Battle Report: eHaley vs eGoreshade

Aw yeah! eHaley and double Stormwalls! So douchy!

My list: eHaley, 2 Stormwall, Lancer, Squire, Jakes, Journeyman, Stormcaller, Tarin. Note that 1 Stormwall was with Jakes and the other with eHaley.

The game: My opponent fielded: eGoreshade, Kraken, Nightwretch, Tartarus, Wrathe, 2 Pistol Wraiths, Bane Thralls (10), Mechanithralls (10), Withershadow Combine

We played the SR2015 Two Fronts scenario and both picked the Fuel Cache objectives. This game was all about imminent threats. The Kraken with Phantom Hunter was a constant danger to eHaley the whole game, but with a hill to stand on and Deceleration up, it kept her at Def 20 against ranged attacks. Similarly Jakes was floating at Def 19 most of the time due to a forest and Deceleration. Attrition-wise I was grinding this game out pretty hard, especially after the feat round where lots of stuff just got shut down. Unfortunately there was a positioning miscalculation on my part and Curse of Shadows allowed the nearly destroyed Kraken to charge through my Stormwall and get to eHaley which pretty much splatted her. *sigh*

Lessons learned: First lesson is to always review the enemy caster's spell card each game. Always. Second, eHaley is totally ball busting, and playing double Stormwalls is crazy. I will say that despite this being a nasty list, it does look really awesome on the table. Despite having no units in my list, I felt like things were pretty well controlled.

Games this year: 11

Stormwall (take 2)

Finally done! I can't wait to ambush my friends with a double Stormwall list. Rather than cram this post with lots of pictures and jibber jabber, I'm just going to make it short and sweet.

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #75

I hate work travel.

This was a good week. My second Stormwall is finally finished (pictures pending) and I got some progress on Darius. I also seem to have gotten started on eHaley in a big way for some reason. Perhaps just the dread of starting on the Mechanics I guess. Anyway rather than belabor this post, I'm going to let the picture speak for itself and try to squeeze in a little more painting tonight.

As a side side note I also finished listening to The Butcher of Khardov on Audible. It was ok, but definitely not in my top 5 so far.

Darius Tier List Progress:

• Darius - in progress
• 3 Halfjacks - completed
• Stormwall 2 - completed
• 3 Stormpods - completed
• 6 Rangers - assembled
• 6 Mechanics - primed
• Storm Tower - completed

Firefly

It really took me a long time to finally finish these. Nothing special here really. I wanted 2 specifically for the Nemo tier lists.

Nephilim Bloodseer

I honestly can't believe it's taken me this long to finish this model. For some reason I was just not super psyched to paint it. I took a couple shortcuts getting it done, perhaps the most significant being that I didn't put a rune on him like all my other beasts simply because I couldn't find a good place to put one.

Harrier (take 6)

Nothing special to say on this one. One of these times I need to field a list that includes all of my lesser beasts just for kicks.

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #74

I hate work travel.

I finally took proper pictures of stuff. Pictured here are the 3 lamp posts I painted and put on 40mm bases to use as flags for SR2015 scenarios. I painted them using the ModelMates weathering paints which were a real delight to experiment with. Essentially I just put down a base coat of Andrea Gunmetal, then went over various parts with Andrea Gold, then hit them in random spots with all three of the ModelMates paints that I got: Verdigris Blue, Verdigris Green, and Rush Effect. After that I gave them a quick wash using SWW Heavy Black to tone them down for contrast and painted the lamp light. They were a pretty quick project and now I have proper 40mm flags to use.

Along with the lamp posts are Tarin and Reinholdt re-based onto my new themed mercs basing style. I painted 9 such 30mm merc bases this week for future use. I also finished the Bloodseer and 2 Fireflies which will appear with proper pictures later this week. Darius finally got primed and base coated so I'll likely start painting him this week. The Stormwall didn't get any work done this week, but clearing other projects from my desk will hopefully improve my focus on it this week.

Speaking of focus, this has been the challenge of my painting desk for large projects. I tend to keep multiple projects ready to start at all times. So when big things are being worked on or I just need a change of scenery, I can switch to something else smaller. This is especially helpful for huge based models or units. Normally I like this, but lately it has felt like more of a distraction from finishing my second Stormwall rather than helping me avoid burnout. I should probably pack away all my un-started projects for the next week... but I won't.

As a side side note I also finished listening to Night Of the Necrotech on Audible and have to say it was one of my favorite books yet.

