Picklechu's World of Dork

Dryads done!

2009-08-16T15:03:00.002+01:00

Hooray- One unit done and finished. I got all 8 highlights finished, based up and varnished this morning. This takes the total number of finished models to 38 in the army; about half way done.

Here is a bonus shot of the army WIP (this unit of dryads was mid base coat when I took it.

There probably won't be any more updates until I get back from my honeymoon now in a couple of weeks, so stay safe!

Kick start Wood Elves- Unit in a weekend!

2009-08-15T18:47:00.007+01:00

God, it seems ages since I worked on my Warhammer Wood Elf army. I picked up the battalion in January FFS yet still only have 30 painted models to show for it. I have all the models for 2000 points of pointy eared, tree hugging goodness but still need to paint another 40 models.

It has been hard to get motivated to paint recently, what with me getting married in 7 days time! But with the other half away for the weekend to see her folks and get her hair cut, I decided to make a commitment to fully doing a small unit of Dryads from box to board-ready! My intention was to do a unit of 8 and photograph each step of the way, showing it come to life.

I started on thursday with the sprues and assembly:

After snipping we need to get the bodies on the bases, then the rest on the bodies:

A quick coat of black primer:

Base coat is painted on the bulk of the model. A mix of Khemri Brown, Vermin Brown and Calthan Brown:

Then the details are added with Green coats and red eyes, and gravel glued to the base:

Having let the glue dry by popping out, I then wash all the models with Devlan Mud and Thraka Green. I also stick a very wet layer of Scorched Brown over the gravel to seal it and basecoat it ready for the real basing later.

With this done I can pop off to watch the cricket a bit! Still to do- highlights, basing and varnishing. I am confident I can have this done for tomorrow.

Battle Report- Skorne Vs (Dirty) Cryx 500pts

2009-07-24T16:59:00.003+01:00

Last night I got to play Rich at Hordes at my place on my shiny new board and mat! We played 500pts, my Skorne and his Cryx (or to give them their real name- his dirty Cryx)

My list was:
Makeda
Krea
Titan Cannoneer
Praetorians (10) +UA
Cetrati (4)
Ancestral Guardian
Extoller Soulward
Swamp Gobbers

His list:
Skarre
Skarlock
Deathjack
Deathripper
Bane Knights (10)
Mechanithralls (10)
Bile Thralls (10)

Terrain layout was hill in opposite corners, woods in opposite corners and 3 items in the middle (tubs masquerading as solid objects heh). I won first turn and deployed first. Praetorians at one side and Cetrati holding the other side choke point. The beasts and the rest all were behind the Cetrati.
He deployed with the bile thralls opposite the praetorians, and the rest opposite my guys with the Bane Knights in the middle to float over the middle barrier.
First turn we basically barrelled forward. Second turn the Cannoneer shot at the Knights and killed 3 or 4 of them. The Cetrati hunkered down with def and arm buffs to hold their line. The praetorians got savagery off Makeda and all ran round to get close to the Bane Knights and Bile Thralls. They popped the minifeat and with autowounds killed a few of them off. The Bane Knights moving after damage was VERY annoying as it stopped me maximising casualties with follow through. Makeda also popped her feat.
Rich used his next turn, aware of the feat, to try and kill the full units of troops. The thralls managed to purge and kill all the praetorians although they did overshoot and kill some bane knights too (teehee). Skarre feated and used a thrall to “Skarrebomb” the Extoller out of existence. He didn’t go for Makeda due to her being sat on fury. Deathjack (DJ) then barrelled in and wiped out two Cetrati and the Mechanithralls killed another. The last Knight tried to kill number 4 but missed.
My next turn I got the cetrati back via the feat and congaed them out to threaten DJ and Skarre. Krea fired her paralytic aura on a thrall next to the DJ and then back up leaving charge lanes for the Ancestral Guardian and Titan. The guardian promptly did what it does best and kicked the asses of the thralls with his reach halber. The Titan spied a nice move on the DJ by slamming into Skarre who was near a solid object. This left both of them knocked down and in the Cetrati reach. However the Cetrati couldn’t damage them due to their ARM. Makeda just hid out of sight.
Rich’s next turn he got Skarre and DJ back up and killed the Cetrati and then tried to hellfire the Guardian which was threatening a bad charge on Skarre. This missed. Rich has a terrible run of dice luck this turn, missing out on needing a 5 by rolling 4, needing a 6 by rolling 5 and needing a 7 by rolling 6. Doh! His last move was to slam my Cannoneer with the Deathripper who knocked him into the last Cetrati and knocking the Cannoneer down. Crucially though, the Deathripper was now engaging the Guardian. Boo!
My next turn the Cannoneer frenzied, so got up and roamed over to the Krea. Good job it couldn’t attack! The Krea activated and used a boosted paralytic aura on the Deathjack which caught Skarre in the area effect. Good! The next move was to pop Carnage on Makeda and charge her into the Deathripper. I then blew all her fury to kill this, freeing up the Guardian. At this point I was gutted that the wrecked jack was blocking the Guardian’s charge lane, but luckily it could move into reach of Skarre and use its soul tokens to take her out. When I rolled snake eyes needing 3 to hit on the first attack I thought I was cursed, but a big damage roll on his final attack sorted her out.

