A Month at a Glance - January

Well, that went in quick, and completely opposite to form, I have actually been updating this...

So, painting wise I managed to knock out 2 Razor Boars, a maximum unit of Bone Grinders, and at the last minute, Rorsh & Brine, so a rather healthy 16 points.  The good news is I can now play with a fully painted 25pt list.  It might not be optimal, but, at least it looks not bad.

This is muh boomstick.  And dynamite.  And big-ass Pig.

Gaming wise - played about 10 games, all against Brushchewer, more wins than losses.  I've also just bought my ticket to NorthCon2015, so, I have a clear date on the calendar for having to be fully painted and au fait with all the rules.  Oh boy...


Off to Vapnartak in York in a couple of hours with Falkirk District Wargames Club, so, might be able to pick up some reinforcements whilst I'm there.

Plans for February are probably the addition of some Razorback Crews and Maximus.  If I get through that, I'll keep on keeping on with the Slaughterhousers and the Road Hog, before turning my thoughts to a second 'Lock.

Orange is the new Black...

...pit of despair I sink into when painting it...

But still, it is worth the effort, and to kick of the month (or year) I have knocked out two wee Razorboars, thus keeping my force still all Battlegroup.

Flaming Pigs, not just Roman around...

 

We doan need no steenkin' units...

So, next on the painting agenda, and in a bid to break out of the whole Battlegroup only force, I have a unit of Bonegrinders on the go.  Probably not the best beginning unit for Thornfall, although they will also give me some pre-painted points if I start a Blindwater list  ;)  I've tried them out a couple of times, and whilst they haven't been stellar, they are not a bad filler unit, the Arcane Bolt comes in handy, and they can do in a pinch to Quagmire something else.

As well as the Grinders, I've been working away on Rorsh & Brine, partly due to them being pretty much fully basecoated, partly because they are part of Carver's Tier list.  I'm not entirely sold on his Tier, saving 2 pts on Brigands isn't great when you are spending 9 on a Solo (with attendant Heavy) and losing all the units having Advance Deploy is a big blow, although, it is somewhat mitigated in my case by having a lot of beast that instead gain Advance Move.  Time will tell on how best to run it.

(One) Armed and Dangerous...

So, originally I was aiming at having 5pts painted this month between the max. Grinders and a Razorboar.   I'm at 4 already with the 2 Razorboars, and the Grinders will take me to 6 or 7.  Getting Rorsh & Brine would take me up to 15 or 16, which isn't a bad chunk to add to what I already have.  I'm toying with the idea of trying to get least one of each Farrow option painted up before doing more duplicate choices, so, not counting Alten Ashley or Gudrun, or any of the other non-pig solos.  If I can finish off the Grinders and R&B, that would leave - Roadhog, Maximus, Brigands, Slaughterhousers and Razorback Crew.  I'm thinking along the lines of finishing off each area (Warbeasts/Solos/Units) before tackling a new 'Lock although Arkadius and Midas would bring in some new Beasts as part of their Tier lists.

In non-painting news, I've also managed to get a few games in, somewhere around 4-5, and doing not bad.  I've broken the play it painted rule, just to try out new things, but, at the end of the day, I really don't have too many choices to spoil me for choice, and I'll be painting up at least one of everything anyway.

Brushchewer also picked up Maximus and the Sentinel UA for me, so, I am pretty much up to date with Thornfall releases (roll on the MeatThresher) and am just an Aspis away from a full Retribution collection.

Looking forwards, if I clear what is on the paintstation this month, I have a few pieces lined up in the wings, so I reckon it might be time to bust out a new big (flaming) gun with the Roadhog, and possibly some Slaughterhousers too.

On the defeat of Circle, Molik Karn and the power of a couple of inches.

So this has been an eventful few days, where to begin?

I have been busy with both gaming and hobby work this year (which sounds so much more impressive when you put it like that) and kicked off the hobby side with building and painting my Cyclops Brute. It was a simple model to build and the first plastic PP model I've put together and painted. I decided to paint it in a few bits just to catch the places I otherwise would have struggled with. The decision was made then that I was that I was going to rebase as well as repaint all of my Skorne onto resin bases. John had a few of the ones I was looking at using (Tiny worlds Swamp bases) so I didn't have to worry about the first few things not having a base. I figured that I would paint them up like rolling sand dunes with a bit of tuft here and there.

