Manflu

I have returned from visiting family in France, though I actually have a cold rather than manflu (mancold: does it still apply?); it does stop me from sleeping, which is a pain. However, sleeping in the living room in a house occupied by young children also stopped me from sleeping... (Uncle Andy, look! Thomas go choo-choo! - thank you my nephew, it's only 5:30am, don't mind me).

Staring at all the clutter on my desk is somewhat demoralising, there's a lot of things to get done. A nice surprise to come back to was the latest update to the Hordes Field Test rules:

http://privateerpress.com/company/hordes-holiday-field-test-update

I don't see any changes to the Trollbloods, which is helpful, it means I don't have to go and print out any new sheets of paper. I'm going to give pDoomshaper a few more whirls, but I'm not sure if he will outweigh the fun factor I get from eDoomshaper. There's something exceedingly pleasant about being able to rampage across almost half a board. Oh Long Riders have 8 wounds again, woot.

Spy vs Spy

I have just returned from an EPIC game against Jim. I was trying out a pMadrak list against Jim's new pButcher warjack zerg. It also brought into focus the strengths and weaknesses of each system for me.

My pMadrak list was most experimental, I thought I'd test out my new Fennblades, the Stone Scribe Chronicler and pMadrak as compared to my usual eDoomshaper list of Mighty Pwnage. Jim's pButcher Warjack Zerg - it has progressed to the point where it has earned capital letters - swapped out his usual Widowmakers for 2 squads of Mechaniks. While the game was awesome and had a suitable finale - I charged the Butcher with Madrak and left him on 5 damage, then Madrak died - giving a blow by blow account wouldn't convey what was learnt here.

Firstly, Hordes has a vastly higher 'front load' of damage than Warmachine, but once the warbeasts start to drop there is a noticeable decline in performance in the army. I blitzed three of Jim's warjacks in the game - unheard of before - and came close to annihilating the Dreaded Juggernaut (my hatred of the Dreaded Juggernaut is likened to the hatred one has for cold showers) but once my Mauler was gone there wasn't a lot I could do against ARM 20 models and eventually my army sloooowly died.

Initially Jim supported the idea that Hordes was still leagues ahead of Warmachine when comparing heavies, but I like to think our game has shifted his opinion. I'm quite worried about the damage output of a faction like Circle whose heavies are usually quite low in the P+S (usually about 15 for Circle) against a faction like Khador. Of course, perhaps Circle aren't supposed to get into a straight up punching match... Design and development continues!

Madrak Ironhide, Thornwood Chieftain:
Not inspiring. I made a boo-boo with Crusher, but then again against a list comprised almost entirely of warjacks he wasn't the best choice. I never saw the point of casting Stone Fall. All he seemed to do was upkeep Sure Foot and chuck his axe at Khador warjacks. Needs something more fun to happen to him. If we *had* to keep an AoE offensive nuke I'd like to see Eliminator on him instead.

Doomshaper, Shaman of the Gnarls:
Didn't survive long enough to really test him out. I should have used his feat but we'll just have to see through more experience. Seems to requires a way to increase his spell range or hike up his armour.

Trollkin Fennblades:
Awesomesauce. Strangely enough Hard was a factor in the game, seeing as Jim brought with along a Marauder. Snag & Slash was totally useless, I feel we just don't see enough cavalry in the game to bother with the rule. I did have a few problems with having 10 medium bases getting in the way of my warbeasts but maybe I just need more practice. I suspect my opinion of the Fennblades may be skewed by the bajillion Tough checks I succeeded at. I'm going to try replacing my minimum unit of Champions with a maximum unit of Fennblades to see how that works with my Doomshaper (either one) lists.

Stone Scribe Chronicler:
Finally, my first model to have Overpowered in its feedback. Hero's Tragedy is very intimidating to fight against and Tale of the Mists was almost a game winner against Jim's Legion in our 2nd game (or course I made a good 90% of my Tough checks then). With an army of medium bases Hero's Tragedy means we can just swarm a target and if it fights back it's toast next turn (unless our own medium bases get in the way).

The Hordes vs Warmachine debate continues!

Spy vs Spy name and image copyright of some guys who aren't me. Please don't sue me.

To be continued...

Hordes MKii Field Test Update 3: The Skorne Edition

http://privateerpress.com/company/hordes-field-test-model-update

The 3rd update is now available for download and it's jam-packed with Skorne loving. There's a few tweaks here and there for the other factions, but this update focuses heavily on Skorne. The changes are too numerous for me to list - and the fact I don't play Skorne means I don't know the implications of many of the changes. Fortunately someone else did all the work for me.

Snacking is now optional on the Dire Trolls and pDoomshaper swapped Death Sentence for Fortune. Kromac lost Pounce and gained Leap while in Beast form. Geomancy now specifies that it can only be used once a turn. The Woldwarden and Megalith animi stay in place when they are cast, apparently this was what MrSoles actually wanted us to test - many of us thought the animi were supposed to move with the construct warbeasts because of a previous post of his. eLylyth gained... er... Range Amplifier? and Typhon has had a Mystery Change. You can tell I play against Legion a lot...

There's a few interesting development with Minions too. All the minion warlocks had their cost reduced by 1 and Alten Ashley lost 2 RNG on Bucking Jenny (woohoo). Saxon Orrik gained Take Down but that doesn't increase the likelihood of him making it into one of my lists.

Quick errata of the update concerning Skorne.

Blades of Fenn

The plastic has cometh. I've just unpacked my box of Fennblades and they're pretty nice actually. The usual removing of flash needs to be done, but it's not world ending. Lots of the swords are bent but I've discovered this can be fixed with a hair dryer (no I'm not kidding). It's a bit unclear who the unit leader is, but I think I figured that out through a process of elimination - there's only one guy who isn't duplicated, ergo, he must be the leader. I'll have to make an epic base for him so my opponent knows who he is.

The parts all fit together with in-built pegs on the arms/kilt bits that slot into the torso. The Fennblades are slightly larger than normal trollkin, they tower over pMadrak and eDoomshaper. I've also discovered an amazing fact about the Fennblades. They aren't covered in all the crap that usually covers Privateer Press miniatures. They aren't carrying every single possible item or piece of equipment a trollkin might need. They have swords, quitari, armor, a couple of belt pouches, and a tiny beer keg (what is a trollkin without his beer?).

I think I'll even do a Sunshine Kriel tutorial using these guys, they're just that awesome.

Hordes MKii Field Test Update 2

Hordes Update 11/12/09

Wow. Just wow. Despite me thinking that we'd never see Full Throttle for Hordes, there it is. On Kromac. It's called Havoc in Hordes and I'm not entirely sure if people realise what a fury multiplier it actually is. Wild Aggression doubles the effective fury a warbeast has. Havoc multiplies that also by the number of warbeasts you have. Not that this matters to me since I play Trollbloods and you don't need boosted hits to hit my models anyway; but still... It's gross.

Many warbeasts now have increased damage boxes, and more than a few have had their threshold stat improved. Holy monkey Jesus on a bike, Paralysis got nerfed! Avert ye eyes if you don't want to witness the Happy Dance.

:D-\-<
:D-/-<
:D-|-<
:D->-<

Oh and Geomancy is back to what it used to be. I'm not entirely sure what to make of that.

Ahh, design flaws that still creep in: Mulg cannot use Overtake if he is killing living models since he has Snacking. Overtake triggers on destroyed, Snacking triggers on boxed. Someone said his animus had improved. It's the same animus effectively, only worded different. However, a faster Mulg (at base speed that is) is a better Mulg!

Child's Play

A reminder to everyone: Child's Play is still accepting donations. Donate and help a children's hospital somewhere in the world.

I really should have been paying more attention to Child's Play this year, and I've left it very late - I blame the Field Test! I'll try to organise something next year if we're all still playing Warmachine/Hordes.

Made from Concentrate

Now that I have had a rather lengthy time off the plumbing I've been lurking on this here 'intarwebs' and managed to get myself dragged into the horrible mire of other faction's "feedback" posts on the Field Test Forums. Oh {divinity of choice} why?! I know telling people Lern2Play (oh the days of WoW come back to me now) isn't really valid and actually quite stolid but it's something some people need to have tattooed onto their foreheads.

Having dragged myself free of the quagmire (and throwing Sean in instead) here is a list of all the feedback I am actually qualified to give concerning Hordes:

Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia: Excellent warlock. Wild Aggression is an amazing spell and the rest of his spell list is pretty solid. Feat needs tweaking to do things that aren't a trample, slam, or charge. Hyper-Regeneration allows eDoomy to be fairly careless with fury management.

Dire Troll Mauler: Excellent warbeast. So far it has performed admirably against other Hordes factions. It does seem very slightly expensive for what it does but that seems to be a trait with most heavy warbeasts.

Earthborn Dire Troll: Hide it in some rough terrain and it's an ungodly lurking terror. While I would like Elemental Communion to be less reliant on terrain on the table, the Earthborn is worth the extra point over the Mauler just for Pathfinder.

Troll Axer: Strangely I haven't actually had my Axer make it into combat very often. It's very solid for its point cost and the amount of utility I get from it is amazing. No changes suggested for the Axer, it may just be the perfect light warbeast.

Troll Bouncer: It exists for Bump and Shield Guard, neither of which I am able to fully utilize at the moment. I'm going to need more experience with the Bouncer before I can say I'd change anything.