Lessons learned:
On my last turn I had to be brave and commit Makeda to get the Guardian free. If the guardian had messed up, she would have been DJPaste the following turn.
I bricked up my deployment too much and a lot of my models got in their own way.
Cannoneer is great! I really want to play with the Skorne again.

Holy crap the Ancestral Guardian is slow until it gets some soul tokens to get it going. I intend to get Zaal as my next caster. Free charges for the guardians will help them in turn 1 and 2.
I wasted LOADS of soul tokens because the guardian was out of range to collect.

It has been a while...

2009-07-21T18:06:00.005+01:00

Well, it seems an age since I last updated due to the house move. Happily everything is set and our broadband is back up. I have much more space to put my hobby stuff and more space to keep my paint station and paint in. Firstly I think I should update on my first Hordes tournament in Altrincham. These were 3 750 point games over one day. My memory is very hazy as it was so long ago, but here are the quick roundups.

Game 1 was against Darran Palmer who had trolls with Grissel as his warlock and the scenario was mosh pit (keep control of a circle in the middle of the board). I lost this game quite badly. I played Baldur but didn't realise I could have used his feat to win on my 2nd turn. Oh well... He basically moshed through my army using the usual troll stuffs (champions, fel callers etc). Darran ended up finishing 2nd overall. My inexperience at 750 was obvious I think (this being my first game at such a size!)

Game 2 was against Ruth Pape and her circle army. I almost snatched a first turn caster kill as she left eKaya exposed against some advance deployed Tharn Bloodtrackers who ambuscaded first turn but failed to kill her. The mission involved controlling strips of the board and I won this game and killed eKaya. Ruth finished 18th I think.

Game 3 was against the Cygnar of Ian Adams and he had Haley plus a ton of shooting. (temporal barrier ftw) I won this game on scenario even tho he shot the crap out of me. I found this game the most dull, though Ian was a great guy to play against, as removing models gets tedious. Ian finished 12th

All in all I finished 8th of 20 with 2 wins and 1 loss. A very happy me to finish top half! The pic is of a pair of Tharn Ravagers finished the day before the tourny. Last minute as usual"

Blogging- hard with no internet

2009-07-03T08:21:00.002+01:00

Sorry for the delay since my last post. I have just moved house and due to the suckiness of BT am still without broadband. We finally got a telephone line yesterday, so my ISP, the excellent Plusnet, can move our internet services within the next 7 days they say.

I know I still have to report on the Altrincham Altercation (sneak peak: I didn't lose all my games!) and I haven't painted for almost 2 weeks due to packing my life up and moving it.

Battle Report- Baldur vs Zaal 350!

2009-06-17T12:49:00.002+01:00

I went over the Mansfield last night with Rich to play some 350pt Hordes games. These were my first games using Baldur the Stonecleaver as my warlock and also the first to use my freshly painted Woldwarden (pictured).

The win condition for all games was caster kill and my list for both games I played was:

Baldur the Stonecleaver

Warpwolf

Gorax

Woldwarden

Game one was against Nathan’s Skorne.

His list was:

Supreme Aptimus Zaal

Titan Cannoneer

Tyrant Rhadeim

Praetorian Swordsmen (10 models)

This was my first time against any of these models. I know the titan had some hitting power and a big gun. The tyrant is a dragoon so was fast and hitty. Looking at Zaal’s feat (gets tokens when troopers die and can use them to boost attacks through the army) it became clear to me that my main way to win this fight was to avoid killing the swordsmen to starve him of tokens. I deployed in a smallish block, heavies at the front, Baldur and Gorax at the back. We were due to advance into a patch of rough terrain so Woldwarden and Baldur were aligned to walk into it (using All Terrain and Pathfinder, respectively.) Nathan deployed his Praetorians to his left, with Zaal behind, Tyrant in the middle and Titan on his right opposite my guys.

