not the overall wounds done in combat that decides who wins and loses in this most critical of warhammer phases, but rather various modifiers. They often say that its stupid and complain that wounds, and only wounds should decide the outcome. I have to disagree. First of all, on a minor level, as a historian at heart, I am keenly aware that many factors went into deciding the outcome of a battle, and unlike a sporting event, the final "score" didn't necessarily matter. In game terms, I like that combat resolution does two very important things. First off, it limits "herohammer." By this I mean, no longer can the uber-lord of destruction roam freely around the board and smoke people. He may do 4 or 5 wounds to a unit, but if he attacks a unit with a full 3 ranks, a warbanner, and outnumber, he is beaten before the combat begins. I like this. In addition, it allows for a great deal of tactical planning in-game. The randomness of dice rolling adds a nice element to the game, but I enjoy playing the game in a manner that allows me to calculate the odds and combat resolution, and thus be reasonably confident of success. Much like poker, I enjoy trying to get stuck in when I have the best of it. And like poker, the random element then provides the drama of the game.

Birth of Combat Resolution

2008-10-29T12:23:00.000-07:00

I took a stab at starting a blog about a year ago. It was a failure, not least of which was because I forgot my blog address. I am hoping that I am smart enough to remember "benhammer." We shall see.