New site

I have moved to a blog that China won't block

http://gaming.elasticpeople.net/

Moving to a new site

I am going to move this site to one of my own. The problem is that the government of the country I live in does not like Blogspot and so it is usually blocked. Sometimes I can get through, but not reliably enough to warrant staying here. I will try and make another post to mention my new site when I get it running and can get through again.

Xerxis and Reznik both die

Martin and I managed to get in one last game before my miniatures are packed away where I can't sneak them out again. We put 750 point armies on the table and decided to fight with no real objectives other than to smash each other.



I was handling the early game quite well. I tied up his left flank with three Vengers, while the real fight took place in the center.


My Strategy hinged around the Guardian which was a mistake. I forgot why the Guardian had been gathering dust for a year and a half, but I was quickly reminded; it's a piece of junk. It might be worthwhile in Mk2, but while 3 damaged systems can take out a jack, a heavy jack with an Arc node is just not worth fielding. Martin's heavy Infantry didn't quite fill in half the boxes on the Guardian's damage template, but because three systems were disabled, the jack was disabled.



Mid game I was losing and trying to consolidate. Vilmon, The Seneschal and my Paladin were dead, as was the Guardian and the Vengers were looking shaky. it was then that martin made his mistake. He left Xerxis exposed. Reznik branded him a heretic and the Redeemer fired missiles and killed him. Martin's beasts went wild and suddenly the advantage was mine.

I also made a mistake and left a charge lane open to the Ancestral guardian, who swooped in with Five soul tokens and cut Reznik to ribbons.

The fight now came down to Martin's Immortals against my Choir, Zealots and Avatar. The Avatar slowly chopped through the Immortals, who proved (true to their namesake) very hard to kill. Finally my Zealots got there and rained fire bombs down on the Immortals. End of Battle.

My strategy was not sound. I consolidated from the mid game setbacks well, but my victroy hinged on Martin leaving his boss in an unprotected position.

Possibly my last game for a few months

I defeated Martin yesterday, but it was a very narrow win. We were savagely contesting the objective ( a farm house) and I managed to batter my way to his warlock. When I got off the killing blow he had only two venators left and I had a damaged Catigator and Kreoss still there.

I didn't get to play Tom as we had a fourth (Jack) who played against him.

Get out of the way Vilmon

Tomorrow I play my last game of Warmachine for quite a while. Tuesday the miniatures and modeling gear get packed away for the big move and won't be available to me until October... bummer. So 500 pts Mk 1 vs Tom's Cygnar and Martin's Skorne. Do I think I have made the most competitive army? No. Am I happy with my choices? Very.

I love the fluff that goes with Menoth and in my fevered imagination I see a kind of rivalry between the Knights Exemplar and the Paladins of the Order of the Wall. So tomorrow's force is based around knights (only 2 models are not Knights) on the march to war with Vilmon tagging along to see what all the fuss is about.

Here is a crappy snap of the models I am using. Unfortunately the Vengers are nowhere near finished, but they are ok (except the bases) for the table.

4 corner hardcore match

Martin, Tom and I were set to play a small round robin tournament on Monday night with each of us playing both the others. However we got a fourth player (Dylan) and decided to play hardcore rules with all four of us on the same table at the corners. We put a castle ruin in the middle of the board as a way to earn victory points and went at it.



Tom headed for me, as did Dylan and i was lucky enough to charge Tom's Hunter with my Vengers and kill it. That made him cautious and he slowed down his advance. I withdrew from the fight happily, knowing that there was no forest between me and the cryx and a fight was inevitable.



The game now became Menoth vs. Cryx at one end and Menoth vs. Cygnar at the other.





I got the better of Dylan and managed to cast Brand of Heresy on Terminus and then charged my Castigator into him. It still took three hits, but I eventually eliminated the Lich Lord.

At the other end of the field Tom and Martin slugged it out and while they both did huge damage to each other, Martin's Avatar got the edge over Ol' Rowdy. When the turns were up, we counted up our victory points from each turn with a model within 3 inches of the ruin and then subtracted our lost VPs from it, giving us our final score.

Dylan was on -13, Tom on -9, martin on -5 and I had a grand total of 1. Yay me. Next time I probably would not want to do victory points that way.

Speed painting

We had a great game last night. Four players, hold the objective, hardcore. Toward the end when I was in the clear I started painting a miniature to demonstrate dry brushing to Dylan who was our Cryx player. I was originally just going to do the shoulders to demonstrate how it looks with steel and bronze, but Tom and Martin were using up their full seven minutes every turn, so I used four of those turns to completely speed paint the miniature. I am very happy with what is a 28 minute paint job. If I had access to it again I would clean it up a bit, but as is it is (IMHO) fine for the table.