Nathan had turn one and mainly ran forwards, popping some upkeeps on the Titan (free animus use) and Praetorians (unhallow making them tough and undead). On my turn one I advanced everything. Warpwolf warped for armor and had Earth’s Blessing cast on him by Baldur. Baldur also created a 5” forest in front of the Warpwolf to cover our advance and block charge lanes. Gorax was riled to max fury and advanced.

On Nathans turn two he ran the Praetorians round the side of my newly created tree and followed them up with Zaal. The Titan advanced and fired a cannonball at the Woldwarden hitting and doing minor damage to it. The Tyrant also advanced to ahead of my Warpwolf. My turn two and it was time to make my play. I leached back to full fury and dropped the upkeeps leaving a nice big charge lane for the Warpwolf. The Woldwarden cast Earth Spikes on the titan, getting a crit with boosted attack roll which knocked him down and did minor damage. Gorax cast his animus Primal on the Warpwolf. Warpwolf activated, warped for strength and charged the Tyrant. One word- gibbed. I think I may have overbuffed the wolf and he only needed his basic hits to cream the dragoon. My final action for the turn was to move up Baldur and pop his feat. This meant that nothing in Nathan’s army could enter Baldur’s control zone and nothing already in the control zone could end its move closer to Baldur than it started.

Nathan started turn three in a bit of a bind. The Warpwolf was in charge range of his warlock and ready to kill…and he couldn’t make a play on Baldur due to the feat. He stood up the Titan and fired a shot at Baldur which didn’t really do anything. He then charged his Praetorians into the Warpwolf but could only get two in due to the feat. They did a bit of damage to the wolf but I used the reactive warping to put all the damage on his spirit aspect. Zaal had a full tank of fury and then charged in. He hit and the effect on his stick is to destroy all the spirit aspect on a beast before rolling damage. As I had put all damage on that aspect already, this only netted him another 3 damage. He then proceeded to whack at the Warpwolf until on 2 fury. This didn’t kill the beast. For my turn I leached fury on Baldur and then had to activate the Warpwolf immediately. Because he had Primal cast on him the previous turn, it meant he would auto frenzy. He duly attacked the first thing in front of him (Zaal) and tore him to bits. Nathan should really have transferred to the titan at this point, but the game was effectively over by this point.

Lessons I learned:

I was very happy with my fury control, managing to have full fury each turn with no trouble.

I should have charged the knocked down titan with the Warpwolf. He would have almost certainly killed him in two hits and left Zaal with no fury source. This would have left me using the forest to block Baldur from the Skorne army while the wolf did the nasty work and the Gorax provided defense for Baldur by getting in the way and being a transfer target.

Leaving the Praetorians alone and just stopping them moving at me saved me a ton of headache from Zaal’s feat.

I think I was too cautious with Baldur, he mainly sat at the back casting upkeeps. I guess I am mainly just too scared at the moment to stick him in the mix in case he gets smacked down.

UK Games Expo 2009

2009-06-11T20:53:00.005+01:00

I went down the Clarendon Suites in Birmingham on Saturday and Sunday for my first UK Games Expo. Wow- brilliant event. Boatloads of stalls selling everything imaginable. It was quite eye-opening and also very reassuring to see the support that my favourite hobbies have. All the main gaming areas were covered- RPGs, Miniatures (both fantasy and historicals), CCG/TCGs and Boardgames. In fact the only related gaming aspect not included would be LARP I guess.

On day one I went down with Rich with primarily my miniatures head on. One of my main goals was to get the final models I need for this tournament on 21st June. There were a lot of stalls selling Privateer Press stuff which was really reassuring and the vibe I got was very much one of a growing hobby. The PP stall itself was well manned and getting a lot of people going with starter games. They had a stunning centrepiece board (pictured) with Trollbloods vs Circle Orboros. I had to shop about a bit to get the models I wanted, but I came home with eKreuger, Blackclad Wayfarer, Ravager Whitemane and Ravager Shaman for Circle and Titan Cannoneer and Cataphract Cetrati for my fledgling Skorne force. Some stalls were doing some great deals working out at 20%+ off! Hi to SMG!