The colour scheme hasn't changed since my early days with Skorne but the technique and paints used has. Instead of working up the red in six layers, which I found wasn't nearly as effective or necessary on the small areas, I have changed to working sensibly with three. My colours are a lot more solid as I'm trying to avoid dry brushing everything (which was the case in the early stuff as I was too lazy to pick out all the detail in the metal). I've also started to add small bits of cold blue grey/white to act as a contrast to the very warm bronze and red of the colour scheme.

I think the base looks good with the tuft and the various elements picked out. The silver highlights to the bronze don't show through that well in the picture but you can see them on the "horns" of the helmet.

  I do have to find a better way of taking photos for this blog.

Onto gaming. I've been playing a lot of games with Makeda2 and I've found that I have enjoyed her style of play immensely. Although I have been playing her for a while now, only recently have I got to try out the famous 'Molik Missile' I've heard so much about. Wow, that is a powerful play. Leaving out the assassination power of the combo, Molik is capable of taking out large amounts of infantry and then sod off back to the line of the army. Yo-yo'ing him like this doesn't take a huge amount of effort and with his high speed for a heavy, Makedas speed buff, rush and side step he can go an impressive distance.

John and I decided that we needed to experience playing against other armies to truly understand the game and master it. With that in mind when somebody asked for people to come to the FLGS and have a few games we jumped at the chance. The gentleman who came down had a large Circle force with him and played Morvahna1 with an infantry heavy force consisting of a unit of Reeves, a unit of Wolves with UA and a Pureblood Warpwolf. I have played against circle before but the list I went up against last time had more beasts and multi-wound infantry. I played Makeda2 with Molik, an ancestral swordsmen bubble ( an Ancestral guardian, a unit of Swordsmen and a Extoller Soulward.) the Cyclops brute I had finished painting and a unit of Beasthandlers.

His Reeves shot a lot of my Swordsmen, however this just powered up my Ancestral Guardian and Extoller Soulward with souls. Unsurprisingly, the game was won however with Molik. I waited till there was a few infantry spaced out in front of Morvahna and had Molik charge the one in the front, after hitting and turning it into a cloud of blood he then took his sidestep move and hit the next, he then took his last sidestep move and ended up in front of the worried Circle warlock and only needed to buy a few attacks before it was game over.

Now, a lot of this would not have been possible without reach, giving Molik that extra couple inches off his base that he can hit at is supremely useful.

Reach is wonderful I thought.

Thank goodness for reach I thought.

Well, reach would come back to bite me in the ass.

When we got home I felt like I was confident with Makeda and wanted to move on to another caster so as not to get crutched on her. I decided to try out a 25 point version of my Hexeris2 list. This was a primarily shooty list working with hexy2s Black spot to drop lots of ranged hurt on units. However, coming from one caster to another and expecting immediate success is always going to end up hurting you. My first few games with him ended in crushing defeats because I was being stupid with my positioning and not focusing.

This is where reach comes in. Twice in the games I've played with hexy2 I have ended up losing an assassination attempt that I thought was a sure fire thing because of Reach. Carver has reach and due to the idea of engagement I kept on giving Carver a +4 defence bonus. Carver with a +4 defence bonus is very VERY hard to hit leading to failed assassination attempts and annoyance.

So, in the next games I'm gonna focus on getting good placement and making sure that I have a reason to have everybody in the place they are for a reason. I will try and get at least one win in with Hexy2 and try to get as comfortable as I can with him.



Thanks for reading my rambles and hopefully they get a bit better (and more flowing) as I get used to writing all this down.

As happy as a pig in....

Wash obviously...  ;)

Halves.  Things I don't do things by...

I managed to basecoat most, if not all of the Bonegrinders and Slaughterhousers so I figured it was about the right time to hit them with a wash and get them glued into the bases, which were already started and almost done.  Then I figured I might as well just wash the Warhog, Roadhog and Rorsh & Brine sitting there too, on the very, very off-chance that I actually finished the Grinders and Razorboar I pledged for January.  Pledge 5pts, paint 39.  Sounds great on paper, maybe a bit less realistic in theory.

In other news, I also picked up my first loss of the year, errrr.... got my first game in.  Carver ultimately falling to an Engine of Destructioned Makeda2, on two boxes...  after leaving himself open dispatching a Cyclops Savage and Quagmiring a Gladiator in the process to make it easy pickings for the Warhog.   It was a small 14pt game, just fully painted forces see, and I am thinking I really need to get at least one Razorboar painted up, just for that Mobility enabled 16" run to block charge lanes and attack avenues. 

