Kicking off 2015 with a plan of action (subject to productivity...)

So, as I am wont to do, I have recently had a reinvigorated interest in playing Warmahordes, so, figured, New Year, new start, new set of challenges,  I'm setting these out here in the hope that at least one person in cyberspace might care enough to bust my ass if I don't follow through on these pledges.

Now a little backstory...

I originally got into WARMACHINE just about the time of the (MKI) Escalation release, before HORDES was around, before Epic Casters were around, and before Mercenaries were considered a faction...  :p

I started out playing an arc node heavy Cryx assassination list, purely because of the Iron Lich Asphyxious model, he sold the game to me really, I'd picked up the starters s few times before, but nothing really got me hooked, as an aside, I am a very aesthetic hobbyist, I'd rather have cool looking figures than OMGWTFtheseguyzxr0kkz0rzbutlookshite miniatures.  I also tend to go very heavy in a certain direction when gaming, notably, run at them as fast as you can and hit them as hard as you can...  That might have to change...

My girlfriend at the time also got into the game, as did a couple of her friends, back in late 90's Scotland it was pretty much Go GW or go home, even at the few indy clubs, unless you played historicals, but I am neither that sad or old yet  (silence from the peanut gallery...)  so I made the switch to playing Mercenaries, or, more correctly, I made the switch to playing Magnus the Traitor, and just like my Cryx, I tended to do pretty well with him, I placed in the top half of most of the tournaments we went to, I'd actually taken the top spot with Asphyxious at the first tournament I attended, at Fanboy3 in Manchester.  I picked up a bunch of Mercenary Faction Coins once they started getting prize support, added them to the Cryx ribbons (yeah, maybe the not old part was a lie...) and well, with the benefit of hindsight, probably got a little competitive, and a lot dickish, seeing as I had finally found a game I appeared to be passably good at.

I occasionally switched out Magnus for other toys, most notably a full Man-O-War list (all metal, all 22 pinned and greenstuffed in a day, you are welcome blister soothing manufacturers) and scared the shit out of a few folk with that. And picked up some Cygnar.  And Protectorate of Menoth. But Mercs continued to be my main force.  Fast forward a bit and HORDES was released, I went for Trolls, again, purely aesthetic choice, an army of big stompy monsters, and still have my signed copy of Primal from winning the first Scottish HORDES tournament at Black Lion Games in Edinburgh.

Fast forward a few years, and a few kids, and I kinda dropped out of gaming altogether, being permenant nightshift and an anti-social sort anyways.  I continued to buy the figures, just never did anything with them really, didn't really have to opportunity to travel for gaming because of family and work commitments and always seemed to be caught up painting something else.

Fast forwards a few more years, no more kids, but a new girlfriend, and my own house complete with Epic Gaming Room and a renewed interest in actually putting all these minis to their intended use, sees me starting up this blog to chart the progress I make towards a few goals.

So recently, like, over the last year or so, I've been dabbling with the game again, after selling off a lot of my stuff (when the MKII switch happened, I had well over 400pts each of Trollbloods, Khador and Mercenaries, with a couple of other Factions in the 200's...) I painted up the Thornfall Minions suggested Battlepack (Carver, Warhog, 2 x Gunboar) and have been playing a few games with them, even added Targ after 18 months..., which I have been (surprisingly) enjoying.  Minions was a natural choice, following on from playing Mercenaries, and as Thornfall are generally considered the laughing stock of the Iron Kingdoms as far as competitive play goes, I figured they might keep me honest.  And less of a dick.

So, the plans for 2015 are as follows -

Paint 50pts of Thornfall Alliance

I'm not counting any of the stuff I already have done, starting from (pork) scratch so to speak, I am thinking it is probably going to be something along the lines of Dr. Arkadius's Nature of the Beast Tier 4, however, as I already have Targ painted, I'll sub in Maximus or a Razorboar to make up the points difference.  Aiming for about 60pts total including his Beast points, but, by way of motivation, I'll be attempting the painting challenge on the PP forums to finish off 5pts a month.  I can add these to my currently painted forces to allow me to start playing 15, then 25 point games.  Plan is to start off with a full unit of Bone Grinders and a Razor Boar, meeting the 5 point requirement.  Resin bases are from Tiny Worlds, Rock/Slate range.

Paint 50pts of Retribution of Scyrah

Now, I only ever picked up the RoS models to basically pimpslap a particularly gamey Cygnar player who had no real way to deal with Stealth with his shooty tournament list, but, I never got around to doing anything with them...  As it stands I am now only 2 blisters away from owning at least one of every model in the faction (including all Myrmydon variants...) and have yet to build a single figure...  The main impediment to progress here is trying to settle on a colour scheme.  I'm never a big fan of official colours, and, I've never really been into the whole anime/manga vibe, so it is proving a difficult choice.  I have the feeling I might just embrace it and go super vivid with them.  Not going Tier list with these guys I think, as, super fragile Elves is way out of my comfort zone, so I am going to get a bit of everything done to see where I really want to focus my attention.  That said, I have settled on Rahn as my 'Caster, (was a tough choice between him and Garryth) so I foresee at least some Battlemages on the horizon.  Same plan as above, aim to have a 50pt playable and fully painted  list by the end of the year, but looking at 60pts overall.  I'll maybe tag these on to the PP forums too, will see how it goes with the pigs.  Plan to begin with is the Chimera Light Myrmidon, as well, it is a battlebox component, and the arc node will come in handy.  Base is from DragonForge Forgotten Empires range.

Paint the board and terrain.

So, I'm lucky enough to have a 7'x4' board in my games room, and a GW Realm of Battle board and associated (skull infested) plastic terrain to go with it.  I want to get at least 4 sections painted, and 4 terrain pieces, to allow me to play 25-35 point games comfortably, and hopefully in style.  Two of the sections (the flat ones) need stripping and repainting, so I might start with them, and leave the other 4 set up just now.  Terrain wise, probably looking at a couple of forests, small tower, and maybe a hill extension or graveyard.  Still planning that.

Play Moar Games!

OK, so, I quite often don't actually like playing games, whether it is a case of being too drained from work/life, or the whole meeting new people challenge.  I don't know if it is an anti-social thing, or linked to autism, but I'M sure the toilets of the Queen Margaret Student Union can attest to the fact that I get a bit nervous meeting new people, and some pre-Tournament mornings in there were probably far worse than anything an alcohol ravaged student's guts could produce...  ;)  So, aiming for an average of one game a week, but I reckon, especially starting out I can maybe get multiple games in over a single session playing at smaller points levels.

Play it Painted!

Self imposed this one, I am not going to field any models that are not fully painted and based.  This includes front/back arc markings.   Simple really.



And that pretty much wraps it up as a preliminary post, so, Happy New Year, welcome aboard, and wish me luck.