For the PP games, the core of the weekend would be the UK Masters for WM/Hordes which were going on in a pair of side rooms. There were some lovely armies on show and we chatted to a few players. Big shoutout to John from the Boosted Damage podcast who chatted a while. It seems eMorghoul was popular for the assassination run! Maybe next year I will enter the Masters!

There were some huge participation areas for all sorts of games especially Esdevium hosting a ton of boardgames, a large DND starter dungeon with a dedicated GM and quite a few places to try CCGs. In the middle of the main thoroughfare was the full size Tardis accompanied by some Daleks and a rather enthusiastic Doctor Who. We also caught site of some other costumed roamers like this guy:

On sunday I went down with John, of Photowalkthrough fame, to mainly check out the boardgames. We had a great time checking out the hundreds, and I mean hundreds, of games on sale from so many vendors. We got to spend some time chatting to a few designers about their games and finding out more. We chatted for a while to Alessio Calvatore (yes, him of GW fame) who was there showing off his game Shuuro. This game looks really good- a mix of chess and wargaming. We also watched a demo of Snow Tails, a wonderful game of husky racing in the vein of Ave Caesar. John picked up both these games. We tried Snow Tales last night and it was great fun. controlling the sled while going too fast is hard! The game I have on my wishlist next is Canal Mania. Not only does it look fun, but one of the towns you can build to is Skipton, my home town in Yorkshire!

For the coming week, my main panic is going to be getting the rest of my Circle guys painted for the Altrincham Altercation. I still have 4 models to paint, which may be a struggle for me in 10 days, especially as I move house at the end of June! Pics to follow as I finish the models!

Bolstered by beasts

2009-06-03T17:46:00.005+01:00

A few new painted minis to show you today. I know that I have used Kaya the Wildborne as my warlock in all my games so far, but I want to try another warlock out also. The influence the warlock has can make your army play like a totally different force, I am told. Here is Baldur the Stonecleaver. I think the model is great, very characterful and yet understated. Whereas Kaya was all about moving and affinity for beasts, Baldur is the king of control. He can control space usage with his feat, knock people over, jump from forest to forest. He also is the only warlock who can heal elemental constructs. I have got a couple of these woldbeasts to go in this list.

First I have the medium sized Woldwatcher. He is like a mobile piece of terrain and can bunker down to provide a form of cover. His animus allows you to put Vigilance on one of your guys so if an enemy comes close they can attack out of sequence. The other elemental construct I have is the mighty Woldwarden. He is only partially painted, so pics to follow...

Finally for this entry I have the Pureblood Warpwolf, and alpha heavy warbeast. I think the model is great, but am not too keen with my paintscheme. I feel he looks a bit "stripy" and am almost certain this is not using enough water when putting on the highlights. I know I need to use more water as I already posted...

This guy is neat on the battlefield, especially with his synergy with the Warpwolf, my main heavy hitter. The first time I fielded him he took down a Direborn Troll! Rawr:)

World's Shortest Battle Report

2009-05-30T23:01:00.004+01:00

So... I went over to Rich's last week to play some Hordes. Unfortunately his young son was poorly and we called it off after turn 1:(

Here are some pics of the first turn though! Two main things happened. Yet again the Bloodtrackers were great and unlucky at the same time. Ambuscading the Raptors, they all hit and, needing to roll 11 on 3d6 to kill a model each, left 3 of the 5 still standing on 1 hp each... grrrr!

Over the last week I have mainly been finishing some painting off. I finished my Woldwatcher, Pureblood Warpwolf and today finished off Baldur. Pics to come soon!

Placeholder!

2009-05-21T20:37:00.004+01:00

Back in the day I used to play Everquest, one of the most addictive, frustrating but brilliant games ever. For some quests you would need hang around in one point waiting for a "named" monster to spawn. However, if it wasn't there when you arrived you would need to kill the monster where it should be, then in another 27 mins or whatever the named would have a chance to spawn. The monster in that place was called the Placeholder.

This post is a placeholder with the promise of a "named" proper post to come soon. I was pretty ill last week (nasty manflu cold ugh) but I did get some painting done. Some fine Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield Terminators for the Ultramarines. These were done pretty fast but I think they look good.

As I type this, the last model for my 500pt Circle Orboros Horde force is drying the final coat of varnish. Tomorrow night they get an outing against Rich's Everblight army. I have never played these guys before but they have a fair reputation- his 750 Everblight list came second in the WPS Club Challenge last weekend. Hopefully he won't be running epic Thagrosh as his warlock tomorrow! Come the weekend I should have some new shots of the Circle army posing and battling on the field. If my memory doesn't let me down I should also have some battle report.

