Still kicking... and screaming

The Long Night

Or more accurately, the long two months.

I know it's been a bit since I last posted, but I have a good reason. On Sunday, March 9, my second child, a boy, was born. It's been a frantic time around my house as we adjust to having an infant in the house once more, this time alongside a toddler. Free time, for both myself and my wife, has also been hampered by the fact that our boy has colic. Any parents out there who've experienced this reading this are probably having flashbacks like a Vietnam vet right now, so if you've yet to experience this phenomena, here's hope you don't have to.

Now, I've had a few opportunities to sit and paint, but I've had lots of time to plan several projects. Of course, my main one right now is getting my Imperial Knight finished. I hoping to get it completed for a painting competition that was being held at my local GW, however, while I was able to get it “finished” by most tournament standards (3 colours, based, etc), it is nowhere complete to my satisfaction.

The Night Watchman

I've written up a bit of back story for him, but I’ll save that for when I get him finished. He's so close... I am still coming up with designs for his shoulders and shins. And I'm still not sold on the heraldry on the shield.

As for other projects, I've been planning out my Dindrenzi fleet and how I want to paint it exactly. I’m still leaning towards Halo's UNSC ships, as they both have the same basic shape (an engine or two around a massive mass-accelerator canon). I recently picked up the newest boxes that arrived at my local gaming store for my fleet: The Carrier Battlegroup and the Heavy Cruiser Battlegroup, along with a blister of escorts.

My collection of ships has grown significantly and I think I'm at a point where the collection is pretty much complete. Here's everything I've got for the Dindrenzi. What do you guys think? Think this is an appropriate size? Are there any ships I should have?

The Fleet

On the Malifaux front, this has been one of the best parts of my limited hobby time. These models are fantastic! They are very dynamic and are amazingly detailed. I originally had picked up a few boxes to start (mostly from the Guild, as I already had picked up the old metal Ortega Family set at a swap meet) and went to town. After doing up the "Guild's Judgement" box with simply some sand and cork, I felt like I should go further with the bases.

The Guild's Judgement
Simple basing. Mostly sand, with the odd bit of cork to add some variation in height. It was while working on this box that I came across my only real issue with the kits: The "fiddly-ness" of some of the models. Lady Justice's sword snapped in my fingers with but the slightest pressure and the Scales had a brazier snap off while I was trying to remove it from the sprue. All in all a fantastic kit.

The Torch and Blade
I started to have fun with the bases here. I had spare balsa wood kicking around in various thicknesses, so I started cutting them to lengths that would fit onto the base to create a wood floor and wood walkway look. I did pull out my plasticard tile sheets part way through doing up this boxes bases, but it saw more use in the next box.


Hired Swords
These were my favourite box so far to put together and base, but also the fiddliest. I feel that my basing was the best with these models, and a good combination all my material. The models themselves also have a fantastic level of detail. The swords, however, drove me insane, especially on Viktoria of the Blood. You have to line up several pieces just right, so that her one arm drawing the katana from her back lines up with the other arm holding the scabbard.

The Thunder (and Company)
I just picked these up yesterday, by happenstance really. I was in my FLGS, Thunderground Comics and Games (you can find the address on the Alberta Community page), and he had just finished pricing out all the boxes he had brought in, of which these were a part of. Needless to say, I snatched them up quick, as I had planned to order them anyway.


On the Warmachine front, while I've been only able to paint a bit, I have been reading. In March, the newest book, Vengeance, was released. I've enjoying the progression of the story so far, and new models presented are looking like they will be fun on the table. In particular, I really want a reliant warjack for my Cygnar. With  both a P+S 17 hammer and POW 13 AOE, for only 8 points, I will probably be fielding at least one of these a lot. In particular with the newest iteration of Coleman Stryker. Speaking of the new Lord General...

Mine arrived this past Wednesday, and he is a very nice model. I'm looking forward to painting him up. He comes with two heads; one with his goggles up and one with his goggles over his eyes. I'm not quite sure which I plan to use yet. As for the Stormclad also in the photo, I have a plan to run the Lord General with two. I realize there is supposedly a plastic version coming out with the parts to also build the Reliant and a third, but... meh.



These also arrived two weeks ago. Boy, have I been waiting a long time for these! I wish I had picked up at least the Retribution journeyman caster as well, and maybe also the Protectorate one as well, but I am extremely happy with these models. A very nice level of detail and fairly easy to assemble. I'll have some more pictures of these in a future post, as I work on them. (Also, anyone else think they might use the coins as feat tokens?)

