WiP(ed)

Hi,

Work has been more than usually gonzo the last couple of weeks, so painting progress has been slow.  I did get a little work completed on the Gladiator.



I've been working on the metallics on the upper half, trying to develop a sort of NMM effect with metallic paints.  Seems to be working okay so far.



Figure's a bit of a challenge right now - I've been working at it long enough that I'm kind of eager to have it done so I can go on to other stuff, but at the same time, I don't want to rush the job and be unhappy with the result.


I'm kind of happy I've done the WiP posts, however, as I've been able to pick up on some issue in the paint I want to fix - like the rough blend in the grey above.  This guy will be finished soon enough.  I'm kind of eager to do some 15mm painting - actually motivated to paint some pike, so want to ride that wave until I can.  The next round of the Maurice campaign is starting up - the British have been accused of stealing the silverware, and the French, who know for a fact they didn't, are rallying to their defence.  Should be fun times.

Just as an aside, you remember me mentioning there's been little time or motivation to paint?  This is what happens to my painting table if I don't jealously defend my perogatives:



Laundry soap and baby snacks, by damn!  Good thing the wife is cute . . . .

FMB

One-eyed monster

Hi,

Finally got this guy finished.



Model:  Cyclops Savage
Type:  Light Warbeast
Faction:  Skorne

The Savage is one of the beasts that comes in the Skorne warpack, and as a light offensive beast, is one of the all-rounders that often seems to get bumped in favour of more specialized options.  The model has grown on me considerably over the years; it used to be one of the few Skorne models I actively disliked.  The animus it carries, Prescience, is fantastic, as it goes a long way towards boosting fury efficiency on critical turns.  It's fast, has reach, is reasonably accurate, and with the range of available Skorne buffs, can do some damage against all but the hardest of targets.




I came across a suggestion on the PP forums the other day about running one with Paingiver Bloodrunners.  I may just give this a try, as it would make a good module in an eMorghul tier list, which is something I plan on doing eventually.

Looking at the photos, I can see a couple places where my "big guy" painting has gottne rusty - the metallics on the sword could be crisper, and I'm not convinced with the texture on the hip plates.  The photos are a little dark, as well, and seem to be washing out the contrast between the cooler greys and the warmer browns.  One of these days I'll have the time and space to set up a decent lighting system.



I swapped out the bottom half of the standard's pole with a piece of brass rod, which I pinned into the bottom of the Savage.  The flag sits in the brass rod via a projecting pin.  This allow me to remove it for carrying / storage, which prevents the breaking that's almost inevitable with the default constructions.

As a test figure, I'm pleased.  The colour scheme is subtle, but works reasonably well.  I'm going to try to get more of the lapis / blue colour in the next model I paint, as the few bits here seem to pop (hard to see in the pics, looks better in RL.  Hopefully, the first of many Skorne models.

FMB

Crunching the numbers . . .

Hi,

Between our various summer excursions (the last of which involved helping my in-laws move), I've been continuing to prep my Khador, along with some Bartertown shopping for Cryx, and a fair bit of number / point / list crunching, always a favourite pastime of the skirmish wargamer.

I'm now 2 figures away from completing the prep on my 35p Khador list, but tragically, have run out of super glue.  Once the remaining models are prepped, I'll break out the gesso, and have at them. As an aside, I mentioned this to my wife, who had been talking about picking up some groceries tomorrow; I asked her, if she got the chance to pick some up some Lock-tite. "You use the one with the blue cap, right?" she asked. To hell with hearts and cupids; I'm married to a woman who knows my preferences in super glue.  That, my friends, is love.

While waiting for my glue to dry, I've been shopping. Bartertown, for those of you unfamiliar with it, is an excellent source of deals on used miniatures.  I've been able to set up two buys in the last week, and as I write, the following should be winging their way to me via the US (and eventually, Canadian) postal service.

Asphyxious
Deneghra
eDeneghra
Witch Coven
Stalker x2
Defiler x3
Deathripper x2
Seether
Cankerworm
Magnetized plastic slayer kit x2
Necrotech and 7 Scrap Thralls
Warwitch Siren x2
Pistol Wraith x2
Skarlock
Full Satyxis
Withershadow combine

In other words, pretty much everything I'd need to run any of the "arc node" warcasters from Cryx.  I'd have preferred nightwretches to defilers, but at the price at which I'm getting them, I won't be too picky. As I've said before, I used to play Cryx.  In fact, I've painted a Cryx army twice.  The second time forms some of the earliest posts on this blog, but I've been going through old pictures of the various Warmachines armies I've painted, starting with my first Cryx army, from when I was just learning the game.