Before the game, we did come up with a couple of Warmahordes specific house rules, which will be vigorously enforced.

1.  The player with the most fully painted (painted/based/varnished) army gains a +1 bonus to the roll for table edge/starting.  This is cumulative with any Tier bonus.  Obviously this doesn't come into effect if both players have fully painted armies.  Basically a small bonus to encourage fully painted gaming.

2.  All spells/feats/animi in play must be marked and on the table.  If there is any dispute as to whether a spell was cast/feat popped if there is no marker on the table, then it follows tat the spell/feat is not in effect.  This could have more serious connotations, but is designed for clarity during play.

In Elf related news, I am currently trying to nail down a 50pt list to get started with, and work out a colour scheme.  I've run the whole gamut from yellow to grey to green, but ultimately think I'm going to end up doing a variation of blue...  Likewise with the bases, I was planning bon going for a bleached look for them, but, after doing a quick tester, I think I might end up with grey slate, as it ties in more with my Farrow.

I'll give it a bit more thought and post up the prospective retribution list once I have it set, and keep pluggging away at colour theory.

Intros; Or how I stopped messing around and started removing mould lines.

Well, I think I have a hard act to follow in previous post but here we go.

Starting out this new year I feel like I definitely need a little focus. I have been in this hobby for a few years and looking back I haven't really produced much for the time (and money) spent. Well this is about to change.

I started out a few years ago at Salute when the stall I was running was opposite the Priveteer Press stand. I fell in love with the look of Warmachine and Hordes figures and with no idea about the game I picked up the Skorne starter set, a box of blood runners, a unit of Cryx mindslavers and drudges and a Skarlock thrall. Getting home all excited I put the battle box together quickly (and with none of the clean up that I would later learn is so important to make your models look good or the pinning that I would learn is important to stop them falling apart) slapped some paint on them and was very happy.


What a fool I was.

About this time I ended up falling in love with a beautiful Scotsman and moving up to the cold north to live with him. Both of us shared the hobby and this inspired me to paint more (and buy more). He had a collection of Skorne which he gave me and I slowly added more. I painted these quickly, wanting to have a force I could use to play as soon as possible (without knowing the rules, or the better half having a playable force, or knowing anybody else that played) which meant I ended up with lots of painted models but nothing painted to any good standard. After a few months of being badgered I finally realized I needed to up my game so after a few problems in the year I settled down to taking my time on each figure I do. So those 23pts you see painted are 23pts that I have painted recently to the standard that I am more than happy to be seen publicly, thats what you see here.






Well, I dropped my Cryx which wasn't much as you can see (I gave the Cephalyx to the man and the other stuff is up for sale to fund the rest of the hobby).





So I was down a faction and I needed something with robots. By that I meant a warmachine faction, what dropped into my lap, gifted by the man, was an entire army of Robots.

Thats right, I got Convergence of Cyriss.


The real unusual thing was this he agreed to clean up and build the entire army if I bought him a Xbox One. I picked up enough resin bases to base the amount he gave me and ended up just leaving them be.Well, he bought the Xbox ONE just before Christmas and on Christmas day I received enough reinforcements (and matching bases) to set me well on the way to have, once built and painted, multiple 50 point lists.

He also has painted a solo for me which is absolutely beautiful even though he says its not finished!





So my plans for the coming year are these:

1. Repaint my already painted miniatures.
   I have all this Skorne half painted and I want it to look the best it can so I aim to get as much of it painted up as I can. The best way I can do this is set a good goal so...
2. Paint and Play to confidence (at least) two 50 point Skorne lists.I have many rough ideas for list and need to set myself at least two so as to be able to play in steamrollers. 
3. Play more games.Having a boyfriend who plays and a big'ol gaming table all set up in the house really helps this but we both know that we need to play against other people to learn what the local meta is like. I'm gonna try to get out and about and play games.
4. Improve my painting.I know I'm not that amazing and I know I can get better and no better way to improve than to just DO. Practice makes perfect and all that.

Well that is about it, nothing much more I can say.

The happiest of new years to you all and I would love to see some comments and critique on the work I've done so far.

Wish me luck.

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.