I also managed to pick up the new Privateer Press Tournament Bag. It holds a decent amount of models, all thinks considered. It comes with four small infantry trays, a medium infantry tray/light warjack/warbeast tray, a large warjack/warbeast tray and a think tray of pluck foam. I picked up a couple extra trays for some flexibility, though I do need to pick up at least one more small infantry tray, as I found I was lacking space for infantry and such. I found this out since I actually got to attend a local tournament this past weekend! I will post on it more in my next post, but suffice to say, not having played in two months, and using a list I theory-crafted in my head, I did reasonably well. This bad, however, worked perfectly as intended. I didn't feel I was hauling around my whole army, just this fairly light bag (compared to my full army bag anyway) and my display tray. I would highly recommend it to any competitive tournament goer. And if you play with colossals and such, the half trays do fit with some room to spare, as I did test it with my Stormwall and Storm Strider trays.

I think that's enough for now.
Next post: My experience at Edmonton Onslaught's Warmahordes tournament this past weekend.
Coming soon: Infinity and my look at the new Militarum Tempestus book and models, as well as the upcoming new edition of Warhammer 40,000.

Let me know what you think below!

Warmachine Campaign - The Heart of Thornwood

So I had a couple of the guys over the other night for gaming. We had been discussing doing a campaign in WarmaHordes for a while. I have a Mighty Empires tile set I painted up from when I used to work at the one of the GW's in town, and it seems like a waste to not use it again. It even works in an abstract way as the Thornwood with the Black River running up the right hand side into the lakes of the region.

While gaming and building we chatted about how we would work it. By the end of the night we had a decent set of rules to start from, with a few areas left to ponder about further. I think the Hordes special rule needs something more, but that's just me.

But, I'd like to hear what you guys think. Do you guys and gals have an suggestions? Comments? Issues?
Let me know below!

My Mighty Empires tile set, which hangs on the wall next to my gaming table.

The Rules (Thus far):

Campaign Turn Phases

1. Planning

2. Movement

3. Battle

4. Resolve

5. Claim

6. Build

7. Draw

Basics

- Each player selects three casters to count as their generals. These casters cannot be different versions of the same caster (ie. one casters cannot be Captain Victoria Haley and another Major Victoria Haley).

- Each player plays one game each campaign turn against one of the other campaign players. 

- Armies move D3 tiles during the movement phase of the campaign.

The Tiles

- The map were uses hexagonal tiles, so every tile is adjacent to six other tiles. This arrangement of seven tiles (the centre tile and its six adjacent tiles) are called "the flower." So where you see this, it is referring to this tile arrangement.
- Players begin the campaign with a "flower" arrangement of tiles in corner of the map with the "Fortified Encampment building on it. This building also counts as the players headquarters.
- For our purposes we used Games Workshops Mightly Empires set, however, any hexagonal map would do, even a hand drawn one.
- Tiles are captured by a player if that player has an army on that tile at the claim phase of the game.
- Each Tile can only have one building on built on it.

Buildings

- Only one building may be built per turn, during the build phase of the campaign. 

- Each building grants the controlling player a particular bonus, and each building can only be activated once per turn. Buildings are activated through ability cards.

- A building cannot be built adjacent to another friendly building. A building may be built adjacent to another building if that building is owned by another player (however, this is not without risk).

- If a tile is captured by a player from another player who had built a building on it, the new owner of the tile may choose to either keep the building or raze it, removing it from the tile. Faction buildings are automatically removed when an opposing player captures a tile. 

- Building cannot be built on mountain tiles.

Ability Cards

- Ability cards allow a player to activate a single building during the planning phase of the campaign. To activate a building, the player discards a card from their hand.

- Each player gains one (1) card during the draw phase of the campaign. A player gains an additional card if they win their game during the battle phase. 

- The maximum hand size for any player is 5. 

Special Rules

Warmachine Factions - Special Building: Train Stations

- Train stations count as adjacent for the purposes of movement. Train stations can only be used if the tiles between the stations are owned by the player, or the two players agree that movement can occur (otherwise the train would be intercepted by the opposing player). 

Hordes Factions - Affinity to Nature

- Hordes armies may build on mountain tiles.

Common Buildings

- Stables: Reduces the PC of cavalry units/models by one (1) to a minimum of one when building your army list this turn.

- Barracks: Reduces the PC of infantry units/models by one (1) to a minimum of one when building your army list this turn.

- Warjack Repair Station -  Reduces the PC of a single warjack by one (1) when building your army list this turn. A warjack can only be affected by one repair station per campaign turn.