To be honest, I'm wondering what possessed me to sell these off at the time, or for that matter, to sell off the last Cryx army I painted either. I think I hit some sort of saturation point on game expansions.  Warmachine is a game where to play competitively, you need to stay on top of everything in the game.  List building is a factor, and I think I got to a point where staying on top of the game felt more like work than like fun.




What I forgot was that I'm not really a competitive player.  While I like to win, play to win, and expect my opponents to do the same, half the fun of this game is when someone pulls out some evil new trick, and you learn the hard way ;)



It may just be that I needed a break.  Coming back into the game, looking over the forces books that have been released since I dropped out, along with expansions like Wrath, have gotten me wildly excited to play.





I find myself wanting to simultaneously reboot every force I've ever built for the game, all at the same time.





What's so exciting about my dip back in this time, is how fresh everything seems.  The impact of things like tier lists (which exchange a more limited list build with rewards for accepting "tiers" of limitations) and the impact of the new faction models (key utility solos like Warwitch Sirens, for example), have essentially made the game new;  much of what I took for granted as the "meta", the context for play, no longer applies.



While the Privateer Press forums are as full of drama and nerdrage as ever, they're also revealing.  I was reading a post the other day talking about the utility of machine wraiths, a long-time favorite model (it remains, I think, my favourite in the warmachine range), but a long-time loser in terms of utlity.  A version change in the game, a revamp of his abilities, and a radical shift in meta, and it's now a useful, if subtle, component to lists - what it should have been from its introduction back in escalation.



I've been looking over the tier lists for both pDennie and the Coven, 'casters I've used before, but not to the extent of pGaspy and eDennie.  I think the game plan will be to use the Khador as a "get playing" force while I spend some time really doing up the painting on my Cryx.  I have some ideas for a desert colour scheme, based on some pictures I gleaned of Navaho country.

For whatever reason, Warmachine seems to be back in my life.  I hope this time it's here to stay.  In the meantime, for those of you who are historical games, and have been viewing the last few posts aghast, fear not.  I've word that my missing bases are on their way, so I should have some Spartan content up in a week or so, plus I've booked off a Wednesday two weeks from now to play the next game in our Maurice campaign.  You may have to put up with the occasional steampunk extravaganza, but there's still load of historical painting and gaming in the works.

FMB

Tourney report, and thoughts on being an army whore.

Hi,

The long-anticipated WFB tournament took place yesterday, and I had a blast. I was utterly slaughtered in my first game, pulled out a tie in my second, and was randomly tapped for a bye in the third (boo!). Still waiting to hear if I won the coveted "best sportsman" (aka dead last) award.

I'm finding that I'm enjoying playing my Brets far more than I did my Dwarves back in 5th / 6th edition. I'm not sure if this is a factor of edition shift, or just the degree of mobility Brets have relative to Dwarves. A Dwarf army is slooooow - and this game seems to revolve around manouvre. Bret mobility gives me choices as a player, and apparantly, choices are fun.

The tournament was 2500 points, using the "Ard Boyz" scenarios. Seven players - more were expected, but we had some no shows. I took the following:

2500 points of Bretonnians

Lord: Questing Vow, Virtue of Confidence, Birthsword of Carcassone, Enchanted Shield, Mantle of the Damsel Elena, Gauntlet of the Duel, Barded Warhorse = 243 / 243
Paladin: Battle Standard Bearer, Virtue of Discipline, Gromril Helm, Barded Warhorse = 119 / 362
Paladin: Questing Vow, Virtue of Duty, Cuirass of Fortune, Shield, Barded Warhorse = 134 / 496
Damsel: Dispel Scroll, Warhorse = 105 / 601
Damsel: Dispel Scroll, Chalice of Malfleur, Warhorse = 125 / 726
Core 1: 8 Knights Errant, Full command = 181 / 907
Core 2: 8 Knights of the Realm, Full command = 216 / 1123
Core 3: 8 Knights of the Realm, Full command = 216 / 1339
Core 4: 25 Peasant Bowmen, skirmish, brazier, musician = 185 / 1524
Core 5: 8 Knights of the Realm, full command, war banner = 241 / 1765
Special 1: 8 Questing Knights, full command, Valorous Standard = 301 / 2066
Special 2: 5 Pegasus Knights, musician = 285 / 2351
Special 3: 8 Mounted Yeomen, musician, Standard Bearer, shields = 149 / 2500

First game was against a mixed Warriors of Chaos list, led by the Lord of the end times himself, Archaon. For those not in the know, Archaon is pretty much the most badass h2h character in the game. That's him toward the bottom of the pic, taking on two of my knight lances and the big unit of bowmen. That fight? He won that fight.