If not, you may have to wait another 27 mins for the named to pop!

My golden rules of painting (why do I keep breaking them?!)

2009-05-11T20:39:00.005+01:00

I have spent a fair bit of time thinking while painting (what else can you do other than listen to music?) and it keeps occurring to me that there are small "rules" that I know I should be following when I am building and painting models. A lot of the time I seem to ignore them against my better sense. I will try and lay out my largest sins here-

1: Use more water. The number one rule and the one I always seem to break. I don't think you can ever use too much water with your paint. I am constantly having to remind myself to keep it wet. the paint just flows so much easier with a fresh brush and wet paint. Why is it that I will battle a brush that is too dry and low on paint to keep applying paint badly when I could refresh the paint and water the brush?

2: It is not a race. When you are up against a deadline, real or self-imposed, rushing does not help. More haste= less speed as we all learnt as kids. If it is going to take an hour to basecoat a model, it is going to take an hour. Either make more time to paint or accept you won't finish it in time. If I find myself rushing the model usually suffers for it and the time actually saved is marginal due to having to retouch areas.

3: The basecoat is everything. It may look like crap relative to the finished model and take a lifetime but in my experience getting a neat and tidy basecoat makes everything else so much easier. Even if you end up having to repaint some sections due to having to force paint into recesses this is much more preferable to leaving bare metal (that the primer may have missed). A good basecoat makes inking so much easier and reliable and, once highlights catch the main focus, a plain or underpainted area is not so noticable as long as it is neat and tidy.

4: Work from the inside out. If you are painting a guy like this orc with a helmet, it is a hell of a lot easier to paint his neck first then the outer parts of the helmet. I find it so easy to just start on the most obvious part of a model such as a shoulder pad or face than the inside of the armpit socket or elbows (on a marine for example) Then when you have a beautifully basecoated shoulder pad you find you have to go back and mess it up getting the the interior.

5: If you find an error, fix it: It is annoying as hell to find a little bit of flash hanging onto a finger like a Floridian voting chad. If you cut it off you end up with some shiny metal and need to do a cover up job, usually needing two or more coats due to coverage. If I don't fix it at the first opportunity it will still be there when I come to highlight and then I will be even more annoyed at myself for not sorting it out.

Here endeth the lessons for now. The model shown is an old orc model that I finished this last week. I was trying to play around with the monochromatic paintjob of just mainly metal. I used loads of washes on the armor and then spent an age doing the fine highlight in Mithril Silver. This model was bought many years ago to be a D&D character but I never got round to him. He almost got ebayed the other week, but I decided that was not his fate as the model is great.

Slight diversion this week

2009-05-02T15:15:00.005+01:00

Being in a small rush and on a timetable to finish my Hordes force for June, I just spent about 6 hours painting my first 40k figure in a few months. Contrary, I know.

This is the classic 90s model of Marneus Calgar, Chapter Master of the Ultramarines and "Lord Macragge". I got him cheap off Ebay and lavished him with some care and attention. The photos dont really do him justice as I think this is about as well as I can paint a model with my skills.

My main 40k army is Ultramarines so the model will get used, but if I was being super logical I wouldn't have painted him for a while. I guess that is one of the contradictions inherent in this hobby. To quote Omar in The Wire, "Do what you feel". In some ways, this goes to the core of the hobby for a lot of people. All my armies were chosen on gut feeling; a combination of aesthetics, playstyle and power level coming into it. You chose what you want to model, paint and play but what informs these choices? Some days I can look on the web/white dwarf/ hobby shop and get the urge to want to collect a whole new army. This is despite already having a ton of models to build and paint and play with. Is it just greed that makes us do this? Or is it the manufacturers nefarious marketing? Damn them for making such fine models!

Progressing visibly now

2009-04-29T22:01:00.006+01:00

As I said last time, I have to get a move on to have my army painted for the Altrincham Altercation. I took a group shot today of how far I am. This shows 7 models finished. I still have 5 to paint of my first 500 points, with another 3 models to go to take it to 750.

Hopefully, with 4 of these being Tharn Bloodtrackers they should be done in a week or so. I finished another Bloodtracker and the Gorax today while we had a workman tarting up our house. The Gorax was a bit of a pain to get done. The main reason was his balance; he leans so far forward, straining on his chain, that he is a constant balance risk. There is a ton of Green Stuff under the rear half of his base as balast, but it is still touch and go whether moving him will end up face down or not. He is one of the few models I have done in a monocolour paint scheme. I did use a couple of tricks to vary it though. The fur got a wash of Ogryn Flesh at the end to add a hint of colour, and the face was highlighted with adeptus battlegrey/bleached bone mix instead of just adding more light grey/white.