Here is the photo. It is the Cryx Jack in the middle.

Vallejo paint issues

The first problem is that within a few months the name of the paint has rubbed off, so when referring to old painting notes I sometimes got stuck remembering which is which. I have remedied this by writing the name on the side of the bottle in marker.

The second and far more annoying problem is when the paint nib comes off inside the lid when you are opening it. In the picture the nib is off, but next to the lid.



Normally I notice when this happens, but a few times i have missed it and instead of squirting out a little blob of paint, I pour out a river. My latest misfortune was with my Dark Fleshtone. I poured out about a quarter of the bottle. What a waste.



I'm sure if i used other paints I would be able to compare problems. I remember how crap citadel paint used to be because of the lids gumming up. However at this point I only use Vallejo paint and overall I like it.

Playing Mk1 Warmachine

So to play against Hordes on Monday night I have to play Mk1 rules again. It has been a while since I have played the old rules and I wonder how much of Mk2 will bleed over accidentally. I am going to try and get Gravus painted by Monday so I can use him. He seems pretty cool and it would be nice to have used him Mk1 at least one time.

Having a blog

Sometimes having a blog makes me feel like I have to post even when there is little to post about. So here goes.

I have painted a few miniatures over the last couple of weeks, but none of them are good enough that I would want to put their pictures up here. I have bought quite a few reaper miniatures and am very happy with them, although none are even primed yet. I also bought an Ariadna starter box for Infinity. I'm not sure I will play Infinity, I just wanted some good looking science fiction soldiers and they fit the bill.

Reasons to fail the May painting challenge

I hardly ever go in for the painting challenges on any of the many forums that do them, but last week I decided to do one on www.rpg.net

The reason I don't do painting challenges is that I don't finish what I put in my vow. However it's not that I lack inspiration to paint, it's just that I paint things other than what I said I would. So here are some of the guys who this weekend have derailed my vow to paint High Exemplar Gravus and the Covenant of Menoth, amoungst other things.

This dwarf is made by Rackham (for the game Confrontation which apparently has died again) and is a really great sculpt. You can imagine what he is about to do.



I just realised I forgot to finish the edge of his shield, but I think I will leave it alone.



This next guy is a Cleric made by Reaper. He seems like a fairly standard D&D cleric and I almost let that stop me from buying him. I'm glad I didn't







I have finally started to paint eyes. i told my wife that and she asked,
"What did you used to do?"
"I just left them blank," I said.
"Creepy"

I am pretty happy with how they turned out. I followed Dr Faust's painting clinic, which an excellent resource on many things painting.

Knight of the Prophet

I bought this guy because I wanted to use his head on a Bane Knight conversion, but when I opened the Blister I decided I liked him. I wanted a scheme that took me away from my other minis and this is what I cam up with:



I was surfing the web looking for pictures of this guy once I had his base colours painted, because I wanted to see if other people were painting the hands as gloves or gauntlets. I found the official picture of him and to my surprise it was almost the exact same scheme as mine.



I am fairly happy with the way he came out, although I am not happy with the eyes, but I hardly ever both with eyes, so it's no surprise I am crap at them.



And one more picture because I am happy with the photography. I am finally get the hand of taking these pics.

A break from Menoth and Trolls

I managed to get a bit of modeling done today.

Work is a time sink

I bought a few miniatures today, but I have had no time to do anything related to them for almost a week now. On the weekend I want to assemble the Covenant and convert my Bane Knight. We'll see how that pans out, seeing as how my wife is due to give birth any time now.

A good opponent makes for a good game

I played at one of the local game stores yesterday that I have never played any games at before and I have lived here for four years. I have been meaning to go along to Warmachine Friday for at least 18 months, but many things have gotten in the way.

I played a guy who used Epic Haley with a pretty balanced force. Ironclad, Thorn, Hunter, Lancer, Sword Knights and Stormguard; he also had some buff solos. I had a Castigator, a Guardian and a devout, aklong with TFG and attachment, Choir, Knights Exemplar, a Seneschal and Vilmon.