Darius Tier List Progress:

• Darius - in progress
• 3 Halfjacks - completed
• Stormwall 2 - in progress
• 3 Stormpods - completed
• 6 Rangers - assembled
• 6 Mechanics - primed
• Storm Tower - completed

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #73

Play to paint, or paint to play?

My Darius tier list progress looks bad, but actually I got a fair amount of work done on the Stormwall torso which was a big victory for me mentally. In addition I got started on the 2 Fireflies which was another broken painting block. Also my Nephilim Bloodseer got a huge amount of work done during the week, including mostly completing a base for him. I also did some minor stuff like transfer more paint into droppers and primed some more bases for my mercs.

Darius Tier List Progress:

• Darius - assembled
• 3 Halfjacks - completed
• Stormwall 2 - in progress
• 3 Stormpods - completed
• 6 Rangers - assembled
• 6 Mechanics - primed
• Storm Tower - completed

Battle Report: Stryker1 vs Axis

My list: Stryker1, Stormwall, Sentinel, Squire, Reinholdt, Jakes, Charger, Storm Strider, Storm Tower, Strangeways, Journeyman, Ironclad, 2 Stormsmiths.

The game: My opponent fielded Axis, Axiom, 2 Conservators, Corollary, 2 Projectors, Optifex Directive.

We played the SR2015 Fire Support scenario. I should note that we both picked objectives but I can't remember either of them since they never ended up being relevant. I won the roll and opted to go first despite my instincts telling me to go second. The game was an entrenched war of attrition with a lot of back and forth. The CoC battle engines are really nasty to deal with since sprays are just so much harder to avoid. Plus the fact that it gets 2 base sprays makes it that much nastier. Definitely one of the more powerful battle engines. After a protracted battle, the game finally ended when I'd managed to dig myself out of a control point trailing and win by scenario. I will concede that I had pretty decent dice rolling as an overall average which helped me take down the Axiom.

Lessons learned: Stryker1 is amusing, but the army automatically gets built more around attrition than it does assassination. However for scenario it is really helpful to be able to jam in on round 2 and just hope to deliver a strong enough counterpunch. Going with a heavy arm skew was an amusing change for me. I'm also still a big fan of the Storm Strider since it's like half a Stormwall.

Games this year: 10

Battle Report: Stryker1 vs Syntherion

First game of February!

My list: Stryker1, Ironclad, Squire, Jakes Charger, Gastone, Vanguard, Gun Mages + UA, Hunter, Storm Strider, Storm Tower, Strangeways, Stormblade Captain, Journeyman, Reinholdt. I chose the Armory Objective to match with my Storm Tower.

The game: My opponent fielded Tier 4 Syntherion, Axiom, Corollary, Assimilator, Ciphe, Diffuser, Galvanizer, Transfinite Emergence Projector, 2 units of Optifex Directives, Optifex. He chose the Arcane Wonder Objective.

We played the SR2015 Two Fronts scenario. My opponent opted to go second which was tactical for when scoring starts. The game quickly turned towards an attrition grind that I was definitely going to lose so I set up for putting damage on Syntherion. On a round where he only had focus on Synth (putting him at 21 arm), I unloaded with the following ranged attacks: 1 gun mage, 2 direct Storm Strider hits, 2 fully boosted Charger shots, a boosted damage from the Hunter, a hand cannon from Jakes, and 2 fully boosted disruptor gun shots from Stryker. At the end of all that, Synth had 2 points of damage left. Even though I had destroyed his objective, Stryker went down pretty fast when the Axiom managed to charge into the Storm Strider and then via Synth's feat, weapon platformed to lay into Stryker with a pile more shots and attacks. Even through Stryker's feat, the assault was just too much.

Lessons learned: Bring a list of just whatever I've painted is fun, but I need to have more of a plan. I had some key setbacks like the cortex being blown out on the Ironclad by the battle engine, and the gun mage officer being taken out by a random AOE shot which hampered the Hunter's abilities. Still though, I do like Stryker's toolbox so it will be interesting to play him again with a more organized list.