Trollkin Champions: I am in awe of the Champions, though I've never used heavy infantry before. The only feedback I have for them is that the grunts in the unit need a resculpt badly. I honestly have no idea if they're too powerful or not, I've never had a problem with killing them in MKi and they don't seem any harder to kill in MKii. I'll consult my opponents about this.

Troll Whelps: These things are so unbelievably awesome. They're *totally* worth their point cost, even before the change to their Fury management. No changes suggested.

Pyre Troll: The Pyre Troll seems to require the use of an Impaler to get the most out of his ranged attack. Combo-strike would be an excellent improvement.

Trollkin Champion Hero: I'm afraid he just doesn't bring anything amazing to the table, at least not in my list. Maybe if my army had models that weren't fearless then he would be worth taking. He needs some sort of ability to bump up his armour as he's actually easier to kill than a normal Champion at the moment.

Fell Caller: Amazing utility. No changes suggested.

I just don't have any feedback concerning other factions. All the models used against me seem to do their jobs or get eaten by dire trolls. I haven't encountered a model that I think is totally broken. An ARM 23 Gladiator was intimidating but it wasn't something I wasn't equipped to deal with. I didn't even find Jim's pKaya list that threatening; he certainly could have gotten the kill there but it did serve to highlight that Kaya herself hits like soggy toilet paper.

For those who were curious (all one of you) my eDoomshaper list is the following:

35 Points
Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia
*Earthborn Dire Troll
*Dire Troll Mauler
*Troll Axer
*Troll Impaler/Pyre Troll/Troll Bouncer - use whichever is most appropriate
Trollkin Champions (min)
Fell Caller
Trollkin Whelps

This weekend I'm due to play a Cygnar player so I'll be able to give some feedback on how my list fares against a Warmachine faction.

iBodger Update

iBodger by Whicken has been updated to include the Hordes Field Test models and points - this does not include the small update we received on the 4th however, so keep a note of any point changes (so.. the Winter Troll).

Om Nom Nom

Do you hear that? Listen carefully. Do you know what it is? It is the sound Snacking.

Finally a win with eDoomshaper, also the first game where I’ve been able to get his feat off - in the first turn too, I ate a Feral Warpwolf and then lost my Mauler, but it was totally worth it! I was not aware that Kaya had a ludicrously long assassination run (somewhere in the region of ~24”); but luckily for me her weapon is feeble and Jim did not get the critical knockdown after 4 boosted attacks, eDoomshaper still had 2 damage boxes and 2 fury left after Jim's assassination run. Then my Earthborn Dire Troll with Wild Aggression ate her.

Having used a Fell Caller now instead of a Hero, I noticed a massive different in utility. The Fell Caller can just do so much more stuff. Definitely makes it on to my To Buy list. This does highlight the issues with the Hero though, he does seem a massive waste of points except with pMadrak - he’s prime Crusher material then.

Overall the game was quite enjoyable, I certainly didn't expect to survive through Jim's assassination, especially with Doomshaper - I was also expecting Jim to play a game of attrition using Spirit Door to just wear me down; however, the opportunity to kill eDoomshaper came up and Jim went for it. I totally need to remember about Goad though, it may have saved my Mauler from a horrible, horrible (though comedic) death. Lessons to remember before Jim Strikes Back in our next game.

'Ee's Oooge.

Ahhh, finally done. At least until I have a mad urge to do crazy amounts of extra detail work. My normal technique for making a model super-matt appears to have failed me, so I think I'm going to have to pick up a can of Testor's Dullcote at some point.

Note to Self: Check the label of the spray can I pick up. Just because it looks like varnish doesn't mean it isn't white undercoat. Oops

Hordes FT: Update Changes

So... the first of the Hordes update changes arrived and... not a lot happened in it. Absylonia had quite a few changes, perhaps becoming the pMagnus of Hordes, but otherwise the update brought about a bunch of very small corrections. I was really hoping for something more but there's a lot of feedback to sort through. I did indeed send in my feedback about Elemental Communion and I still think "build more terrain" is not a solution to triggering an ability in a game. Answers like that make me think someone needs a slap.

Having had another game where I haven't been able to get anything out of eDoomshaper's feat I've realised that he requires some very specific support to function: a Krielstone Bearer with Stone Scribe Elder and a Bouncer. The first is to remove things like Paralysis, which so far has been the bane of my life. The second is to prevent such things as Kaelyssa draining off all his Fury. No doubt I'll find something else to include after my game against Jim on Tuesday.

On the painting side of things my Earthborn Dire Troll is almost finished. Woohoo! I'm not sure what's next, probably the Axer or Dire Troll Mauler.

Lethal Feedback

The feedback forms for the Hordes MKii Field Test are now open.

My feedback so far:
eDoomshaper - pleased with him so far. Feat needs work as if you are denied the charge/slam/trample (or just charge) it is totally worthless. Feat needs to give a simple increase to either movement or SPD (SPD please!) and not rely on those 3 special attacks. Also asked for Full Throttle instead of Wild Aggression but don't expect that will happen, as much fun as it would be to run masses of warbeasts with it and oh so Fury efficient.

Earthborn Dire Troll - very tired of Elemental Communion, would like it to change to be exactly like Controlled Warping with +2 DEF/+2 ARM/+2 SPD. This takes away the terrain lottery and improves versatility.

Dire Troll Mauler - solid, very happy with this warbeast.

Field Test: Snacking

Having just read the Fury Manipulation update - particularly about Reaving - it turns out Sean would not have been able to Reave from any of his warbeasts at all since Snacking removes the model from play at the boxed stage. Cunning, will have to remember this. Dire Trolls just got even better.

Hordes FT Notes: Game One

Just got back from play Sean Murchie in a 25 point game. I was using Trollbloods and he was using Skorne. I annihilated his army but left eDoomy a little exposed (I did think he could take a little more punishment) so Sean nailed me with a 13 damage Torment from pMorghoul and then hunted me down while I couldn't heal. The rest of Sean's army was not so lucky however and were eaten by Dire Trolls. At the end of the game he only had 4 Paingiver Beast Handlers and pMorghoul left. I had everything except my throw-away Kriel Warriors and the Whelps (and I guess eDoomy).

eDoomy: The Xjel approves. Feat needs some work. I'd like it to give +X SPD instead of an extra 3" movement on charges/slams/tramples. I didn't get to use it the entire game. I need to get more games in so that I can get used to his spell list however, I kept forgetting important things.

Earthborn Dire Troll: Wow. I'm impressed, I've never had a warjack hitting as hard and as often as this guy. Perhaps that's because I don't play Khador...

Dire Troll Mauler: Wild Aggression + Chain Attack: Grab and Smash = Fun times! Also, see above.

Troll Axer: Solid workhorse warbeast. Does the job. Didn't use Rush once the entire game - Sean had a definite alpha strike over me with pMorghoul and Paingivers.

Kriel Warriors: Expendable. Wasn't expecting anything from them, use and discard as needed. Was tempted to use them for Snacking at one point.

Whelps: The saviours of my list. Perhaps slightly over-costed, I'd like their points to change from 2 points for 5 whelps to 1 point for 3 whelps. Though they DID allow my trolls to eat Sean's alpha strikes and then function fully the next turn... More games needed to analyse their impact.

Sean's Savages hurt each time they charged in and damn near killed both my dire trolls when he sent them in. Unfortunately he didn't kill either dire troll and so they ended up with large amounts of health back very quickly. The Earthborn ended the game at full health, the Mauler went from 2 boxes of damage left to about 65%. I have Regenerate and the Whelps to thank for that.

Since Sean didn't kill my Dire Trolls, they ate all his Cyclops (3), the Krea (I hate paralytic field so much), numerous praetorians and I spent some time trying to herd pMorghoul into expiring Admonition. The Dire Trolls play like Khadoran heavies: if you don't kill them outright then they drown you in a world of hurt. There was a point where I killed the a Cyclops Brute and Savage (all part of a healthy and balanced diet) and still had some fury left over. I was a bit stunned.

Lessons:
The paralysis continuous effect is evil.
eDoomshaper's feat is useless if you can't charge/slam/trample (see paralysis).
Treat eDoomshaper like a very fragile warcaster, do not expect him to absorb damage like Magnus can. He has a big control area, use it. Do not expose him. Ever. Even when your opponent has less models on the table than you have fingers on one hand.
Wild Aggression, oh how I love thee and thine sister Iron Aggression. I would prefer Full Throttle however (*cough*).
I didn't have any problems with fury management. Just play like you're a fury-1 warcaster with some extra bells and whistles. Didn't have to make a single frenzy check the entire game. Not sure what all the fuss is about.

Things to Note: Part 1

Things to Note in MKii and the Hordes Field Test:
A model that has been field promoted cannot make an attack in the turn it was promoted. (Hordes FT p.58/Prime MKii p.79)

Shake Effects is done after leeching but BEFORE a warbeast makes a frenzy check. (Hordes FT p.40-42)

A frenzying warbeast only makes a single attack with the highest POW weapon it possesses. Attack and damage rolls for this attack are boosted. (Hordes FT p.41)

A model that cannot be knocked down must forfeit either its movement or action only if it is thrown or slammed during your turn. Other knock down effects do not trigger this condition. (Hordes FT p.24-25 (Being Slammed/Being Thrown)/Prime MKii p.53-54 (Being Slammed/Being Thrown))

Throwing a model with a Double-Hand Throw and aiming at a target is a melee attack roll. Being on the receiving end of a thrown model is not counted as an attack against that model. (Hordes FT p.26/Prime MKii p.55)

Weapon locks are awesome.