It was a good game that came right down to the wire in the end. In turn 4 he had a go at assassinating Severius, but I got lucky (The defensive strike of the Devout also helped) and he came out almost unscathed. I advanced the Guardian out of combat (took almost no damage from the free strikes) and killed the Stormguard that was screening Haley. I then Immolated her twice with boosted damage for a measly total of 10 damage. I was a bit miffed about my crap damage rolls; one good boosted roll could have outright killed her and two on average rolls definitely should have killed her. Luckily though my second Immolation had set her on fire and with an average roll I could kill her with the flames at the start of the next round.

It was the only really tense moment for me because the game was in the balance. If the flames went out then Severius would die from the Hunter and the Lancer, if they kept burning there was a good chance I could kill her. As Menoth would have it the flames kept burning and the damage killed her and i won the game.

The thing that made the game good though was my opponent. He played well, but he was fair and in no way overly competitive. There was hardly any stress despite the balls to the wall aspect of rounds three and four and it was fun. My other regular opponents are also good like this (I don't want to say that this is new for me) as well, but I never know what to expect when I play a stranger in a shop. the fact that he was well mannered and comported himself very honourably during the game allowed me to relax and exorcise the competitive jerk from my own self.

Severius vs. Epic Asphyxious

I played against Mike's Cryx again last night and was defeated. After my initial shock at how powerful Bile Thralls, Bane Knights and Death Knell are, I decided to post a Battle report.

Round 1
We both moved forward toward each other. I formed up properly around the Temple Flame Guard (TFG) and Mike seemed to be a bit muddled up as he dashed forward in a mob. We both put down buffs and that was about it.

Round 2
Cryx turn:

-The Satyxis raiders charged my Jack wall on the left side of the field. They hit and damaged the castigator and the Revenger, taking out the castigator's left arm; each time they damaged, they also did a point of feedback to Severius.

-Asphxyious cast death knell through his arc node and killed 7 of the TFG and the standard bearer and the officer. They were in shield wall and had protection of menoth, but it seemed to not matter at all. Makes me wonder if there is a use for stuff with shield wall now as there are so many ways around it.

-The Bane Knights moved up nearer the Raiders, while on the right flank the Mechanithralls moved up to totally get in the way and tie up my Seneschal and Dervish. The rest of his army advance a little and that was it.

Menoth turn:

-Upkept Vision on Severious and Eye of Menoth overall.

-I moved Severius up behind the devout and cast Ahes to Ashes, killing 4 Bane Knights.

-The Reclaimer handed two focus to the castigator, who then moved forward a used combustion to kill 6 of the Satyxis Raiders.

-The Revenger stabbed the last raider that opened a trample lane toward the Satyxis Sea Witch, which the Avatar then used very well.

-The Avatar squashed the remaining witches as he ran over the top of them toward the Sea Witch who also died. He had focus left so he made a sword attack and killed a Bane knight that happened to be there and then Activated Menoth's Gaze.

-The Seneschal ran around the edge of the Mechanithralls (surviving the free strikes) and killed the Necrosurgeon.

-The Knights Exemplar move forward to form an extra screen around Severius in case the Devout isn't enough.

Round 3
Cryx turn:

-Asphyxious used his feat and brought back to 'life' all the Bane Knights I had killed and a bunch of Raiders as well.

-The bile Thralls move forward and one of them purges, killing a couple of Mechanithralls and all of my Knights Exemplar. The rest of the bile thralls shot at Severius and the Devout. One of them did more damage to Severius. At the time I thought this was ridiculously overpowered, but that was mainly because it is the second time in a row the Knights exemplar have been wiped out by one attack, before they had done anything. maybe I will stop using them so much.

-The Detahripper then slammed into the devout, knocking Severius down and leaving him open to the Bane Knight that was out of the range of Menoth's Gaze.

-The Bane Knight killed Severious and so my jack heavy army was rendered useless.



I think there are two reasons I lost:

1. I underestimated my opponents. It was only the fourth or fifth time I had faced Cryx
and I didn't know their models well enough to combat them properly.

2. I didn't play Severius defensively enough. I directly used ashes to ashes (he was that close to the front line) rather than channeling it.

What have I learnt?

Severius is an excellent caster and if I had used the arc node I really think I would have won the game. I was slaughtering him and apart from a Seether and some solos, he really didn't have much left, whereas I still had four jacks. maybe even 5 if the Avatar could have survived all those Bane Knights. So I will use Severius again today and use him properly.

Privateer models: Beauty and the Beast

I have to say that part of the reason that I play privateer games is because I was attracted by the look of the Warmachine minis. The Jacks looked awesome to my uninitiated eye back in 2006. The level of quality that is presented by a well finished Warmachine figure is second to none. There are figures that are as good, but there are none (imho) better. Having said all that, they can be a real pain in the arse to put together.