Games this year: 9

Battle Report: Rotten Tomatoes Tournament

Yesterday was the so called "Rotten Tomatoes" tournament at my LGS. It was so named because the theme was a limited list of casters available to choose from. It was a 35pt event using the SR2015 scenarios. We had a total of 18 people show up which was outstanding. Here's the list of casters available:

• Cygnar: Kraye, Sturgis, Blayze
• Menoth: Testament, Amon, Thyra
• Khador: Zerkova, Strakov, Harkovich
• Cryx: Venthrax, pGoreshade, Scaverous, Sturgis
• Ret: Garreth, Kaelyssa
• Convergence: Axis, Aurora
• Mercs: Fiona, Magnus, Exulon
• Trolls: Calandra, Gunnbjorn
• Circle: Cassius, Grayle, pKaya
• Legion: Rhyas, Kallus, pLylyth
• Skorne: Morghoul2, Naaresh
• Minions: Arkadius, Strum&Drang, Calaban, Midas

My list: Sturgis, Stormwall, Squire, Stormblades (6+UA+3WA), Stormblade Captain, Journeyman, Gun Mage Captain Adept, Tarin, and I chose the Arcane Wonder Objective. (same as I've been practicing all January)

Game 1: Victory
Strakov, War Dog, Spriggan, Drakhun, Gorman, Great Bears, Demo Corp (5), Black Dragon IFP (10+UA)
I won this game by assassination. Things were a little rough, but Storm had gotten jammed in and I pulled off the power attack slam to knock an IFP into Strakov and then after 1 punch from the Stormwall, Sturgis zoomed in, chain attack flashed into reach of Strakov, and finished the job. One side note in this battle was that I got myself out of a Gorman danger by charging with Stormwall and then dropping a Stormpod to put a boosted pow 10 into him which buried the alchemist.

Game2: Victory
pKaya, Druid Wilder, Pureblood Warpwolf, Warpwolf Stalker, Gorax, Rotterhorn Griffon, Gallows Grove, Shifting Stones, Gatormen Posse (5)
First, I need to compliment my opponent on having the only fully painted army I faced during the day. Second, extra kudos for having a really kick-ass themed transport tray for them. Third just for being a really great opponent. I won this one through a crazy downtown Sturgis assassination run. After the Stormwall got destroyed, I had to clear a hole using Stormblades and Tarin, and then Sturgis charged the Stalker scoring a chain attack for the flash, and that let him flash into range of Kaya and deliver a beatdown on her. If it hadn't been for a bit of luck and that fortunately well executed assassination run, I would have totally lost that game by attrition eventually.

Game 3: Loss
Naaresh, Karn, Gladiator, Krea, Brute, Gatormen Posse (5), Task Master, Beast Handlers (4)
I got Karned. Plain and simple. I miscalculated the threat range and my own distance. He Cycloned Naaresh forward then put the Krea aura on Naaresh and charged in near Sturgis. Then Karn charged the Stormwall after a push from the Gladiator and the Rush+Enrage combo and then sidestepped over into range of Sturgis and that was it. Honestly, I just spaced on this one. I should know better.

Game 4: Loss
Strakov, War Dog, Devastator, Spriggan, Widowmaker Marksman, pEiryss, Assault Kommandos (6 + 2 WAs), Doom Reavers, Eliminators
This game was my favorite of the tournament. My opponent was gracious and we both had a really fun game overall. I'd never faced Eliminators or Kommandos and he'd never faced a Stormwall so we both got to surprise each other with amusing stuff. I think my favorite bit was the 2 Kommando WA's running into the midst of my Stormblades and then Strakov shooting them in the back to set most of my Stormblades on fire in the explosions. In the end of this game, Sturgis was in a perfect position to finish up Strakov on his next turn and was camping 5 focus and under Arcane Shield (for 23 arm), but a couple of high spiked damage rolls from the Spriggan ended up killing him before his time. Still though, my opponent and I walked away from the game laughing and shaking hands over what a fun game it was.

Lessons learned: Sturgis is a blast to play. I've now used every feature on his cards except for Convection. I'd happily play him more in casual play. Also, when pressed, I'm pretty good at playing to death clock. Also also, it was amusing to me that in this 35pt tournament, I was the only person to bring a Colossal/Gargantuan.

Overall results: The winner of the tournament was Venethrax, beating out Sturgis in the final round (not me), with Naaresh coming in third. Here's the overall breakdown of which casters got played:

• Cryx – Venthrax x2
• Cygnar – Sturgis x2, Kraye
• Khador – Zerkova, Strakhov x2
• Skorne – Naaresh x2
• Trolls – Calandra x2, Gunnbjorn
• Circle – Kaya x2
• Legion – Kallus, Grayle, pLylyth

There was also a painting competition handled by popular vote from the participants. Below are pictures of other entries, but long story short, my Stormwall tied for first place with the Vanguard pictured below.

Games this year: 8

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #72

Worst play call EVER!