Playing the Field

It has begun. I was typing out my preliminary notes, particularly concerning the Trollbloods, but it's too early and the notes would be too lengthy to write out as I had planned. It would be a mighty Wall of Text, suitable for use in the construction industry.

Let us have a moment of silence for the end of an era. Mantarp has vanished. No longer will Johanna be horrified as Dermot and I discuss the virtues of Mantarp on Grim Angus (though Stony will be delighted). It has passed beyond the veil.

I am appalled at the lack of change I see in certain places. pKrueger's wold lightning spam is still alive and kicking, though the effects do begin to decline the more the pKrueger player spams Chain Lightning 4 times a turn. The Trollkin brick is still completely functional - indeed, it remains completely in place for the low Fury warlocks.

There are strange variations in certain warbeasts' MAT and RAT scores. For instance, why does the Feral Warpwolf possess a higher MAT than the Pureblood? I'm sure I could come up with a rational story-related and logical reason for this, but at first glance it makes no sense. Also, why does the Earthborn Dire Troll retain Elemental Communion instead of gaining the Controlled Warping of the Feral Warpwolf? It would make life simpler, though then we'd have to see the Earthborn's animus change again. An animus with a simple armour boost would be nice.

Many out of turn effects also remain in play (the Murchinator will be Pleased).

Now that I have spouted DOOM, I shall get some games in to spout the wonders of such things as the Runeshapers (5 damage boxes each, woot!).

Increased Iron Content

Why is it so hard to get a group of decent role-players together at the same time? It's a bewildering Gordian Knot of scheduling conflicts and general unreliability. Is this because we all have Real Lives now? What happened to all that precious Free Time we used to possess? It's probably a sign that it's time to give up the ghost and move on to other things; or lower my standards...

Taking a break from the earthborn for now; my swamp gobbers and the trollkin hero have diverted my attention temporarily. Searching through my bits box I found an old Madrak Ironhide head, so I put that on my hero instead of the normal head with the horsehair helm - there's just something more menacing about Madrak's face. I've since put the hero on hold until I figure out how to spruce up the hero's armour - at the moment it's just silver, very boring. I was thinking of some interesting freehand, but lack the artistic creativity to visualise what I'm after. Internet images ho! Thundercats reference for you philistines who don't get it.

Speaking of gobbers, why are there no miniatures of bogrin?

Privateer Press Newsletter

The first Privateer Press e-mail newsletter was sent out today, supposedly containing a preview of the cards for the Ghordson Basher as well as Dannon Blythe & Bull. I can tell you now the links for the Ghordson Basher do not work despite a Privateer Press update on twitter 8 hours ago. It's actually kind of annoying that the link is made of failcake (like sponge cake, only with more fail); I really want to know what the Basher does. The links for Blythe & Bull work fine however. New links are up and working now. Thank you to TTGN.

Ghordson Basher Front
Ghordson Basher Back

Dannon Blythe & Bull do seem rather feeble at first glance, but once you start factoring in their Huntman bonuses they definitely get more impressive. They're a small unit that's designed to go hunt down other small units or solos. People will have to remember Huntsman is on Blythe, so if she dies Bull can't change his Prey even after it's been killed. Take Down looks interesting but I don't see it coming up very often unless they're being used against Trollbloods or an army with large amounts of Tough inducing support. The two of them have a very odd symbiosis: Blythe selects the target, Bull brings the pain to that target. If it's not their Prey then they're not too impressive. Target selection will be rather important with these two.

Dannon Blythe & Bull Front
Dannon Blythe & Bull Back

Unbending, Unbreaking

Khador heavy warjacks. Why won't these things die? Even in a game where I average a 14 on my boosted damage dice these things just keep on coming. Granted there were 5 of them and by the end of the game 4 of them had hardly any damage boxes left and I'd blown Drago to bits, but still, in the war of attrition there just wasn't any competing. At least Jim now knows what it's like to face the Jim Dice, except I didn't have the Jim Dice to pull off something dumb at the last moment of the game.

I tried using an Ogrun Bokur instead of a full unit of Boomhowler & Co, and I have to say, the extra 4 Trollkin Mercs would have been a LOT handier than the Bokur. Ah well, it was worth testing out, Boomhowler & Co did their job as usual before being killed horribly by Jim's horde of warjacks.

Press Ganger Tom also brought in his Retribution stuff - he's the first person in the area to have an actual Retribution army, which is a bit strange, we thought there'd be more interest in them. I like the Retribution models, but the infantry is a bit smaller than I was expecting - though elves are smaller than humans in the D20 setting. They're not Black 13th midget small, but they're very impressive in person. I may have to pick up some stuff to paint once I've waded through the mass of yellow Trollkin muscle work I still have to do.


Speaking of yellow Trollkin muscles, the Earthborn Dire Troll is coming along very nicely. I'm painting him a lot faster than expected, but it's not exactly speedy to say the least. I guess faster is a bit misleading, I should say 'less slow'. After some hick-ups with the base I really just need to do his limbs and then glue him to the base. I'm not sure if I should attempt something ambitious (as if massive quantities of yellow skin wasn't already) like blending in a colour change on the hand touching the rock he's based on. It's very tempting, but it could also be a total disaster... I'll save that limb until last and see how I feel at the time.

Rising Conflict Concludes

The overall winner of Rising Conflict is... Jim! Suppress your shock and surprise here everyone. That concludes Johanna's series of Rising Conflict tournaments, but worry not, for with MKii comes a new series of Rising Conflict tournaments. Hopefully these will run a lot smoother than my previous tournament, but I can't see how it could be worse (well I can, but at least we'll get into the venue at the right time).

Witness the Glory

Isn't it beautiful? I have to say the photo seems to make my Pyre Troll look a lot better than I think it looks in person. Usually it's the other way around. Next up are Whelps! Maybe I should get the Pyre Troll I did for Iain and do a comparison...

Rising Conflicts: 8th November

Just a reminder, the 750 point part of Rising Conflicts is this Sunday. Please sign up and turn up on time.

In Absentia

Hmm, I was supposed to play Chris tonight but he didn't show up, which was nice of him. We were due to play a 35 point game of Warmachine MKii - pFeora vs pMagnus (and the Wall of Tough™). Oh well.

I've finally sat down and finished my Pyre Troll. Pictures should be up tomorrow. I'm not 100% happy with how the fists turned out and I may go back to redo the chains as a metal colour. I'm sure I'll spot other mistakes I want to change when I inspect the photos. Painting the Pyre Troll actually took a lot less time than I was expecting, I thought I'd do a quarter of his torso a day but I managed to do pretty much the whole thing in a day.

With the Pyre Troll out of the way, I just need to paint up the small army of Whelps that are besieging my painting table. Though doing up the minimum unit of Boomhowler & Co is extremely tempting... so is the Troll Axer... and the Earthborn... So much choice. I guess I'll alternate between Whelps and Trollkin Mercs just to keep some variety in my painting diet. The Wall of Tough™ feature prominently in my MKii Mercenary lists and I'd like to have them done so I can use them in both my armies.

There are yet more goodies that are appearing on the Privateer Press website; such wonders as the pNemo resculpt and the Cygnar Forces book. Go check them out and drool at the shining glory of new art.

Also if Martin or Gary (or anyone in their RPG group) read this, get in contact with me please.

Stomp and Smash

OH HI! Look at the new goodies. You can see how the new model kits are going to look. The Khadoran warjacks do look very similar to the extreme Juggernaut. Where are the Mercenary boxes though?

Warmachine MKII

* PIP 1021 WARMACHINE: Prime MKII Soft Cover – $29.99
* PIP 1022 WARMACHINE: Prime MKII Limited Edition Hard Cover – $44.99
* PIP 31062 Cygnar Heavy Warjack Plastic Kit (1 Model) – TBD
* PIP 31071 Cygnar Warcaster Commander Adept Nemo – 2010 (1 Model) – $11.99
* PIP 32061 Protectorate Heavy Warjack Plastic Kit (1 Model) – TBD
* PIP 32065 Protectorate Warcaster Feora, Priestess of the Flame – 2009 (1 Model) – $11.99
* PIP 32069 Protectorate Warcaster The High Reclaimer – 2010 (1 Model) – $14.99
* PIP 33063 Khador Heavy Warjack Plastic Kit (1 Model) – TBD
* PIP 33065 Khador Warcaster Kommandant Irusk – 2009 (1 Model) – $11.99
* PIP 33072 Khador Warcaster The Butcher of Khardov – 2010 (1 Model) – $16.99
* PIP 34066 Cryx Helljack Plastic Kit (1 Model) – TBD
* PIP 34068 Cryx Warcaster Pirate Queen Skarre – 2009 (1 Model) – $11.99
* PIP 35029 Retribution Houseguard Halberdier Officer & Standard Bearer Unit Attachment (2 Models) – $15.99
* PIP 35030 Retribution Houseguard Rifleman Officer & Standard Bearer Unit Attachment (2 Models) – $14.99


Warmachine Accessories

* PIP 91034 WARMACHINE MKII Template Set – $9.99
* PIP 91035 HORDES MKII Template Set – $9.99
* PIP 91046 WARMACHINE MKII – 2010 Cygnar Deck – $18.99
* PIP 91047 WARMACHINE MKII – 2010 Protectorate of Menoth Deck – $18.99
* PIP 91048 WARMACHINE MKII – 2010 Khador Deck – $18.99
* PIP 91049 WARMACHINE MKII – 2010 Cryx Deck – $18.99
* PIP 91050 WARMACHINE MKII – 2010 Mercenaries Deck – $18.99

Event Kits

* PIP 99065 WARMACHINE: Resurgence Core Kit – $44.99
* PIP 99066 WARMACHINE: Resurgence Reinforcement Kit – $5.00

No Quarter

* PIP NQ28 No Quarter Magazine #28 – $7.50

The Corpse Trade

Adventure Background
Since man could sail upon the Black Meredius it has been a tradition for those who traverse those dark waters to have their bodies given back to the sea. While this is a matter of practicality for some, as many sailors die conveniently at sea, for those who expire on land it is a matter of pride.