A couple more of the Bloodtrackers are almost basecoated, but since I started them I have been distracted by an old Marneus Calgar model for my Ultramarines of all things! I may polish him off ASAP so I can get back to Hordes.

Not enough hours in the day!

We learn by doing?

2009-04-26T19:02:00.004+01:00

So, I sent off my entry form for the Altrincham Altercation today. It is a one day tournament hosted by Dice Not Included on 21st June. Three games of Warmachine/Hordes at 750 points. This has me very excited and, at the same time, absolutely petrified. This will be my first ever tournament and as a one dayer will be much easier both for endurance and the amount of personal time it eats. No need for a hotel either as I live so close.

How do I fear thee though? Let me count the ways. First off- I have played four games of Hordes total, all of them against Trollbloods. This is a boon if ever have to play an army with the same models Rich fields... My experience of playing a Warmachine army is nil, zip, nada. My experience of playing Legion of Everblight and Skorne is equally non-existant.
Secondly, I don't actually own 750 points of Circle yet. I will have to get a wiggle on and find a handful more models. My gut reaction is add a Woldwarden and Woldwatcher, stick them with Baldur as a second warlock and see how we go.
Thirdly, my army is not painted yet! In common with most Warmachine/Hordes tournaments, their is no firm requirement to have a fully painted and based army (unlike, say, Games Workshop) but there are benefits. For me, the main appeal to playing new people, especially in a competitive setting, is to see new armies and new ways of playing. A pile of bare metal does not delight the same way as a fully painted army does. Don't get me wrong here- I am hardly a Golden Demon quality painter. I would, however, much rather play against myself with painted models than bare ones. You can see my latest model above. This is the test mini for my Tharn Bloodtrackers. I tried to keep her earthy and deliberately didnt use any metallics. The speartips are a grey/bone mix to give the look of rock. This model takes my painted count to 5 models, with 7 still to paint. Adding the final 3 models to get up to 750 points will mean I have to paint 10 models in about 7 weeks. I better get cracking!

Kaya and Alten, sitting in a tree- h u n t i n g...

2009-04-19T09:35:00.007+01:00

A pair of lovely single minis finished this week. Kaya the Wildborne is the warlock for my hordes army. The focus is a little out on the shot due to her right arm thrusting forward with her staff. Because she is the only warlock I have at the moment, a lot of my strategy is based around her Spirit Door power which allows her to teleport a warbeast to her, or her to a nearby warbeast allowing some nice hitman style jobs.

Alten Ashley, Monster Hunter is a solo minion who has joined my Hordes army to snipe at big enemies. His special rule allows him to destroy a single aspect of a warbeast if he hits. This is basically a third of the warbeasts hitpoints without a need to roll damage, thereby bypassing high ARM models' main defense.
This week will see my start on the Gorax. Once I have this painted, a small group shot may be in order. The wood elves have not been abandoned by the way- I have started on a test model for the Wild Riders and will post that when he is finished. It does remind me how much I hate painting cavalry though!

Warpwolf ready to roar

2009-04-14T14:59:00.002+01:00

Although his partially basecoated tush could be seen in my previous blog post, this model is now finally finished. I am very happy with him. Privateer's sculpts are so much fun to paint and the musculature made highlighting a pleasure. I wonder if this is because they sculpt in slightly higher scale than GW? (30mm vs 28mm) Anyway, without further adieu, here is the finished model. Given how well he performs, game in-game out, he may be a staple warbeast for the rest of my Circle playing days...