- Taming Grounds - Reduces the PC of a single warbeast by one (1) when building your army list this turn. A warbeast can only be affected by one taming ground per campaign turn.

- Arcane Nexus: Only one nexus can be built by a player. Grants the player's warcaster/warlock the following special rule:
Arcane Attunement: Once per game, all spells/animus' cast by this warcaster/warlocks (or by warbeasts in its battlegroup) have their cost reduced by one to a minimum of one. 

- Fortified Encampment: Buildings may be build adjacent to the encampment and may ignore other buildings if they are also adjacent to the same encampment. 

Faction Buildings

- Coming soon...

Trying out new things

I hope everyone had a good long weekend (at least for those of you in North America). I had a very good weekend, which will probably be one of the last I can play away from home in a bit, as my wife is about to "pop" with our second child. And I admit, I'm a little late on this post, as it has been very busy in the hustle and bustle leading up to his arrival.

On the long weekend, though, I got a night and an afternoon of gaming, each time trying out casters I don't usually use. Friday night, after being issued a challenge from a friend who wanted to see a Cygnar melee list, I wrote up a small list with eStryker. Monday afternoon, I was over at a friend's place where I played two 50 point games with a Kara Sloan Trencher list. Both were interesting. For the first list, it was 25 points a person and it was a team game. Now, while I wanted the two Legion players to team up, we did it randomly, and the Legion players were on opposite sides with myself (playing Cygnar) and our fourth friend playing Trollbloods.

My teammate Legion player, played with Lylyth (Shadow of Everblight), while my opponents played with Jarl Skuld and Thagrosh (the Messiah). It led to some interesting rounds of combat. Jarl magic bullet'ed poor Lylyth to death through her warbeasts early on, which lead Lord Commander Stryker to attempt to tank both our opponents. He almost got an early charge off on Jarl using his Velocity spell to move him forward 2" per focus, however, I forgot that Skaldi had counter-charge. Thus, the moment I moved forward, he charged me. But, he was in range of Ol'Rowdy's counter-charge, so I charged
him back. This lead to a Stryker ultimately smashing Skaldi and then popping his feat to move himself back and advance his army up to provide him cover. The next turn, Jarl killed Lylyth, but it left him exposed to another charge from Stryker. This time it was successful; the Lord Commander took his head clean off with a nice bonus 11 strength from Overload. Thagrosh then charged Stryker taking him to his last health box.

And this is why I really enjoy Warmachine. You can end up with nail-biters like this. Stryker just has to kill him this round, with no use of his Overload. And I almost succeeded. Stryker brought Thagrosh down to HIS LAST BOX. And then Thagrosh poked Stryker and it was game.

On the Monday, a friend hosted a "WarmaHordapalooza" at his place. I brought out a Kara Sloan list using all trenchers that I had been mulling over over the course of the weekend. The only trencher models I own I didn't get into the list were the commandos and Jonas (since I didn't have a merc unit). It wasn't a bad list, but I did see it's flaws.

I got two games that day. The first game was against Legion. It started out very good for me, however, I found out the trencher range isn't the greatest if you don't kill things. It was almost a win for Cygnar on Kara's feat turn, with so much being shot down range and clearing decent lines of sight thanks to Taryn. Unfortunately, his caster survived the barrage of lead (his warbeasts, however, is another story). Once again it was Thagrosh who struck down my caster is a blaze of glory, after I attempted to get shot him (and having my trenchers throw grenades at the backs of other trenchers just outside Thagrosh's reach so that the blast killed my trenchers in his engagement zone, so I didn't have to deal with the defense bonus of him being in combat). Sadly, it failed and I hadn't planned my line of fire correctly. So Thagrosh simply charged with his reach and smited down Kara where she stood.

My second game was against Circle. This game went much better for me. Having learned what works and doesn't in my first game, I stayed strictly within what I knew worked. My cannon, hunter, minuteman andd Kara focused on taking down the Wolddwardens and Megalith, and Baldur, with the aid of Lady Aiyana, Holt and Taryn, while the rest my army dealt with the rest of his. And it work the way I planned. Turn two I had everything of mine (and he was in a position favorable to what I wanted). Kara popped her feat and she and her battlegroup unleashed hell on one of the Woldwardens and Megalith, enough to destroy both and still have enough shots to continue through into Baldur. The rest the army took out a good chunk of his druids and the UA to one of his unit of stones. On his turn, he came out swinging, taking out my stormcaller, some of the trenchers and punching my minuteman into the ground. Kara, with the help of Aiyana and the Hunter that Baldur fell.