The Church of the Waters in Five Fingers often collects the bodies of dead sailors, be they fishermen, pirates, or privateers. When enough bodies have been gathered, a feat without much delay in a city such as Five Fingers, the Church sends out a funeral ship, accompanied by a Morrowan priest pledged to Asc. Doleth. The priest blesses the dead as they descend into Meredius’ watery embrace and so grants the souls of the departed a peaceful passage into Urcaen.

Unfortunately these funeral ships also attract other kinds of attention. The cargo of corpses brings about the notice of Cryxian agents or even the Shroud sept of Thamarites. All too often these funeral ships are raided or go missing as they are waylaid and their sacred cargo stolen.

The Light of Doleth has gone missing. The funeral ship left Five Fingers over a fortnight ago with a cargo of corpses to be dropped into the Black Meredius following the ancient tradition. The clergyman accompanying the ship; Brother Caleb Dunne was to travel to Carre Dova and rendezvous with an escort from the Ordic navy before making its way to the open sea. The Light never arrived.

Inquiries by Father Gald Ronvolvo, priest of the Church of the Waters, revealed several fishermen have sighted the Light in a small cove not far from Five Fingers. They did not approach the Light as they had no business with the ship and did not think to investigate.

While influential with the more pious sailors of Five Fingers, Father Ronvolvo has had trouble trying to leverage the local offices of the Ordic Navy into investigating and recovering the Light. Running out of options, the priest turns to adventurers. He is particularly concerned by the lack of contact from Brother Dunne and fears that pirates, or worse, have seized the Light.

Commentary:
Since publishing the full adventure synopsis would be a rather big give-away to my (currently illusionary) players I thought I'd whack up the adventure background. It's a rather short adventure but it certainly feels like one of my better ones. The Corpse Trade even comes with a Side Trek - an optional adventure unrelated to the main plot - if the PCs stumble across a particularly gruesome piece of treasure.

Dungeon Tiles

Oh yes. Dungeon Tiles. They are the answer I have been seeking all this time. The perturbations of my mind in finding these tiles allows me just the correct mix of freedom and restriction to make a pure alchemical solution suitable for crafting an adventure. I have purchased all 5 sets of the 4e D&D Dungeon Tiles (well, 4, the last one isn't out just yet, but I have it on pre-order now). A very valuable tool in using these Wondrous Items is PyMapper. Others who wish to utilize this artifice must first join the appropriate Yahoo Group and await approval of the group's owner. It's worth the wait.

When confronted with limitless choices I tend to freeze, much like a proverbial burrowing rodent before an illuminated device. Using the tiles seems to allow me to whip up the dungeons for my adventures much quicker than if I was planning out by freehand (as I was before). In fact I have almost finished writing The Corpse Trade and fully mapped each location out. All that remains is to give the NPCs stats, distribute treasure and... no, that's it. Maybe I'll write it up all neat and tidy and whack it up on the Iron Kingdoms RPG forums... Then other people will experience the wonder of Dungeon Tiles!

Sliding Down

The game on Tuesday at G3 was against Scott and his Gorten list. He's expanded out from the Searforge Commission to include models from the Highborn Covenant in his list now. I opted to bring along Ashlynn - once again Martin is a regular opponent of Scott's, so bringing along Magnus would have been more of the same for him.

It was a very enjoyable games, though Scott's assassination run was a total comedy of errors: he attempted to kill Ashlynn while Roulette was still up, his own Dwarf Toss caused 7 points of damage to Gorten and he landed outside his feat range of Ashlynn. Granted it was a matter of desperation as my superfast Steelhead block was about to envelope his flank and start rolling it all up - I'd already killed Alexia with my initial charge.

It was still nail-biting however as a single hit from Gorten can easily kill Ashlynn and he only needed a 7 to hit her after the Landslide, not impossible even with Roulette keeping her safe. By moving first and then activating his feat I couldn't trigger Feint and escape from the combat (eek). Three 6's later Ashlynn just about killed Gorten with a series of Riposte attacks. On my turn I activated Ashlynn first and stabbed Gorten for the last point of damage.

I've just about finished writing my first Pathfinder adventure, I just need to dig up some sort of battlemat - ideally one with squares that can cope with the bases that Privateer Press use, most mats seem to have 1" squares. It's finding a store in the UK that sells the mats that's the problem. If there's no hope of that happening then I'll just have to pick up a roll of 1" squared laminated sheet from the art store.

Simple Butchery

Foiled once again by Jim's cheesey dice of doom. Someday I will grind those dice to powder, from which I shall make the ink to fill out my lottery ticket. It's almost guaranteed to pick the winning numbers.

Using the finalised MKii rules we played pMagnus against eButcher in a 35 point game.

Magnus the Traitor
*Mangler
*Nomad
*Mule
*Renegade
Boomhowler & Co (full)
Kell Bailoch
Gorman di Wulfe

Kommander Orsus Zoktavir
*Juggernaut (DAMN YOU JUGGY!)
*Kodiak
Doom Reavers
Greylord Ternion
Kossite Woodsmen (min)
Widowmakers
Winterguard Mortar Crew
Kell Bailoch
Manhunter
Jim appears to be one point short, I believe the Kodiak is listed as 9 points from the Field Test, but has been reduced to 8 points in the final release. We should all blame iBodger!

The game lasted four turns, and Jim got to taste some of his own medicine and I danced about shooting Greylords, Doom Reavers and a Widowmaker before it all came down to the hard, nutty, crunchy phase of melee brawling. On turn four I managed to get most of my spectacular assassination run off only to be thwarted (yes, thwarted) by Jim's Juggernaut getting a crit on the free strike my Nomad needed to take in order to get to the Butcher. Nothing but a crit or a *stupendous* damage roll would have stopped my Nomad from mincing eButcher. A Nomad... with 3 focus... charging against knocked down eButcher with 17 health. The free strike didn't even disable anything, stupid crit freeze! So yeah, Magnus died at the end of Jim's turn 4.

My list may have been almost ideal for taking on Jim's list (and would have been if the Juggernaut hadn't got that crit), as the targets he was trying to get Rage tokens from were either warjacks or had 4+ tough. The combination of Kell Bailoch and Greylords is pretty evil too, just something for those Khador players out there to contemplate.

The Wall of Tough (Boomhowler & Co) really impressed me this game, tying up the Kossites, Widowmakers and Kell Bailoch for the entire game (conversely all those tied up Boomhowler & Co). Personally I feel that this was due to having a painted Boomhowler on the table, which appeased the Dice Gods - they always appreciate the painted miniatures, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Despite 4 turns of being shot by all of the above, Boomhowler and 2 grunts survived until the very end, able to engage the Widowmakers in melee and being in a position to kill the last Greylord.

The final pMagnus was also extremely impressive; being able to give Snipe to a Mule is a godsend, now I can actually shoot things with the useless hunk of junk. This moves it from useless hunk of junk into the realms of Sublime Artillery Piece. I did find that pMagnus spends 2 turns out of focus as he's busy putting up all his upkeeps, but I'm sure I'll put it all together better after a few more games. He's just about as fun as Ashlynn now, something I found surprising. He also seems much easier to use, but that may be due to the simplicity of the list I chose rather than the usual Steelhead zerg.

Lessons Learnt:
pMagnus and lots of heavy warjacks is really, really good.
Having an army that can both smash and shoot is a fantastic change.
Jim's dice may be attuned to the greater workings of Karma itself.

Posting Conflicts

Great, I just typed a very long post about the highlights of my game against Chris at G3 and how it was a rather good game - though Borka didn't die to a 5 focus Ashlynn charging him (that made me a sad panda indeed). Then Blogspot decided that I'd made too many edits and decided not to let me post. GRAHHH! Oh well, an entertaining and highly insightful post (the meaning of life was revealed but alas it is once against a mystery) lost to the ether.

I guess everyone with just have to wait until the weekend for my next exciting and world-shaking post - though it's more likely I'll make an IKRPG-related post. I would kill for a really nice map-maker actually, one that lets me make little encounter maps like you see in Dungeon or any of the old 3.5e adventures. Failing that I'll just have to invest in a scanner or some sort.

Epic Proportions

In a pivotal act of accident I may have caused the explosivo spell to break. Whoops. I feel MacAllan's ruling to be somewhat... well, wrong as now we're getting all sorts of stupid things going on, particularly with Cygnar, with various interactions with explosivo. I'd love for effects like Powerful Shot and Madhammer's feat to work with explosivo as I feel that's how it was intended to work; however, moving into the realm of poisoned blasts or blasts with Arcane Tempest Gun Mage shots is just weird. Poor Macallan's still checking with Privateer Press to find the official ruling. Let's hope the issue is cleared up before January.