How to play Hordes.. a masterclass in mistakes

2009-04-13T16:33:00.006+01:00

On Wednesday night I went down to Stafford Games with Rich to play some Hordes. We played two games of 500 pts, my Circle Orboros vs his Trollbloods. His army consisted of Hoarluk Doomshaper, Axer, Bouncer, Trollkin Champions, Fellcaller, Trollblood Hero and a fecking HUGE Earthborn Dire Troll. (the gorgeous extreme sculpt) My army had Kaya the Wildborne, Argus, Gorax, Warpwolf, Pureblood Warpwolf, Tharn Bloodtracker and Alten Ashley. It was rather busy when we arrived so our first game was on a table that was about the size of a teatray. Here is a photo of the deployment. Our warlocks and warbeasts were both opposite each other in small brick formations. The units and solos were on the other side and my Bloodtrackers and Alten both used advance deployment to get so far forward. Here is a shot of the table after deployment. It might be a good time to point out now that this was as good a position as I was in all game...
On my first turn I activated the Bloodtrackers who romped forward and used ambuscade on the trollkin champions. This killed a couple, but due to them having multiple wounds, this was not what I planned- they were now next to almost certain death due to failing to kill enough enemies. Alten took a potshot at the trollkin hero but this pinged off him. I didn't feel that the Earthborn Dire Troll was in range but in retrospect I should have risked it due to a huge chance of hitting and Alten's monster hunter ability allowing him to kill off one aspect without needing to roll damage. The warbeasts all bounded forward and the Gorax cast primal on the Warpwolf, the Warpwolf and Pureblood did some self buffs and Kaya just followed them forward. Rich used his first turn to beat the snot out of the Bloodtrackers and advance on Alten. His brick of trolls shuffled forward.

My turn two then started. This was where I realised a collosal mistake had occurred. The Gorax had fury on it from the previous turn. Kaya was on full fury due to not dumping any in the previous turn. Therefore, she couldn't drain the Gorax' fury and it had to make a threshold check, which it duly failed. Frenzied in my own lines! The nearest thing ahead of it was the Warpwolf so it charged in and started pounding some damage onto my poor wolf. This was also a good time to learn that a frenzied warbeast gets boosted attack and damage rolls... doh! At this point I wanted the ground to swallow me up, but we then realised that as the Warpwolf recieved primal last turn, that he auto-frenzies the following turn! Being in melee, he therefore turned round and started wailing on the Gorax. This took both of them down about half way. Jesus wept. The picture shows them wailing on each other. Rich pissing himself with laughter is just out of shot...

The rest of the gang advanced up. Kaya dumped some fury ready to sort those two out next turn! Rich then advanced and charged in the big troll who laid down some pain on my Pureblood. His bouncer put Bounce on the Earthborn so the next person to hit the Earthborn would be bounced away and unable to apply sustained damage. His trollkin chewed through my right flank. To counter the bounce, on my next turn I activated the Gorax early, stuck primal on a warpwolf and charged the Earthborn. This hit used up the bounce pinged the Gorax away, leaving the Pureblood to kill the Earthborn. I followed this up with a quick Spirit Door assassination run with Kaya and the other wolf. OK idea, very badly executed. I should not have killed the Earthborn first as Hoarluk was able to reave the loose fury when it died, leaving him sat on full fury to transfer away my assassination damage. I failed to kill him, and on his following turn the troll warbeasts gangbanged poor Kaya to death. In this picture, just imagine that Kaya was in the middle of this circle...
So, lessons learned-
1- Always plan how much fury you will need to drain down on your following maintenance phase.
2- Know both the pros and cons of any animus.
3- Frenzy can be great for getting boosted attacks and damage, just be aware that your beasty needs to be facing an enemy!
4- When considering an assassination attempt, be aware of how much damage the Warlock can pass away. Also remember that damage cannot be transferred to a warbeast on full fury.

Here endeth the lesson for now...

Stealth update

2009-04-12T17:15:00.009+01:00

Time for a quick update before I go out for a fun evening of game and games (Venison and Settlers!). I have spent more time playing than painting this week, a very rare occurence and have a couple of battles to report on. I played a couple of great games against Rich at Hordes on wednesday night- Circle Orboros vs Trollbloods- and 2 fun games of 40k against Joe on Good Friday- Tau vs Ultramarines. Hopefully I get the time tomorrow to post some more.

My warpwolf is almost finished for my Circle army, and Kaya will follow him quickly I think.

For now, here are my latest Wood Elves, a Noble who will most likely be the ICBM Alter Noble set up, and the musician for my Wardancers.

Arrooo!

2009-04-04T19:17:00.007+01:00

Warhammer is not the only game I am painting up models for. A few weeks ago I played some starter games of Privateer Press' Hordes game with a guy I met over at The Warhammer Forum.
If you don't know this game, it is the sister game to their massively successful Warmachine game which is about to undergo Beta testing for its second edition. Whereas Warmachine is all about huge mechanic steampunk constructions of death, Hordes is the primitive partner game and is all about ravening Warbeasts controlled by Warlocks ripping their opponents apart.

<--- Huge mechanical steampunk constructs of death!