I started playing Warhammer in 1987 and then moved on to 40k and a few other miniature based wargames, but I never really had trouble putting the minis together and I would never have had to pin any of them. Warmachine has really introduced me to a new level of preparation for painting. I now have to pin a lot, which is a skill I only recently (the last few years) had to learn and I also resort to green stuff a lot as well; my mind boggled at how much green stuff I used on my castigator.

The miniature assembly is the only thing that really bugs me about the game. I don't want a drop in the quality of the sculpts, but it is asking a bit much when I have to pin a 28mm miniature in more than one or two places. Now let me present to you Gravus:



If I am lucky I will get away with three pins, but it might be prudent to pin his head as well, so that will be four. I'm sure the shoulder pad and the base don't require pinning, but you can never be too careful.

Well with that rant over I can get back to play testing Mk 2. I have a 50 pt game on Thursday night and I think there may be a spot for me on Friday at one of the local stores.

Mk 2 thoughts and clour schemes

I have read through some of the posts other players have written (on the forums and on blogs) about the Mark 2 rules and am impressed by the level of thought that has gone into a lot of it; I'm not counting the people that are crying because their favourite, broken, MK 1 game killer has been tamed by the nerf bat.

My own experiences were mostly fun games against friends or friends of friends and there was never any upset or über competitiveness. I played a few tournament games, but that was not the norm for me, so my in depth understanding of the intricacies of Mk 1 are not as in depth as much of what I have been reading. The switch to Mk 2 for me has been easy; I had no favourite broken thing (except possibly Vilmon) to mourn.

After saying all that I will present my findings as I find them. I played on Thursday against Cryx and Mike took a bunch of stuff he never used to take, which is a good thing. I will list a few of my thoughts about various units:

Harrower:
I had never seen one fielded before and if it sucked before it doesn't now. It charged my Knights Exemplar unit and killed all of them with thresher. My Castigator took it out, but it was close.

Castigator:
I only bought it a week ago, so I had never used it before and was very happy with the results. The combustion attack with a 2" area attack wiped out almost a whole unit of mechanithralls in one go. When the necromancer chick (don't know her name) brought them back to life in the next turn, the Castigator did it again and this time killed the necromancer.

Revenger:
Still a solid light warjack. Dished up a Thresher and some of the Mechanithralls. I am happy with it and would use it again.

The Choir:
I think I like the way the choir works better now than before. I like the way the power works from each member of the choir rather than from the priest leading them. I think it means that one choir might be enough in future.

The Reclaimer:
Being able to give three focus to one Warjack is more useful than being able to spread them around. The soulstorm is also excellent, but I never got to test it out as i didn't realise he had it until it was too late.


Painting thoughts
How important is a colour scheme across the whole army? I ask because I tire of my blue and red scheme. I dropped the blue on my knights and I dropped the red on Feorra, but overall my army is blue and red. I mention this because I am contemplating painting my Avatar differently.

I managed to finish Vilmon and my Seneschal yeterday and got a lot done on the Reclaimer as well.

Castigator completed in time to castigate

I finished my Casty this afternoon and am pretty happy with the result, especially since I departed from a technique I have been using for a long time. The difference was that I didn't ink the non metallic colours. I know its not that huge a thing to do differently, but I always (on key miniatures) use ink to provide a level of shade. I still inked the metallics though because they look flat without it and I am not good enough to do NMM.



Here he is from the side view. The only thing I don't like about the job is the pose he is in. The look I was going for was the scrapper throwing caution to the wind and diving into melee, but instead I got something else that could be called where are my keys?



I also did a lot more on the base than I normally do and I am happy with it for a first attempt, but I think in future I want my cobbles or flagstones to look more 3D. I think I have to rethink how basing is done. I might dig up a youtube vid of that prolific Canadian (I think he is the Kamloopian or something) model making guy. He has heaps of shows about miniatures and how to do stuff and he does it in real time, which means that while you might have to wade through 45 minutes to see a technique fully exploited, you get to see how it is done.



Last I have a picture of Rez and his Casty. I think Rez looks pretty proud of the little fella all grown up.



Next on the agenda (I have another week off work) is my Exempar Seneschal and my Reclaimer.

High Executioner Reznik has an offer for you

Here is Reznik after I finished him (I think I posted photos of him then) and then finished him again. I have gone back to the old blue and red colour scheme that I departed from with the exemplars; I replaced the blue with black.




Here he is from the other side with his Eddie Izzard inspired scroll of doom.