My adventure writing for my possibly impending Iron Kingdoms game is going well. Once again it's set in Five Fingers so that characters of every nationality and creed could participate without obvious interference based on sex, race, or species. Or at least any more than normal. I do find the lack of history in Five Fingers somewhat disappointing, there's a very blank slate once you get past the Orgoth Occupation and Sc. Bolis. Who were other (in)famous High Captains, what about tales of buried treasure, who were the peoples' heroes? Rather unfortunately the Iron Kingdoms isn't a setting that venerates the idea of the adventurer.

"But Andy, you Scasian stick-man, it's such an awesome setting!" you may say. Yes, it is, for a wargame. Wars do not support adventurers. How can you do any adventuring when you're off to fight on the front? That's not adventuring, that's warfare. More than a few Games Masters have run successful RPG games based on characters being in the military. Still not adventuring. Adventurers are the Edmund Hillarys, the Captain Nemos, the James Bonds of the age. Adventurers are driven individuals, there is always something more to be done, something more to be achieved. These are people who shape history with their passing. This type of person deserves more than a tawdry trip to the local hole in the ground; they deserve things of epic proportions, they deserve villains and rivals with flair. It's an adventure worthy of these individuals that I aspire to create.

In writing the Corpse Trade (my first Pathfinder adventure) I've come to approach writing events and encounters with the idea of 'would this look awesome in a movie?' Events in the Corpse Trade include a tussle with a trollkin with spikes for knuckles and his pirate cronies, the treasure of a forgotten High Captain, and the plots of a Greylord whose ambition knows no bounds. Something I could use is a Pathfinder monster stat block for a DM to quick-reference, these things are a nightmare.

Sinister Adventures is publishing a very interesting product for those of us with the Dungeon Master species subtype. Some might mistake me for a sycophant of Nicolas Logue, perhaps I may stray into that region as I have so far found no fault with the man; he is a genius in the realm of adventure writing. Do you really want to crawl around in a dungeon for days on end killing groups of monsters or have an action packed adventure worthy of being made into a Spielberg movie? If it's the latter, then Logue is the man for you.

Hordes MKii Field Test Announced

Hordes players everywhere (myself now included as the Sunshine Kriel expands) can let loose howls of joy as the Hordes MKii field test dates have been announced.

After nearly a year of restless anticipation, Privateer Press is proud to announce that the HORDES Mk II Field Test will open on November 24th.

The HORDES Mk II field test documents will be available for download from the HORDES Mk II field test site at http://fieldtest.privateerpress.com. Players will need to register on the site in order to provide feedback and download the HORDES field test documents. Registration will open with the release of the HORDES Mk II field test documents at 10:00 am PST, November 24th. Note that players who register for the WARMACHINE Field Test will need to re-register to partake in the HORDES Mk II Field Test.

Following the conclusion of the HORDES Field Test, Privateer Press will release an amended field test document online on January 2, 2010. This document will be adopted as official for all Privateer Press organized play events that include HORDES. The amended document will not be the final version of the rules, but will include some changes made from field test feedback to provide HORDES players with the best rule set possible until HORDES Primal Mk II officially releases in summer 2010.

Boomhowler is now completed, though I haven't applied the second layer of varnish to him yet, the first layer appears to have dried more matt than usual so I thought I'd just leave it. In the immortal saying my father imparted to me over a decade ago: if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Next up, fixing Ashlynn and then the Pyre Troll.

Made of Win

After a ludicrous amount of time I've finally managed to get a game of Warmachine in. Last week's game was cancelled due to a double booking at the hall, I'm a bit sketchy on the details. Instead I played Martin in what amounted to a mirror match of pMagnus and Steelheads vs... pMagnus and Steelheads. The only difference between our army lists was that I had one less Halberdier and squeezed in the Piper of Ord. That tiny difference (and probably the fact I've played more games with this list than Martin) meant that I managed to win with an ingenious assassination run through the use of Furious Charge, March and my Steelhead Cavalry. The Andy is sated for now.

In painting and modelling, Boomhowler is nearly finished, I have to do his boots and his ammo and then I'm all done. Huzzah. Only 9 more guys in his unit to do... I have also repaired Ashlynn's elbow with the use of green stuff and I should be sticking her on a new base once Boomhowler is done.

Speaking of Ashlynn and pMagnus, they're both stupidly awesome in official Mark II - the official rules can be downloaded in pdf form for free(!). pVlad players may be disappointed with his changes, warranted though they may be. Screening is also gone.

Not only are the Mark II rules available, but the Iron Kingdoms RPG books are available for sale in PDF form! No longer will I be the only one with the resources to run the RPG, for others will be able to ladle out spoonfuls of RPG information on their very own with their not-quite-as-shiny-as-my-books PDFs. Rejoice oh ye players.

Fell Howl o' Pirateness

Since it be that most important day for pirates I best be speakin' like a true buccaneer. Those who break the Code o' Speak like a Pirate Day be keelhauled at dawn!

I be loving this here miniaturescalliwag. Greygore Boomhowler be me favourite scurvy dog by Privateer Press. Me use o' mixing mediums be hampering me sailing the seas to completing me bullion encrusted miniature. Metallic paints be benefiting from a dose o' the gloss medium, it be like grog. This here dog be nearing completion, even the cabin boy be able to finish him off with a quick lick o' paint.

Avast me maties, I be plundering the shores o' Pathfinder for me role-playing dubloons. The Pathfinder book be a rare and precious treasure, and it not be a meagre size to boot! I bin following that fellow buccaneer Nick Logue and his meanderings over the seven seas o' the 'internets' and spied Sinister Adventures. Such worthy acts do inspire lowly sea dogs like meself to try for greater things and I be hoisting up me DM's flag aboard the RPG ship. Thar will be grog aplenty on me ship, what more could a true pirate ask for?

Fell Howl

I love this miniature. Greygore Boomhowler is easily my favourite miniature by Privateer Press. Progress with him has been unusually slow but he is the first miniature where I've been making extensive use of mixing mediums. I highly recommend mixing a metallic paint with a gloss medium. The metallics just seem to go on smoother. He's about 75% done in that picture, the majority of the work involves metallics or simple highlighting of leather items (how many belts does a trollkin need? (5)). If only my infamous Wall of Tough™ actually worked when Boomhowler was on the board... This is the completed Boomhowler now.

In other news I've picked up the book for Pathfinder. That's D&D 3.75 for the unenlightened. Getting hold of the rulebook has been something of a quest in itself. It's huge! I've also been following Nick Logue's work lately at Sinister Adventures, it's inspired me to take up the mantle of running an IKRPG game again - with added pulp adventure! There will be explosions, mechanithralls, PIRATES and dastardly traps. What more could you ask for?

Rampage '09 Results

Behold, the sacred results of the Summer Rampage. For those who did not know, Summer Rampage determined the order the Forces books would be released - this includes Hordes factions. Unfortunately Mercenaries finished last amongst the Warmachine factions, so one part of my army will have to wait (at least until I buy the cards), but the Trollbloods pulled through nicely in the end, coming a close second to Skorne.

Once again no games for me tonight, but I scheduled a game for next week against Martin, who plays Mercenaries. I'll have to pick up a new Ashlynn I think and get her painted up in a hurry - I stepped on my previous Ashlynn and the results weren't pretty. I've noticed the number of games I play has certainly gone down since becoming a Press Ganger, is this because of the impending MKii or is it some unbeknownst curse of being a PG? At least I get free posters.

Glasgow Gaming 2009-2010

Didn't play a game tonight (wow, haven't played a game in *ages* now) since I had to visit GUGS to negotiate obtaining a key to the Mystical Cupboard of Stuff. This cupboard houses the vast collection of terrain and boards that Johanna made for use with Warmachine and Hordes. If I have a key it's much easier to run events or even just make sure that there's someone to open the cupboard when people turn up.

There was supposed to be an important meeting about the impending Freshers Week at Glasgow University (mmmm... Freshers...) but in typical role-player fashion they forgot. Luckily they haven't forged a new committee so I could speak to Craig, the current big-wig about the key. He'll have more information for me once he's rounded up the other people with keys to the cupboard.

Important Dates:
26th September 2009 - Saturday GUGS should reopen. This does depend on whether GUGS can book the appropriate rooms with the new QMU committee.

February 2010 - Conflagration
GUGS annual convention, there should be a Warmachine and Hordes tournament using the new MKii rules. Thomas and I will provide greater details of this at a later date. Expect an update on this in October when various student committees are put in place and decisions at that end can be made.

Brain Freeze

Tuesday was somewhat comedic. I got left in Clarkston since Jim forgot I existed, then the giant gimp left my miniatures case in the van - which he didn't take to G3. No game for me then. Not to worry, I Googled "Damn you Jim!" and here's a picture just for you Jim.


Now with that over I believe I have some not-quite-news people should take stock of concerning Hordes MKii. Here is what PPS_DC has recently said on the General Forums (and the MKii Field Test Forums... and the PG Forums):

Based on some recent discussions, I've come to realize that some folks are a bit unclear on what this whole MkII thing means for them in 2010. Most of this information is repeated from various other announcements, but to summarize:

2010 is MkII. Officially. All official PPS_Events (including Hordes-inclusive events) will be run in MkII. The Hordes Field Test will be released concurrently with the WM MkII materials needed to play the game (Prime and the faction card decks). TempleCon, for example, will be running sanctioned, mixed MkII events.