The game seems to follow the golden rule of game design-" simple mechanics, complex dynamics" and has simple and easy to follow core concepts which are based around your Warlock and his/her Warbeasts and the Fury they have. Simply put, the beasts get angry when you force them to do things, and the warlock can tap this fury to cast spells. The complexity comes from the dizzying array of special abilities each beast and warlock have. It seems to me that for army composition, synergy is everything.

Ravening Warbeasts just ripe with synergy!-->

The starter boxes for each of the four factions, or "warpacks" as PP call them, contain a small balanced force of 1 warlock and 3 or 4 warbeasts. The warpacks are designed to be balanced(ish) to play each other to learn the game. So I played as Circle Orboros, a bunch of mysterious druidic sorts and their animals, and Rich played as Trollbloods, a bunch of huge blue troll monsters who delight in chucking large heavy things as my poor doggies. I lost both games (1 by the skin of my teeth- how can I fail to roll 6+ on 2d6?!) but for the rematch I shall try and get some shots and give a battle report.

Since the intro games I have used the mysterious ways of Evilbay and obtained some beasties of my very own. I have started to paint my Circle warpack. Kaya the warlock and the big evil Warpwolf are still WIP, but for now I have a finished Argus to show off. Here he is!

Yes, he has two heads. 360 vision is nice unless he frenzies and then as your warlock is likely the nearest thing to him, you have a problem! His Doppler bark can be used to make you opponent either move OR fight, severely limiting melee models for a turn. On balance, it seems he is not that popular a model though, compared to the others in the army.

I have also been painting up some Wood Elf characters and may post shots of them soon. Hopefully tomorrow I will finish either Kaya or the Warpwolf and get some photos taken and posted. I am feeling very motivated right now. I am totally looking forward to getting some payback with Rich too!

Roll Call!

2009-03-28T11:59:00.003Z

Let's take a look at the Wood Elves already built and painted. These guys are all tabletop quality I think and look great at 1-2 foot distance.

1: Glade Guard x10

These boys are core troops and I already have 2 models for the next ten man squad finished. These guys are to provide a core missile centre to the army.

2: Dryads x8

Another core choice, these forest spirits provide a reasonably tough skirmish unit. Like pretty much all Wood Elf troop selections they are small in number and very maneuverable. I have to buy another box of 12 which, with my unbuilt spares, will allow me to field a total of 3 x 8 man units.

3: Spellsinger

As the sole painted character, she has to serve as the army general and provide all the magic offense and defense for the army. I really like how the greens have come out and the contrast with her flaming hair.

She will be joined on the character front by a noble I have almost painted and another wizard and standard bearer I have yet to assemble.

4: Wardancers x7

These hyper dancing loons add some much needed melee hitting power. I think the best comment they could have had is what Lynne said, "they look like they are dancing". Bingo!

There are another 5 still to come, one of which is almost done.

What is left to come?

I still have plenty to build and paint. This includes 3 Treekin, a mighty Treeman, some Wild Riders, a small unit of Glade Riders and the rest of the characters. Slow and steady does it...

Where are we?

2009-03-28T08:59:00.000Z

Well, before I start, I better establish where I am. I have been a wargamer for about 20 years but have only just returned to the hobby after a number of years away. This more or less coincided with the launch of Warhammer 40k 5th Ed. So I pulled down my Ultramarines from my parents loft and got the boys in blue ready to play. Played some down at the Stoke GW where the staff are great.

Now, since I last played tabletop games, there has been this whole "internet" thing erupt and coming back this time I found a ton of online resources, guides and sources of inspiration along with that other feature of the internet- the online forum. I hung around a number of places before finding where I feel most comfortable, The Warhammer Forum. The community there play a wide range of GW and other publishers games but mainly focus on Warhammer. This was all the inspiration I needed to start a Warhammer army. I read around on a few different options- Empire, Warriors of Chaos, Orcs n Goblins, eventually settling on Wood Elves. The range of models doesn't have a bad sculpt in it and the guerrilla/skirmish style of play really appeals.

I had some vouchers for Christmas that I had saved up so I grabbed a Battalion Box, a Spellweaver and started on my way. I have picked up quite a bit more off the wondrous Ebay for hella cheap prices and now have enough bits to field a proper 2000 points army. All I need to do is paint and assemble it...

/tap... is this thing on?

2009-03-27T21:13:00.000Z

Hello, good evening and welcome as one guy once said. I am going to poke around with this thing and work out how to share my wargaming fun with you guys.

TTFN!