Fast post tonight because I'm tired and it's late, so just a single picture of progress with some slammed together notes.
I painted up 3 lamp posts (from Wyrd) and put them on some old Secret Weapon bases I had, and then stuck them in a 40mm base to use as flags for SR2015 scenarios. I also finished off the Halfjacks and mines for Darius. Darius himself is fully assembled, along with a Minuteman, both of which are awaiting priming. In addition I got started on the Stormwall torso, the 2 Fireflies, and my Bloodseer.

Lastly I attended the Rotten Tomatoes tournament yesterday, but I'll safe that battle report for a separate post.

Darius Tier List Progress:

• Darius - assembled
• 3 Halfjacks - completed
• Stormwall 2 - in progress
• 3 Stormpods - completed
• 6 Rangers - assembled
• 6 Mechanics - primed
• Storm Tower - completed

Battle Report: Sturgis vs Syntherion

Yet another fun game with Sturgis last night. Super quick because I'm pressed for time.

My list: Sturgis, Stormwall, Squire, Stormblades (6+UA+3WA), Stormblade Captain, Journeyman, Gun Mage Captain Adept, Tarin, and I chose the Arcane Wonder Objective. (all same as before to practice for the tournament)

The game: My opponent fielded Tier 4 Syntherion, Assimilator, Cipher, Corollary, Diffuser, 2 Galvanizers, Transfinite Emergence Projector, Attunement Servitors, and 2 units of Optifex Directives. He chose the Bunker Objective.

We played the SR2015 Destruction scenario. I lost initiative and got selected to go second, so I picked a table side that had elevation to work with. By my second turn things were getting ugly. The Stormwall got the drop on the Assimilator and destroyed it, also clearing Directives and nearly wrecking the Objective. Stormblades took a beating and got mostly wiped out by the Projector and various jack attacks. Sturgis counterattacked and with Tarin's help started clearing out all the light jacks. By the end, Syntherion had taken lots of damage from several attacks all around, including a few points from feedback off Sturgis' weapon. At that point I was up 3-0 on control points and he needed a damage roll spike to pull out an assassination which didn't come through.

Lessons learned: Sturgis with Arcane Shield on him is a nice buffer. I'm also getting better at using his all his features. This last game I hit almost everything except his 2 attack spells and his Riposte. I've become a big fan of using his chain attack flash and Teleport spell to fly in and pop back out. I've also found that jamming the Stormwall forward as much as possible on my first activation is generally a good idea. Last night I also tried to play to a death clock with moderate success. I definitely need to be able to play faster, but playing to a 35 minute clock last night was a good practice for me. At this point I feel about as ready as I can be for the tournament.

Games this year: 4

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #71

This week, I love this hobby.

This was a kick ass week. I got lots of stuff done. Strangeways and the Storm Tower both completed, along with my second set of 3 Stormpods. I started a Harrier. I got the 3 Halfjacks assembled, primed and base coated. I also re-primed eHaley which took a bit of willpower. Darius got some assembly work started and the Rangers all got assembled. And finally, the Stormwall is taking shape with the legs mostly done and attached to the base which really helps my motivation in getting more work done on it.

I also did a bunch of general maintenance on my painting desk, including cleaning and organizing it a bit. One other key thing I did was to take an accounting of my stock of Tau Ceti bases to make sure I'd have enough for my remaining Cygnar pile. The answer of course is no. More for my own sake, here's what I still need to order: 20 small bases, 5-ish medium bases, and at least 10 large bases.

I also finished listening to the Dark Convergence book. I have to admit that although this wasn't my favorite, I did very much love all the story time that Nemo gets. Definitely helped focus my painting efforts as well.

Per my update from last week, I'm now going to keep track of the progress on models for my Darius tier list each week at the close of this post.

Darius Tier List Progress:

• Darius - assembling
• 3 Halfjacks - in progress
• Stormwall 2 - in progress
• 3 Stormpods - completed
• 6 Rangers - assembled
• 6 Mechanics - primed
• Storm Tower - completed

Stormsmith Storm Tower

For some reason I just love painting Stormsmiths in any form. This unit was no exception. The only frustrating part was trying to get the gunner and tower lined up when pinning them to the base, but that wasn't a massive problem.

Captain Arlan Strangeways

I was not really excited about painting Strangeways. The model isn't very exciting to me from a visual point of view since it's not a very dynamic pose. I get that he's a crusty mechanic, but still, he could be looking a bit more exciting. Anyway, I tricked myself by starting him in parallel with the Storm Tower when I base coated them. Then it turned into doing the glow together with them. Then the armor. And before I knew it, he was done. Then I read his stat card and got excited. I probably should have read his stats thoroughly at the beginning.