Overall, with both games I learned a bit more about casters I don't usually play. I'm definitely playing more eStryker. And Kara seems to need a bit of finesse, and careful planning to execute properly (and the list I had wasn't great against higher armour things). I've been thinking of trying out a suggestion I've seen quite a few times as a way to prep for tournaments and using eStryker as part of it. The plan is to select three casters and play the crap out of just them, each time using different things, testing and refining the lists. This is also so those three casters are understood fullyand are used when it comes to multiple list style tournaments. Caine is a my favourite personality within Cygnar (especially after reading his book from Skull Island Expeditions), and I just have to decide whether I want to use pCaine (support) or eCaine (assassination). Something to think about on my end.


On a side note, I've been distracted with trying to finish off some 40K armies. As a preview of my next post here's what I've been working on.

Grey Knight Brotherhood Champion test conversion

Also in the News: UPDATE FOR WAR ROOM!
I'm still going through it, testing it's new features. The topic of a future post maybe?

Privateer Press at Templecon: Part 2 - Hordes

In part 2 of my look at  the Privateer Press' keynote presentation, I look at the preview of the upcoming book for Hordes: Exigence.

Flame on!

Hordes new book: Exigence

I'll be completely honest, Exigence excites me more than the Cephalyx. Probably because there seemed to be more to this preview. The plot lines of the last several Hordes and Warmachine books are starting to converge and this book, along with Warmachine: Vengeance (out next month), present this. First up, they show the new warlocks, along with reappearances of past warlocks.

Helga the Conquerer, digital sculpt. 

They presented three warlocks set to appear, the first being a new Farrow warlock; Helga the conquerer. The first female warlock for the Farrow, she appears to be a support caster with a spell list that leans towards supporting those around her. Her model looks very cool from the preview they showed.

Also, to appear was another female warlock, Jagujagu, the first female Gatorman period. It sounds like she is going to be more spell based, with a snake who fights along side her.

Xerxis, digital sculpt.

Lastly, was a new version of Xerxis. The last we saw him, he was severely injured and being dragged off the battlefield by his comrades. Now, with his return, instead of going the Professor X route, he's forgone the wheelchair and taken up an armoured war rhino! He appears to be a combat beast, but we don't know what his spell list will be like, so time will tell on that one.

I look forward to see what other casters may be coming down the pipe with Exigence, especially when you combine this news with the news of lesser warlocks. Not unsurprisingly, the announcement of lesser warlocks comes shortly before the release of the next Warmachine book, which features journeyman warcasters. These models represent novice battlegroup leaders, lesser versions of your army's commander.

Una and her team of falcons.

The folks at Privateer Press preview two, a Circle of Orboros lesser warlock and a Trollblood lesser warlock. They are similar to the journeyman warcasters, in that they have less fury and spells and can command a small battlegroup. The one that stood out for me was Una the Falconer. She is focused around falcons (obviously), and forms battlegroups around Circle griffins. Not only is her art fantastic, but from the digital mockup they previewed, her model is going to be fantastic too! I look forward to seeing what her rules bring to the table. 

Close up of Una's digital sculpt.

The other lesser warlock they previewed was Holger Ironstrike (I think that was his name). He focus' around Pyre and Slag trolls and gets them at a discount! He even has abilities that enhances their ranged attacks. Between this warlock and the Circle lesser warlock, it appears that there will be a nice variation between them, but also some similarities that bring together a nice theme to the new book.

Exigence also will feature, at least, two new battle engines. Both of the ones seen were for Minion subfactions, which may be a way for them to flesh out these groups. The first was for the Gatormen and was called the Sacro-vault (?), which is a tall pillar like tower with a sacrificial alter on the top. This battle engine is said to be powered by the souls of the models that die within proximity of the Sacro-vault. The second is for the Farrow and called the meat-thresher. It's essentially a spiked, steamroller powered by BBQ'd razorboars (seriously). 

Xerxis and his mount, Rhinox.

The last new feature announced is the "Warbeast Pack." These are essentially warbeast units. They can do many of the same things a warbeast can do (use fury, damage transfer, etc) but also can act like a unit (unit coherency, damage points instead of spirals, etc). The idea of mini warbeasts running around is kind of frightening. I can only imagine what happens when a warbeast pack frenzies! I can only hope my warlock is not the closest model. 

All in all, this seems like a really exciting book, both gameplay wise and story wise. With some beautiful models coming along with it, it makes the next few months of very interesting as the models slowly get released. Exigence is scheduled to come out sometime this fall, so I might as well start saving up now, because Warmachine: Vengeance is already going to leave a dent in my wallet.