Some questions have been raised as to why we said WM Field Test was unofficial yet the H! Field Test will be pseudo-official for several months. For one thing, WM and H! are meant to be fully compatible. We did not wish to promote game play throughout 2009 that leaves a portion of the player base behind. Another major consideration is that the core rules were still in flux leading up to the field test (and even briefly right after the field test during continued WM MkII playtesting). Having locked core rules makes a big difference when it comes to the state of a game. Will the Hordes field test bring us changes? Sure. Maybe the Pureblood Warpwolf will have a stat tweak or the Immortals will have some ability tweak. But core rules will not change - they simply can't. The Hordes Field Test will be perfectly functional for the 6-ish months that it is what is available.

The final Hordes MkII rules will be available around mid-way through 2010. Just as the WM card decks will come out around the time of Prime MkII, the H! MkII card decks will come out around the time of Primal MkII.

And thus, there shall be rejoicing in the land as I continue to buy Whelps.

Lessons in Success

350 Point Hordesmachine Tournament Results

Thomas Rolland and I ran our first mixed Warmachine and Hordes tournament today and it's certainly a learning experience. Firstly we now know that we need to kick the hall organisers into action repeatedly before the event; they seemed to think that we were booked for 10-10:30 rather than letting us in at 9:30 so we could set up boards and whatnot. Due to this we started almost one hour behind schedule and caused some confusion about how long each game would last.

There were 4 drop outs but we still had 20 people playing. First place went to Jim (as usual), with Sean coming second and Lewis coming in third and winning the painting prize for his Protectorate models.

Issues I'll have to address for the next tournament is having specified game lengths and timed turns. Also better communication between the 2 Press Gangers is needed during the event; there were a few cases of Thomas and myself contradicting each other on the time left.

Hopefully everyone had a good time overall and we didn't put off anyone turning up to the next tournament. If there's any feedback to be had please feel free to post it as a comment, we're always looking for ways to improve the tournament experience for our players.

Hard Pressed

Behold!

PG_Steamworks

Just in time for the 350 tournament on Sunday. I still need to raid every coffee shop in Glasgow tomorrow for wooden sticks however - Asda proved to be disappointingly lax in their stirrer stocks.

Condensed Milk

I found this very helpful post in the Warmachine forums that covers all the changes from the MKi Field Test and what was seen at GenCon. Time to get out those red markers and make lots of corrections.

http://www.privateerpressforums.com/index.php?showtopic=185091

Summer Rampage 2009

August 17th to September 6th

I've *finally* found the map used for this year's Summer Rampage (is it still Summer?). The number of regions has been dramatically cut down from last year it seems, which makes things more competitive - if the laws of supply and demand are anything to go by. I'm not sure how well the Summer Rampage or even Call to Arms would play out in Glasgow, the format supports the LGS (that allows you to play games in-store) very well but does almost nothing for gaming clubs only meet up once a week. A question to pose to Johanna.

The order that the Warmachine factions end Summer Rampage in will determine the order their Forces of Warmachine books are released in. From what I can see so far (halfway through day 2) is that Khador and Mercenaries seem to be doing well. Go Mercs! Only have to keep it up for 3 weeks.

Thomas and I have sat down to figure out what scenarios we'll be using for the tournament on Sunday and there should be at least some variety so that certain warlocks and warcasters don't just dominate the entire thing with their feats of cheese. I'll also have to swat up on errata, don't want to cheat someone out of a victory just because I make a bad ruling.

Things to get:
528" String
∞ Wooden Stirring Sticks
48x 50mm Bases or Templates

The Next Big Thing

The Next Big Thing

News from Gencon

Here's the information I've been able to glean from the forums so far:

Concept art of new warjacks

MKii
You can get a free Madelyn Corbeau, Ordic Courtesan, by pre-ordering Prime MKii
Warwitch Deneghra lost Dark Seduction
Warwitch Deneghra gained Influence
High Exemplar Kreoss lost Ignite
Destroyer loses 1 POW on the Executioner Axe
Destroyer's cost reduced to 9
Defile Sludge Cannon is now a spray
Defile now has a melee attack
Boundless Charge casting cost reduced by 1

Retribution Spoilers
Model list
Rules on remaining models (still missing some however)

Themed Army Lists
These have been reworked into a 4 tier system, where you gain bonuses for each tier you complete. Tiers are 'completed' by having the appropriate models (and only those models) in your army list. I'd put links to the known themed lists but then I'd have to sieve through 9 pages of random Retribution comments.

All this information was gained from an internet forum and should be deemed only semi-reliable. I'll correct any information that proves to be wrong as GenCon progresses.

Spelunking

So today was a day that provided me with a great sense of achievement and relief. We turned on Jim's central heating system and none of my fittings exploded in showers of dirty (and possibly hot) water. In fact there were no leaks from our work - that we found, there is still time to get a call from Jim telling me that I've created the new Atlantis under his floor boards however. There was a minor incident with some old pipework we tried to keep but the old fittings were just craptastic and relics from a bygone era (*cough* MKi analogy *cough*).

Preparation for the upcoming 350 tournament continues. Tomorrow I'm going to buy a giant bag of cocktail sticks with flags on them to make the markers for Destruction (oh no, tournament spoiler alert!). I may even have time to scrutinise the Streamroller 4.0 scenario lists so that everything is covered. I played against Chris (one of the new players) the other night at G3 to give him a practice game for the tournament and he wiped the floor with poor pMagnus. pSorscha's feat disgusts me. Luckily I don't need to worry about it since Shake It Off will provide me with all the opportunity I need to curb-stomp her at a later date. All hail the power of MKii! I want my Trollbloods. =*(

Interesting Scenario Information
All models can contest zones. This includes Shifting Stones, Sentry Stones, Wracks, Scrap Thralls, plaster casts of my middle finger; as long as it's a valid model in your army you can contest a zone with it.
Ridge Raiders is a terrible scenario.
Cocktail sticks with flags on them are hard to find.

Implements of Impalement

Privateer Press has released pictars of the third fully plastic unit, the Ogrun Warspears. There's also been yet more Retribution models revealed: the Mage Hunter Assassin, the Dawnguard Scyir and a warcaster, Adeptis Rahn (armed with the 'Kill-a-majig').

Now that I'm working almost full-time (depends on the volume of work) I've noticed that my updates are sorely lacking. Also, I've not had a proper game in a while now. I was supposed to play PG Thom tonight but his dad's ill so Thom's going to visit him. I've sent in my Press Ganger application, so hopefully that works out and I can run all sorts of crazy events.

Work on my Impaler is progressing slowly but surely and I've even reached the stage where I've had to glue him to his base since everywhere I can hold him is painted. He's my first experiment with doing metallics properly instead of a black wash or 2 and then baking it. Next up on the painting schedule will be my Slayer for the Halloween survival event I want to run. I plan to do the helljack in full metallics, it will look badass.

If you're in the Glasgow area and have been looking for that long static grass used to make reeds/clumps of tall grass, D&F Models currently has some in stock (since I asked them to get it for me and they went a bit overboard). The tall grass really adds variety to bases, I've already added it to eDoomy's base and I'm pleased with the result.

Tournament: 350 Points

Date: Sunday, 23rd August 2009
Online sign-up: Warmachine UK forums
Location: same as G3
Woodside Hall
36 Glenfarg Street
Glasgow
G20 7QE

Map

This will be Thomas Roland's first tournament as a Press Ganger and hopefully it all goes smoothly. I won't be competing but I'll be helping run the event, taking care of rules queries and trying to explain how Swiss tournaments work.

Not sure what else I can write about this just now. I'm sure I'll think of something witty and interesting to write at 4 am, so check back then.

Chop Chop Panda

I spy with my very slightly slanted eyes a full unit of plastic Trollkin! This is joyous news as it brings the Trollbloods average price right down for our basic units. I am a Happy Panda; now to wait for the box of plastic Kriel Warriors...

Conflagration 2010: Making Plans

The Glasgow University Gaming Society runs a small convention every year in February - Conflagration. While it has primarily been a RPG based event, Conflagration has hosted a Warmachine and Hordes tournament over the previous years. Though still 7 months away, by making plans for it now hopefully I'll be able to entice more players from further afield to attend.

Things I'll have to make arrangements for include:
1.) Will there be a BBQ?
February in Glasgow makes this unlikely but we can still hope.
2.) Prize Support.
What sort of prizes are we going to have and where will they come from? I'm sure we can arrange for the traditional Steamroller prize pack, but I'd like some additional prizes - and I'm sure our Press Ganger (Thomas Rolland) would too. It would be nice to have some sort of Conflagration specific trophy the winner can take home. Sorted out where to get the trophy made.
3.) How many attendees and will we require more space?
The large hall on the ground floor of the QMU would provide *easily* enough space if this becomes an issue, I'd just have to speak to some actual GUGS people to see if it's possible to use it. Will the equipment stored at GUGS be enough to cope with the turnout for WM/H? Perhaps we may have to raid G3 or something...
4.) Entry fees.
I'll need to speak to the GUGS related people about this. Entry fees in previous years have been £2 for the day, £5 for the weekend and an additional £3 for entry into the WM/H tournament.

How do I market this? Well, with the proliferation of podcasts - specifically the two UK based ones - broadcasting this event to other WM/H clubs should be relatively simple. Once the university term has started again getting information from GUGS and the QMU should be a much easier task to accomplish.

Please go here and leave some feedback on which type of trophy people prefer. I can't get the Poll gadget here to work for some reason. Stupid Coven.