Battle Report: Sturgis vs Kaelyssa

Another fun game with Sturgis last night.

My list: Sturgis, Stormwall, Squire, Stormblades (6+UA+3WA), Stormblade Captain, Journeyman, Gun Mage Captain Adept, Tarin. (same as the other night) And I chose the Arcane Wonder Objective.

The game: My opponent fielded Kaelyssa, 2 Banshees, Sylas, Skeryth, 2 Destor Thanes, Arcanist, 2 Mage Hunter Assassins, and Lynyssa. He chose the Bunker Objective.

We played the SR2015 Destruction scenario. I chose to go second to have the advantage of a hill near the middle of the field. Things started off rough with a Banshee destroying the my Objective at the top of turn 3 and Kaelyssa dominating the zone after feating to score 3 CPs. And then Sturgis feated, dragging in jacks and Kaelyssa toward the Cygnar front line, giving me the range I needed to overcome stealth. At that point there was some pretty serious wrecking that rolled out and by the end of it all, the Ret forces were completely tabled.

Lessons learned: Sturgis' feat can be useful, but it requires conscious thought the whole time. With only 2 models in the list that are in support roles (Journeyman and Squire), it's important for almost all my list to be doing work every round if possible. I also need to get quicker at playing this list so I don't lose on deathclock at the tournament.

Games this year: 3

Gastone Crosse

This is my second of the Kickstarter sculpts now. I can honestly say I like this one way better than the normal sculpt. It's a bit more dynamic and the details are nice and crisp. My real disappointment here was my execution on the face; I just don't feel like I did it proper justice. As noted in last weekend's roundup post, I also re-based my old Vanguard to match Gastone here since most of the time that's what I'll pair with him I bet. Now he just needs some table time!

Blighted Bather

This was an amusing model to paint. If I'd opted to not fully assemble it I could have easily spent way more time on it and done a much better job. However once she was fully assembled it became difficult to hit all the tucked away spots with a brush. Still though, It really was a fun model to paint and will make an amusing alternative to the normal one. I might even get a couple more grunts for the unit and then I can field 2 minimum units.

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #70

Less productive this week.

I finally wrapped up Gastone and the Blighted Bather. I also managed to re-base my Vanguard to match Gastone and the Arcanist Core just to match as well. This gives me a cohesive basing scheme for my new mercs.

Also got Absylonia2 assembled. I have to say that was one of the most obnoxious models to assemble that I'd done in a long time. Hopefully it all holds together.

In an effort to give myself a more focused goal, I'm looking to build out a Darius tier list. In order to complete the tier list beyond what I have painted today I need the following: Darius, Stormwall, 6 Rangers, 6 Mechanics, Storm Tower. This obviously is a lot of stuff to get done, especially since Darius and Stormwall both come with extra models of their own. Nevertheless, this is now my primary painting focus for the next few weeks so my weekend roundups will focus more on the progress on that queue of models.

Sentinel

And done!

Charger

Another jack for the done column. Looking forward to trying this with Jakes.

Commander Coleman Stryker

This is the battle box sculpt which I have to say I am not at all a fan of. I may very well end up getting the alt sculpt and painting it just cause this one is so obnoxious. However I'm counting this in the done column and moving on for now.

Battle Report: Sturgis vs pSorcha

Sometimes you just get a bad match up...

My list: Sturgis, Stormwall, Squire, Stormblades (6+UA+3WA), Stormblade Captain, Journeyman, Gun Mage Captain Adept, Tarin. (same as the other night)


The game: My opponent fielded pSorcha, Conquest, War Dog, Kayazy Assassins (10+Underboss), Mortar Crew, Drakhun (no dismount), Eiryss2



We played the SR2015 Incursion (3-flags) scenario. I can honestly say there wasn't serious dice failures overall except for Sorcha not being able to roll 4+ on 2 dice to destroy Stormpods twice in a row. What really happened was I just had a horrible match up. The Kayazy having stealth meant the Stormblades and Stormwall couldn't touch them until it was too late. The Conquest having access to boundless charge made for a longer threat range. Sorcha's feat managed to completely stall the Stormblades and effectively lead to them being taken out of the game. And finally, there was a wall positioned such that Sorcha was able to hide behind it, leap out to do stuff, then wind rush back behind it. I also played real poorly my first 2 turns of the game.

Lessons learned: I have a little more respect for Sturgis' feat having used it a couple times now, especially when coupled with Teleport to get back out of harm's way. Also having half my points tied up in Stormwall means I really only have 2 "fire teams" available to me which means I can't adapt as easily. More on that another time though.