I'll end this post with a few images I snagged from the video presentation that were never really explained. 

Is this a new Legion warlock or lesser Warlock?
A shot of it's sculpt was seen also in the video.

New Satyr?

Trollblood Highwaymen? Please!

Tell me what you think of Exigence? And don't forget to join us on Facebook!

Privateer Press at Templecon: Part 1 - Warmachine

On Friday, Privateer Press held a keynote presentation at the Templecon convention. It was quite the show and if you haven't seen it yet, you can watch it here: http://www.twitch.tv/privateerpress/b/501465395.

They revealed quite a bit about the future of the Warmachine/Hordes universe.

WARMACHINE NEW MERC FACTION: CEPHALYX

No longer just helping Cryx, Cephalyx steps out on their own.

The big reveal for Warmachine was a new sub-faction for within the Mercenaries; the Cephalyx. These are a race of people who live beneath the surface of Caen, who have mental powers that rival Charles Xavier. The Cephalyx is about controlling those who they see beneath them (who just happen to be above them, physically). Those that they do control, they alter, swapping out hands for weapons. They control them through various in-game abilites, either through joining units or models within a radius, increasing stats or damage. These slaves lose their individuality and seem to lack the ability to feel pain. Prior to this release, the Cephalyx only had a minor role in the Cryx faction. 

One of Cephalyx' big, nasty monstrosities.

The faction also introduces a new type of model: monstrosities. These model function as the Cephalyx' version of warjacks. They differ, however, in a number of ways. Firstly, they don't count as "constructs" like jacks do. These models are living. Thus, what spells and abilities affect warjacks, don't affect monstrosities. But, spells and abilities that affect living models, affect monstrosities. This will make fight against certain Hordes factions interesting. Secondly, because they are not warjacks, they do not have a cortex system. So, while they work with the Focus system, like warjacks do, they cannot be affected by things that damage the cortex. Third, and the big one, because of these differences, they are not warjacks. 

The small-base units, known as drudges, are all made of up people who have been taken in by the Cephalyx mind control. To make things worse, as the drudge slaves, all the Cephalyx have some form of "sacrificial pawn" ability, which destroys the drudge for some bonus. The Cephalyx use both the drudges and the monstrosities as fodder, keeping themselves safely behind. 

Exulon Thexus and company.

The other interesting part of the Cephalyx is that they are a sub-faction of Mercenaries. This means that they can take other mercenary units and models to manage weaknesses within the army. However, it looks like they have to take a Cephalyx UA, the Dominator, that makes they count as "slaves." They gain buffs through this UA, but if it dies, the unit flees.

All these come together for a truly unique theme. They seem to be a rather varied in that their monstrosities, based on the stat cards shown in the video, seem to be strong in melee. Though, the Cephalyx themselves, would rather stay back. The warcaster they showed, Exulon Thexus, has a whopping 8 Focus and allows his monstrosities to act as arc nodes and healing them. His feat "manipulates enemy model positions," and his spells appear to affect enemy models to his advantage.

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing this army play on the table. Not only do they have some very cool looking models, but the concept, ruleswise, seems very interesting. Very strong monstrosities that smash everything, with units that, from the look of it, act as meat-shields for the Cephalyx themselves. I want to see more from this faction as we approach their release, which looks to be Lock & Load this year.

"Dance for me, puppet."

EXCLUSIVE TEMPLECON MODEL

Lastly, Privateer Press released an exclusive model at Templecon. An alternate version of Goreshade the Bastard, this one is "rolling the bones" with a large die in his hand and ghostly dice in its wake. This model is not just available at the event, however. It is also available through the Privateer Press store.

What did you think of what Privateer Press revealed for Warmachine? Are any of you thinking of starting Cephalyx?

In our next post, we'll take a look at what Privateer Press revealed about Hordes and it's upcoming book: Exigence.

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Warmachine: Tactics models!

I wish April would get here faster!

Privateer Press released a preview the limited edition Warmachine: Tactics models, painted in all their glory!

Only two months away... bugger.

I'm very impressed with these sculpts so far. The only one that I think could have been better is the Khador Journeyman Warcaster, who feel a bit static, but that could just be the angle. 

Also of note from Privateer Press; their fiction side, Skull Island eXpeditions, has announced that they are adding their book line to Audible.com. Two books were released today: Into the Storm and Instruments of War. And they have announced a new anthology, Rites of Passage, which will feature short stories revolving around the journeyman warcasters from Warmachine: Tactics.

Trouble in Llael

Just a quick update for today! What do you guys think of the limited edition models?