For Luls

Check this out. Here is DC's post too. Really? I mean... REALLY?

Stupid Coven.

Baby Eating for Beginners

Jim, I am going to cannibalise your children, should you ever have any. If you do, I will eat them.

Another game against Jim (I need to play other people, and soon!) tonight and for once I had a Plan. Ashlynn vs the Witch Coven in a 35 point MKii game. I had Jim on the ropes, I was going to chase down the stupid Coven next turn with my 16" run (or 11" charge) and END THEM, but no, even with Ashlynn hiding behind a hedge Jim rolls a 16 to hit (crit) and then a 17 for damage. Great, now my warcaster is suffering Shadow Bind and has 3 damage boxes left. Woot. What's that? You crit a second time and rolled a bejebus amount of damage again? Really? Well DAMN YOU, and your (e)poxy dice (heheh, I'm such a geek). Stupid Coven.

It was actually a really enjoyable game, the hard part was getting past the Deathjack since Jim kept it fairly far back for most of the game so that I wouldn't crush it utterly. I did have a turn of pounding it but that failed miserably with my damage rolls. Once past the Deathjack and having killed all his Bile Thralls I'd managed to get Ashlynn into his back line and could certainly chase down the Coven over a couple of turns. The Deathjack was just going to suffer Black Oil after Black Oil from Gorman every turn so it was out for the count. Next time Jim, next time! Stupid Coven.


Epic Doomshaper is now once again presentable, though he does have 8 layers of varnish on him. I'm known for 'baking' my satin varnish from Games Workshop to produce a very flat matt. Unfortunately the GW Purity Seal sometimes clouds up and makes me a sad panda. In the end I gave up trying to make all the fancy varnishes go matt and whacked on a layer of Purity Seal and baked that. Now eDoomy looks fine, though I am a bit miffed at all the effort I went through to find a superior technique to varnish my miniatures. At least he's well and truly protected from chipping and damage. As I said before, he's only ever going to get chipped if someone has a go at him with a hammer and chisel. Personally I'm surprised people can still see him under all that varnish.

Stupid Coven.

Oh Mittens, Where for Art Thou?

Clearly the Mittens solo was not enough, we required more than Mittens and in greater numbers! Privateer Press has released pictures of an entire unit of Mittens, for which we are undoubtedly grateful. Woo. I've also just noticed that Mittens & friends are all bald; unlucky.

For those of us in the UK: Maelstrom games are currently offering a 17% discount from the RRP of all their products if you the magical Summer madness voucher code. The code is SUMMER-MADNESS, cunning foxes that they are at Maelstrom. This offer expires on the 27th of July so get your discounted goods quickly.

I've had a bit of a saga getting eDoomy varnished and sealed. Trying to follow in the footsteps of Ghool I used paint-on satin varnish and then apply some paint-on matt varnish. The brands I used were Windsor & Newton, specifically from their Galleria line of art products. I have to say the 'matt varnish' is really glossy, the satin varnish may as well have been full gloss. At least eDoomy is sealed *really* well now; if he chips now it's because someone took a chisel and hammer to him.


To dull down the gloss effect I hit eDoomy with a couple of doses from Marabu's Mattlack (matt varnish in some strange foreign language... damn those foreigners and their dirty foreign languages). This stuff comes in a very small can but it seems to have sucked some of the gloss off eDoomy, though there's a couple of places were the gloss effect just will not seem to go away from. Bit of a conundrum. The Xjel is vexed.

Edit: Ok, apparently I have to shake the paint-on varnish to get the matt particles to float to the top. I shall now go beat my head against a desk for 20 minutes to atone for my moron-ness.
Update: I've reapplied the paint-on matt varnish and now eDoomy is looking a lot better. The picture above is after one coat of the shaken matt varnish. I think I'm going to apply one more to help tone the gloss down.

Beginning the Sunshine Kriel

I know someone's already taken the name of the Golden Horde for their Trollbloods so I'll have to sit down and come up with something of my own. Epic Doomshaper is now finished for all intents and purposes, there's a couple of touch-ups that need to be done now that I've taken my pictures and can see *every* mistake I made. Nothing inspires doing more work than seeing huge glaring errors (ironically only visible once you zoom in on the model) on your miniature.

Pictar removed! See further posts for updated pictar.

Overall I'm quite pleased with my choice of colours, they all work very well together but still provide much needed contrast and 'visual pop'. The miniature does suffer Privateer's need to give the model every single possible item the character in question will ever carry at one time. The bajillion scrolls on eDoomy's back were a total pain and I'm not happy with how the long brass one turned out. I'll have to go back and see what I can do with it.

Privateer Press continue to release pictures of Retribution models. This time it's Ravyn, Eternal Light. That white thing on her face is her hair, not a bandage as many people initially thought. She'd also look much better as a blonde, I'm not sure why but I'm almost 100% sure of this.

XTREMEly Tired

A giant has appeared among us. It is indeed gigantic, being at least as big as the Behemoth. I do wonder if we'll be able to get it here in the UK, or even the rest of the world.

Behold His Grouchiness in almost his full glory. The leather hood needs a little work and then it's just the left arm and the staff. I haven't figured out how I'm going to do the base marking however. With my Trollblood palette heavily into the browns I might just mark the front arc with a very dark brown.

Accursed Yellow

Painting on eDoomshaper is progressing, well, slowly to say the least. I also need to finish those damn Tyranids for Chris, hell I need to start the 'nids. Guess what my plans this week are? Back to eDoomshaper however, I couldn't quite get his thighs to be the same colour as his feet and face, it was infuriating. Until I applied a single coat of wash last night and suddenly everything matches. The amount of blending and different techniques I tried were astounding, and ultimately unsuccessful, and yet a single layer of wash solved it all. ARRRGGGGHHHHH.

I'm experimenting with reds at the moment and the use of purple to shade them. While normally I would highlight red by adding yellow and white (and some times green/blue to bring the shade back to a red) I wanted a deeper and richer red for my Trollblood cloth colour. Which is where the purple comes in. I think I'll have a shifty at Adam's Ali McVey Severius this weekend and see what shades she used on his cloak. Trollblood cloth tends to be a bit more lumpy than Severius' cloak however but it should give me suitable reference material.

Murray, you're such a gimp. Bring the Madrak and the Axer next week. Someone who isn't Murray and reading this should remind him. Constantly. Use of a nightstick is authorised.

Real Retribution Spoilers

For those who are interested or like me, you can't stand not knowing everything, much of the Retribution information from No Quarter 25 has been revealed in this thread. It looks like Dawnlord Vyros - my favourite of the Retribution warcasters - is the Myrmidon warcaster. This pleases me, I like warjack/warbeast casters. I'll reserve judgement until I get the magazine myself, but he's certainly become more tempting.

I think I'm going to delay my special scenario until after Thomas gets back from the States, the availability of models is a slight issue at the moment.

I'm Grinding XP

Whilst browsing this 'interwebs' I've heard of, I came across this very interesting announcement by Privateer Press. No longer will it be relegated to the mysterious depths of the unknown and played in dark corners of the gaming club. Instead we'll see Grind appear as a board game in of itself. It certainly saves us all the time and hassle of constructing a Grind specific board.

Yet more Retribution models have been released on the Privateer Press website, most of them have 360 views in the gallery too. We also have a name for Mittens - Mitten's is actually a House Shyeel Magister. The bad news is that instead of just Eiryss we're going to be facing squads of Mage Hunters. SQUADS. Aren't you jumping for joy?

Played against Jim as usual, he was using eGaspy. I now know that Spectral Legion works on all types of warrior models, not just non-character models. Killing Tartarus right away may not have been my greatest idea...

iPhone Upgrade Tweaks

With the recent OS update for iPhones to 3.0 I've had a strange problem with my iPhone. Luckily it's now fixed but I thought I'd put up the details here in case other gamers have the same problems.

Since the update my phone was running hot and constantly emitting GSM (the interference that you can hear when you hold your phone near a speaker). This caused the battery to drain *very* quickly. To fix this you need to change your Push settings. Go into the Settings menu and select Mail, Contacts, Calendars. From there you need to change your Fetch New Data settings and just turn Push off. After that the phone should work fine again.

The Mire

While the usual content of the Privateer Press forums can be described as excrement, occasionally something worthwhile pops up. Like this thread about Megalith. It's not often a thread makes me laugh.

eDoomshaper progresses steadily, I expect he'll be finished some time next week though I do have an assload of Tyranids for a friend to do. Luckily the paint scheme for them is easy (and in a book) it's just working up the motivation to paint something I'm totally disinterested in. I'd rather paint my Impaler some more. Maybe if I can get Chris to play Warmachine instead...

I'm also running a special scenario in a week on Tuesday, though I'm still typing up the special rules. I'm not sure how it's going to turn out, but hopefully it's all fun. If it's not then I know to stop now before I dig a big hole for myself.

Trolling for Pictures

Here's a picture of the work I've done with my Trollbloods so far. While similar to the colour scheme I've done for Iain's Pyre Troll I've opted for red as my secondary colour instead of blue/green. You can't see it with Doomshaper's shadow over it, but the shading around his loin cloth is pretty good. I've also done a heap of work on Doomshaper's back, but I'll wait until he's finished before I put up a picture of it - mostly because my camera just ran out of batteries (again).

My palette moves heavily into the brown related colours: yellow, brown, red. I thought about green (since the brown colours are green, yellow and red) but I used that extensively with my Mercenaries and red has more visual 'pop' to it. I really like how my Impaler is coming out, the colour scheme works quite nicely with how the miniature is posed. It reminds me of a tree frog.