Games this year: 2

Commander Dalin Sturgis

This is actually the Kickstarter limited edition version of Sturgis which personally I really liked. This sculpt has a lot of nice crisp detail to it. I could have easily spent way more time on this model if I wasn't keeping it in my paint scheme for the army. It even had just the right amount of flat surfaces for me to get some freehand insignias. A very happy addition to my Cygnar force.

Battle Report: Sturgis vs eXerxis

Game #1 of the year!

In prep for the 35pt "rotten tomatoes" tournament at my LGS at the end of the month, I'm attempting to get a little practice in with Sturgis to see if I can make him work. The game last night made me feel pretty good about him.

My list: Sturgis, Stormwall, Squire, Stormblades (6+UA+3WA), Stormblade Captain, Journeyman, Gun Mage Captain Adept, Tarin.
The theory here is that Sturgis keeps his Arcane Shield on the Stormwall all game, and then Sturgis and the Journeyman bounce back and for between Snipe and Arcane Shield on the Stormblades as they activate. This gives them effectively RNG 10 attacks (and RNG 16 for the WA's) on their activations, and then ARM 18 on my opponent's turn. Tarin and the GMCA are there to pick off annoying solos, and Tarin of course also helps eliminate LOS problems for the Stormwall.

The game: My opponent fielded eXerxis, Karn, Krea, Brute, Reptile Hound, Venators (6), Beast Handlers (4), Thrulg and Saxon.

The game was a little wild. We played the SR2014 3-flags scenario. Karn took down the Arcane Shielded Stormwall in a single activation while affected by Ignite, Enrage, and X2's feat. After that I scrambled to not lose on scenario by putting Arcane Shield on Sturgis (via the Journeyman) and Stugis camped his focus after teleporting onto the far flag. From there it was just an attrition grind with the Stormblades managing to whittle down my opponent. In the end Sturgis continuing to camp focus and sit at ARM 24 was just insurmountable for either Xerxis or Karn.

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #69

Tee hee hee...

So vacation happened, which completely shut down any progress for pretty much 3 solid weeks. However when I got back I found myself with a renewed enthusiasm for painting which is great. What follows is sort of a brain dump of all kinds of things.

First is progress. Pictured here is what's currently in progress on my desk right now. Gastone is practically done but needs a base. The Stormwall is getting some progress made in that the pods and legs have base metal coats done. The upper half of it needs a lot more prep work still. I also started working on the Blighted Bather just for kicks and she's probably about half done at this point. I also finished Stryker1, Sturgis, a Charger and a Sentinel, but they are still being sealed so no pictures yet. In addition I painted 8 more Cygnar bases and primed a few bases for mercs. I also started painting eHaley and then got frustrated and completely stripped her to start all over. I'll probably try to prime her this week and start again.

I also went through and took stock of all my current projects and their various states:

• Painting: Blighted Bather, Gastone
• Base Coated: 2 Fireflies, 3 Stormpods
• Primed: 6 Mechanics, Strangeways, Storm Tower, Bloodseer, Harrier, 2 Shredders, Neraph
• Assembling: Abby2, Stormwall, eHaley

Right now my paint queue of what I want to work on (in rough order) looks like this: Blighted Bather, Stormwall, Mechanics, and eHaley.


I also did a quick catalog of bases so I knew where I was at in terms of how many more Tau Ceti bases I need:

• Painted: 9 small, 6 medium, 2 large, 1 huge
• Unpainted: 12 small, 4 medium, 2 large
• Total unpainted models: 30 small, 7 medium, 11 large, 1 huge

For Christmas, my good friends Henry and Lance got me an assortment of Cygnar things that dramatically boosted my dragon horde of models: Darius, Dynamo, Tempest Blazers, Stryker2, Stryker3, and another Hunter.

And finally, I listened to Warlock Sagas Instruments of War, and Warlock Sagas Mutagenesis while painted this week. Both were very inspiring for painting.

2014 Wrap Up and 2015 Resolutions

[Disclaimer: This post contains fluffy, introspective nonsense... Just like last year's did.]

2014 wasn't as busy on the personal and work fronts as the previous year was, but I still had a lot of trips and then of course the holidays had a pretty big block of non-productivity.