See these Chaos knights of Khorne coming around my flank?



Yeah, they helped clean up Archaon's leftovers.

See these units in my dead box by the end of turn two?



Yeah, those are the units that tried to charge Archaon, failed their terror checks, and fled off the table.

Lessons learned from game one: Archaon is a badass. Bret leadership, while good, is not great, and there's little in the army that can counter fear and terror causing units that isn't a) expensive, or b) charging. I'm going to have to learn to use what resources I have to dispatch this kind of threat quickly. One option is a Pally with the Grail vow and the Morningstar item that allows him to destroy opponent's magic weapons. Archaon is a special case, but represents the extreme end of a class of terror-causing units typified by monsters. I'll need to learn how to deal with this stuff.

Other lessons learned - I need a better sense of charge distances. Archaon got in on me early because I moved my knights just a little too close. This is just a matter of experience. I've learned that Brets need to pull off coordinated, decisive charges. While they have good armour, after the first round they lack the offensive punch to win combats. This is just a matter of experience.

Game two was against a gorgeously painted and converted beastmen army. Here they are lined up across the table. The picture doesn't do them justice, but believe me, they were lovely.





This game was a close-fought tie. By the time I got to turn two, I was learning to hold back my knights. I'd figured out by this point that just because they can move fast doesn't meen they have to. Rather, their mobility means that I can advance more or less on my own terms, and consequently choose the terms of engagement. I made a stupid mistake with my Pegasus knights early, leaving one in the charge arc of the minotaurs on his flank, and not noticing it. This let him start his minos rolling in (they get better the more they kill), and they were a hassle the rest of the game. I did have the satisfaction of taking out his giant however. They are a little random, but fun. For example, when killed, it turns out they fall in a random direction, and can cause considerable damage if they land on your units. You should have seen my rendition of the "oh shit" dance;) We kind of ground away at each other throughout the game, and ended up with a closely fought tie.

Got the bye on the third round, which was a bit of a disappointment, as I was hoping for another game, but still, plenty of lessons learned.

There are four things I really need to work on (besides getting more stuff painted, of course).

1) I need to get a handle on leadership. I've noted the issues with fear and terror above, but there's not much in my army core (i.e., knights) that has leadership "bells and whistles". I'm gong to have to develop a feel for what my army can and cannot handle, and maybe put together specialist units for the things they can't.

2) Coordination. Brets, at least the way I'm playing them, are a little one-dimensional, but that narrow focus still offers tactical depth. I don't have a capacity for attrition. Period. That means I have to choose combats I can win, and win them in the first round, when I charge. More to the point, it means I have to learn how to use units in my army together in order to achieve that goal. This is harder than it sounds.

3) My light / fast units. I did okay with my mounted squires, but lost my Pegasus knights by turn two both games. This is a disappointment, as they are one of the better units in the list. I need to work on using my most mobile stuff to leverage the rest of my army. Neither of these units are throwaway, which leads me to point four . . .

4) Force preservation. Remember what I said about attrition? This is foreign to me. I play Cryx in Warmachine, and used to play orks in 40k. Caring about casualties is kind of a new thing for me. Brets don't have chaff, however, and every unit counts. Learning how to not only win combats, but win them in a decidedly one-sided fashion is going to be key to the success of playing them.

So there you go. A couple of fun games, some lessons learned, and the slow rehabilitation of my WFB experience continues. One last thing however.

I think it is time to simply admit that I am an army whore. I was looking over some other armies yesterday, and caught myself thinking "ooh, those would be fun to paint" pretty much every time. Chaos? Check. Beastmen? Check check. High elves? Checkaroonie. This is dangerous, as I simply do not have the time these days to hop from army to army. It's a problem however, as the number one project killer for me is when painting (which I love) starts to feel like work. I'm not really sure how to deal with this. I'm temperamentally unsuited to single-focus painting, but lack the time for multiple projects. Any ideas out there?

TMtW