Pods and Pictures

More episodes of the UK Warmachine/Hordes podcasts are now out. They've been out for a little while now but I've been busy learning the basics of plumbing - it's oddly rewarding by the way, my tool kit is embaressingly lacklustre though. Enough about plumbing however.

Guts'n'Gears shows signs of steady improvement, I didn't cringe once during episode 3; indeed it was quite interesting with a large segment on the Breast Cancer Brawl. Definitely an event we could run here in Glasgow come October. There's also some basic coverage of the UK Masters - Jim even gets a mention.

Boosted Damage covers the UK Masters and all the hosts and cohosts happens to be in the same place this time, making for a more complete podcast. Still interesting but I'm curious as to what they're going to move on to now that the Masters and the Nationals have both finished.


Revealed on the Privateer Press forums is the cover for No Quarter 25. There are some spoilers as to what the various power fields will do, and a rather large debate on how the warcaster on the cover actually uses those blades without hurting himself.

More Retributing

Privateer Press have released a snazzy picture of the Retribution battling the forces of Khador. If you're using a browser that isn't Firefox and trying to view the larger picture you'll have to right click and Save As on the small 'broken image' graphic in the top left corner. Once you've downloaded the picture you'll be able to view it with no problems. The picture makes the Retribution look a lot better, especially since you can compare the sizes of models on the diorama. They've moved once again into the 'tempt me not vile heathen' area of interest. Even if they have once again piqued my interest I'll still wait until the Forces book comes out.

My painting schedule has mystically filled up since I delivered Iain's Pyre Troll (I wish I'd taking a few photos of it actually). Apparently I'll be painting Terminus and more Skorne than you can throw a sockjack at. Epic Doomshaper and Prof. Pendrake have arrived in the mail too, so Doomshaper's already getting his base coat. I'm going for a yellow primary, red (or maybe blue, I'll see how easy it is to work with the red) secondary and copper and silver metallics. It should look quite good (in theory) but we'll see when eDoomy is done.

Redistriubtion of the Retribution

Episode 2 of Boosted Damage is now up on their website and should be up on iTunes in the next day or so. I'll download it and save it for work tomorrow.

AJ the Ronin has created a handy FAQ about what we know about the Retribution so far - or at least the people who don't lug around the Iron Kingdoms World Guide.

Pondering the Imponderables

Iain will be overjoyed to know his Pyre Troll is finished and that I'm Happy with the way it turned out. There was some trouble with the side of a stomach but even Arkentyre had problems in the same area (shocking, I know). Definitely learned a few new tricks to painting flesh and muscle. Having scrapped my aspirations to pick up a Cygnar army for MKii, yellow Trollbloods may be the way forward. I've ordered an eDoomshaper to see how things will turn out.

More spoilers about the Retribution on the Privateer Press website. The major one being power fields: Myrmidons have power fields. Think of power fields as you could imprints: spend a focus and something happens. Also, if you go to the gallery part of the Warmachine website you can get 360's of each model, I definitely recommend this, some of those Myrmidons look a lot better if you can spin them around. It also looks like Dawnlord Vyros' arms are separate pieces - I might get him and turn the sword around so it's more like his concept art. Or I could be painting trolls...

Retribution Pictars

Behold, a mass of Retribution pictures. A number of myrmidons, both known warcasters and the Dawnguard Invictors are shown in the post - or from Malefic... I suspect these were data mined from an unsecured graphics folder but it's been a while since I did any webtech stuff so I could be wrong. Guess the cat's out of the bag anyway.

Prima Invictus

I've just got back from a real slugfest against Jim at G3. He was testing out a variation of his eKrueger list against my standard eMagnus list - I was supposed to make a super list of DOOOM using his Khador stuff but quickly realised the eKrueger *hoses* ranged armies. No feated widowmakers of mighty uberness for me.

Now for the amazing news: I won. No really, I just added up the VPs.
Me: 8 VPs!
Woldwarden x2 - 6 VPs
Tharn Ravager Shaman - 1 VP
Tharn Ravagers 50% casualties - 1 VP
Also ended game with more VPs in TEH ZONE of No Man's Land, but really Jim had stopped playing the scenario after turn 2.

Jim: 5 VPs
eEiryss - 1 VP
Stannis Brocker - 1 VP
Kayazy Assassins Underboss - 1 VP
Kayazy Assassins 50% casualties - 1 VP
Steelhead Halberdiers 50% casualties - 1 VP
Steelhead Heavy Cavalry 50% casualties - 1 VP

This marks my first real, genuine victory over Jim. There wasn't even a stage where I was relying on luck to keep my warcaster alive against a concerted assault. I almost broke out the Happy Dance (I spared everyone the sight since I was wearing shorts). No mistakes by either person really except right at the end when Jim exposed the back arc of a woldwarden to eMagnus' bonded Nomad. Since the bond NEVER usually comes into play, the Nomad managed to trash the Woldwarden with that lovely extra Backstab damage die. I have now joined a very exclusive club of eMagnus players. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

The other woldwarden died to a combination Harm, an Obliterator and the other Renegade shredding it to death. Having to roll a 6+ on 3d6 was a bit close, there were an alarming number of 7s rolled but good old Renegade A pulled it out of the bag for me yet again. Two woldwardens in a single turn, I was genuinely surprised. One could say flabberghasted.

Now while this is all impressive sounding, all the casualties that gave me VPs were inflicted on my last turn - which I don't think I would have gotten to take if we were playing in a regular tournament. However I don't think Jim would have taken such a long 2nd turn in a regular tournament either, much pondering was done.

Jim and I were discussing the game afterwards and he came to the conclusion that 750 games against good opponents become something of a grind fest as neither of us put our warcaster/warlock in a risky position at any time. At 500 points you can't cover all your bases and so eventually something gives and then something can swoop in and end things. Something to think on until we give up MKi entirely and switch to MKii games.

Lurking in the Depths

Hark, 'tis the sound of an update. A Privateer Press website update to be exact. Their web tech has unveiled their snazzy new website and you can see why it took so long for them to get it finished, there's a donkey cart load of new graphics, icons and dynamic tables. Fun fun fun.

Last week I helped Jim test his eKrueger list but managed to fluff up my 2nd turn, which then meant Magnus died (just). If I'd also remembered that we were playing a scenario I'd just have stayed back and won doing that instead since I OWNED the scenario zone. Tomorrow I plan to give Jim a more challenging game where I don't forget that Circle bring Arcane Killer bloody everywhere.

Iain's Pyre Troll is now 90% done, I have to finish the quills on the head, the flame spew, the toe nails and then varnish it all. There's probably a couple of touch ups I could do as well, but we'll see. I'd like to finish it so that I can give it back to Iain already. It has given me the urge to play Trollbloods however, I was thinking I'd swap my Ye Olde pMadrak and Axer - the first PP miniatures I painted (it shows) - for someone's unpainted ones. I think I'll check with Iain tomorrow.

New WM/H related podcasts are starting to appear on the mystical interwebs. Scalpel has just announced Boosted Damage, and there's a new podcast called Guts'N'Gears too. For those of you who do not listen to any WM/H related podcasts here's my brief run down:
Fell Calls! - These guys play for fun and their podcast is very relaxed and usually quite smooth. Definitely my favorite.
The Iron Agenda - More serious than Fell Calls! and it's a dryer, more intellectual analysis of the game. Has unusual amount of Mercenary hate. If I want some hard play data on a model I listen to these guys.
Gut'N'Gears - Reeks of giant geek. I kid you not, there are moments in this that I cringe to the point of having a hernia. Episode 2 is a definite improvement but it's still too geeky for me.
Boosted Damage - Has a nice relaxed feel to it, so far it's been quite informative. Focuses on WM/H tournaments in the UK.

Whispers in the Dark

Yet another Retribution warcaster has been revealed on the Privateer Press website, Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper. She would appear to be a warcaster version of Eiryss. I'm sure many of you are overjoyed to hear this. The Retribution appear to have cornered the market on armoured parachute pants.

I played a quick 750 game against Tom (Circle/Khador/Ginger) today at GUGS and it was a bit of a white wash as I stopped across his Morvahna list. I used my standard 750 eMagnus list which includes eEiryss, who hoses Morvahna's upkeeps pretty badly. I also had the Dice Gods on my side, reaching the sublime heights where rolling a 10 on 2 dice were acceptable odds of success. With such dice odds I quickly mopped up most of Tom's army while only losing a couple of Halberdiers until the later stages of the game when Tom managed to wreck a Renegade and blow up a fair chunk of the Halberdiers, but by then it was all over; the best he could have hoped for was a swift merciful death for Morvahna as almost my entire army would have been able to charge her next turn.

Discussing what went so horribly, horribly wrong for Tom we came across some interesting conclusions: Morvahna stinks against any side with upkeep removal (not that I did much of that, I just nuked the Wolves with a Rain of Steel after they'd charged), I'd be hesitant to bring her to a game over 500 points; Tom was attempting to play much more aggressively - not as suicidally aggressive as I play but getting up there quickly at least. This led him to lose both the Pureblood and Warpwolf very early on when I knocked them over and then beat the snot out of them with the Steelhead Cavalry; being able to take some very high dice odds for granted certainly helped me out. Mostly I feel it was my ludicrous luck that did the most. Maybe all that praying to the Dice Gods has finally paid off.