Last year's goals:
1) Attend Lock & Load (again) - Success! Had a great time, played a ton of games, and generally really enjoyed the entire trip.
2) Enter 2 painting competitions - Success! I entered KublaCon and Lock&Load. Easy to pull this one off. I will note that I didn't place in either of them which spawned a conversation with myself that went similar to this blog post by Meg Maples.
3) Get 90% of my Malifaux collection painted - Fail! Yeah, totally got distracted by prep for Lock&Load and then starting my new Cygnar force. It was an ambitious goal to say the least.
4) Start painting my Cygnar horde - Success! This was a slam dunk. In fact I made way more progress than I anticipated I would. More on that below.
5) Close out my random few unpainted models from other factions - Fail! Again it was an ambitious goal that was demoted by other things.

This wasn't as bad of a year as last year, but still not super productive...
Models painted last year:
Cygnar: 49
Malifaux: 19
Legion: 13
Mercs: 3
Circle: 1
Or looking at it from a different perspective:
Small based: 66
Medium based: 10
Large based: 8
Huge based: 2

So this year I painted a total of 85 models compared to 42 the previous year which is a huge surge in the amount I got done In all fairness, last year included 3 huge based models including the Archangel and Throne which were complex. However this year I started a whole new faction and designed the scheme for it which worked out fairly successful. Plus I painted the power generator pieces from Secret Weapon to match my Cygnar force.

Goals for next year:
1) Get my Cygnar force up to 100 painted models - I really love playing Cygnar, and I have a ton of models I really want to paint. This should be a slam dunk for me.
2) Get caught up on all new Legion releases - I've loved all the new models coming out for Legion, but I've fallen behind due to my Cygnar obsession. Time to get back on the latest releases. If I'm really ambitious, I may also try to paint a unit of Archers or Swordsmen.
3) Play 52 games of Warmachine - I've never set a goal to play a number of games before. This is mostly motivated to keep myself from falling into "It's late and I'm tired" mode and to get out and play more.
4) Attend 1 convention - It may not be Lock&Load, but I'm going to attend 1 convention for sure this year.
5) Not delude myself on other factions - Seriously, no silly goals about closing out models for other factions or games that I'm just not going to be as focused on. Like painting Dreadfleet, or Malifaux, or Protectorate or whatever.

Battle Report: pCaine vs eIrusk

So what do you do with Irusk is on a hill, in a cloud, behind a delta formation of shield walled Shocktroopers? You Caine him!
Tarin shadowfired the front shocktrooper. Then Caine advanced, Thunderbolted another Shocktrooper over Irusk, then Sniped himself, feated and put shots into Irusk. Then the Defender aimed and dropped a shot right into Irusk to finish him.

I freakin love Caine!

This sort of thing is what I love about Warmachine as a game. The old No Quarter Challenge pieces in the magazines really exemplified that sort of thing and I've always approached the game in that respect. This game was especially that case because when I pulled off this maneuver, I was already losing on scenario, the Defender's cortex was blown out, Aiyana was dead, and most of my Stormblades had been wiped out. I was losing both the scenario and attrition games. Assassination was my only remaining option, so I needed to puzzle out a solution.

Ironclad

Ironclad done! This is the first pure-melee jack I've painted for Cygnar which just seemed a bit strange for some reason. Still though, looking forward to getting it on the table.

Battle Report: Nemo2 vs Directrix

So last night this happened...

Thunderhead was right up at the front and I don't think I've ever seen a model with so many statuses on it. In addition to being down to 2 boxes remaining, he had the following effects on him: Flare (from a servitor), Harm (from Directrix's servitor), Knocked Down, Backlash (from Directrix), Failsafe (from Nemo2), and he was on fire. Ironically despite this situation, he survived the fire with 1 box left, stood up, and electro-purged a bunch of models right around him and cleared a path for the Stormclad (after being Energized by Nemo) to slam the Corallary into Directrix. The game would have been wrapped up at that point but even against a knocked down model, snake-eyes still means a miss for the Stormwall. Stupid dice!

General Adept Nemo

Wrapped up yet another Cygnar caster. This one was a bit of a rush job just to get it done. I opted to exclude his "epic" base enhancement since it would have occluded my normal basing scheme. The side effect of course is that he's sitting pretty far back on the base. it's not really a problem balance wise unless he gets positioned on an uneven surface.

Lieutenant Allister Caine

Getting Caine done was sort of a sidestep in my painting queue in an odd sort of way. When I got into Cygnar I hadn't really thought about getting many of the casters, but after getting a tip from one of our local PG's about Caine, it got me excited to paint him. Plus I have to admit that the boom The Way Of Caine was really great and got me extra excited about fielding Caine. I even took him for a first run last night and beat Aurora which was a bit surprising to me given that I hadn't played him before.

