Torch

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!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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!