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #68

Ultra fast post this week.

Fairly productive week despite some serious Diablo3 binging. I finished a Stinger and pCaine. I also have nearly finished Nemo2, and my Ironclad is about half done. I also assembled a pile of stuff: Storm Tower, Neraph, Blighted Bather, Strangeways, Charger, Sentinel, pStryker and eHaley. All of that stuff also got primed, along with Gaston and Sturgis, and about 20 bases. I also have eAbsylonia about 2/3 assembled at this point as well.

On the priming front, I found that I slightly overprimed a couple of the items. Not a disaster but annoying. Also the fumes from priming all that stuff was noticeable in the room. It has me rethinking my priming strategy. There's a lot of advantages in both directions so we'll see what I end up choosing in the long term. For now I'm done priming until after the Christmas break though.

Battle Report: Convergence Proxy Fest

So the other night Lance and I got a game in. eFeora tier 4 list (2 full TFG units, Daughters, min Cleansers, full Choir, mechanic, Judicator, Crusader). Lance had Lucant, Axiom, double battle engines, double mechanics, angels and small based shield wall dudes.

Early on things were looking great for me. My tier bonuses gave +2 SPD for all flameguard models, and +2" deployment zone, and I was going first. I swarmed the objectives and positioned my Judicator to be ready to unleash fiery death the next round. Lance rushed forward and feared with Lucant to improve his chances of surviving. I then purged almost all of his shield wall guys, blocked out one objective entirely and got set up to control the second objective. Then the wheels started coming off the bus.

Axiom managed to get the drop on the Judicator after having a hole sprayed clear by one of the battle engines. Through some crazy rolling, he leveled the Judicator almost entirely. But the damage output didn't stop there. With only 8 points of damage left on the Judicator, the second battle engine strode up and sprayed over Axiom to finish the job. The one saving grace was that Lance's damage rolls were not discriminating and tore the Axiom a new one. After that I was able to take out the Axiom with my Crusader which was in turn taken out by a battle engine and Lucant himself. At this point though I was up on scenario 4-0. Lance then proceeded to roll up a battle engine and drop two 4D6 damage sprays on Feora: 4-6-4-5 and 6-6-4-4. The spiky damage on 2 pow 10 sprays put Feora in the dirt despite her arm 18 status.

And this, my friends, is why I'm so very done with Protectorate.

I will say that I am terribly impressed with the utility of the Convergence battle engine. I'm looking forward to seeing those on the table more. They bring a really unique style of mechanics to the game.

Stinger

It's a Stinger! Boom! Nothing else to say!

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #67

Again, travel sucks...

So this last week was productive by sheer force of will. I cut back on my Diablo 3 addiction a bit, and worked on things in small chunks. Pictured here is the key stuff. Nemo2 and Caine1 are started, as well as the Ironclad base metal work is done. The former two are part of a big push I'm feeling around getting more casters ready. After having played Haley1 I've got a desire to try some more of the casters. To that end I also got Sturgis and Gaston assembled (pictured here), as well as Stryker1, a Charger and a Sentinel. I've sort of had this push to get stuff assembled and primed so I can get ahead of the painting phase again and this gets me there quite well.

I also finished yet another Stinger which I'll post tomorrow, got a game in last night which I'll post later this week, and generally did some clean up on my painting desk in terms of organizing my tools and such. Hopefully this week will be more productive from an actual paint-on-model point of view given that I'm not planning to travel.

One last quick note: DickBlick has W&N Series 7 brushes available again. Hopefully the US Customs block on sable hair brushes has finally been removed. And no, I don't get any sort of kickback from anyone at all on this. I just like the brushes above all others and wanted to share the word.

Cygnar: Rivet Counts

A little random humor for your Friday...

Wow does Cygnar have a lot of rivets. Like, loads of them. Ridiculous amounts. At the beginning I was actually counting them as I trimmed and cleaned the pieces for models. I gave up on the task eventually but I figured I'd share the ridiculousness of how many rivets I did end up counting. I don't claim that these are 100% accurate, but they are pretty close.

Model	Rivets each
Nemo1	56
Stormwall	1024
Stormpods	18
Thunderhead	286
Ironclad	234
Defender	220
Lancer	175
Thorn	244
Hunter	69
Firefly	319
Squire	80
Storm Strider	308
Journeyman Warcaster	51
Allison Jakes	40
Stormsmiths	5

What this means is that I've painted well over 3500 rivets at this point.