Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

This is a really nice model to paint. I'm a little ashamed at the shortcuts I took on some of the smaller details. However it's done and I had a fun time playing with colors on this one, trying to find something that struck a balance between appearing natural and magical at the same time.

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #106

So very very tired.

So first up is progress on Eiryss2. She's my last remaining mercenary model to paint so I was eager to get her started. However what I discovered was that it's a really nice sculpt. A little challenging for sure, but absolutely gorgeous detail. I'm spending more time on it than I had anticipated but enjoying every minute of it. She won't turn out as a competition level model by any stretch, but I am going to use it as an opportunity to paint to a higher standard than I have been lately.

Next is my progress on the Sacral Vault. This kit is a real beast. I mean seriously, it has a ton of parts to it. However the real tricky part is getting everything prepped for priming. I want to paint the two pushing gators separately, and of course I got a Secret Weapon Bonefields base for this model since it seemed appropriate. And that means all those parts need to be separate for the painting process. This means I needed to have a plan for how to handle the assembly work once the parts are painted and yet still have everything come together nice and stable. To handle that, I got everything carefully positioned on the base to my liking, then used some painter's tape to secure the Vault to the base. After removing the two pushers temporarily, I turned the Vault and base upside down and drilled holes for 3 pins that go through the base and into the wheels. Then I repositioned the pushes and drilled pins for them too. You can see how all those pins stick out the bottom of the base in the next picture. Those pins are obviously not glued in yet (I'll do that later) but I wanted to make sure everything test fit nicely. At this point I basically just need to finish all the tiny pieces, which is something like 40 candles, skulls and such.

Beyond that, it hasn't been very busy on the painting desk this week. Finishing the Black 13th gets me a bit closer on my pCaine tier list target, but that isn't going to get finished anytime soon. I'm pretty committed to getting my mercs and minions wrapped up before working on anything significant for Cygnar.
I'm also trying really hard to hold back from picking up any new models for now. There's something working on my side though: My LGS is opening another store even closer to where I live! Soon there will be an extra-local LGS. In an effort to show my support for that store, I'm holding back on any purchases until they open. Of course once they do open, then the backlog of stuff I want (Ace, Blightbringer) will instantly get purchased I imagine, which will ruin my fully painted status for Legion.

Cygnar Paint Taget (tier 4):
pCaine - done
Ace - unowned
Reliant - done
2 Gun Mage Captains - done
Gun Mages + UA (1st) - done
Gun Mages + UA (2nd) - assembled
2 Hunters - done
Black 13th - done
Tempest Blazers - done

Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team

Ok, these weren't as bad as I was expecting them to be. In fact they were actually kind of pleasant to paint once they were assembled. The sculpted detail is pretty crisp and easy to pick out.

Savio Montero Acosta

I don't have enough time to write a proper post for this model, but let me say that this was a wonderful model to paint. Great pose. Great detail. Really enjoyed painting it. Highly recommend painting this one even if just for fun.

Lord Commander Stryker

Continuing to fill out my stable of painted Cygnar casters. Although I like the pose of this model, it was a little tricky to work on. First was the problem of not using his epic base since I wanted to keep him on my existing basing theme. That caused some weirdness with his footing on the base. Next was the tail of his coat which is flat and pretty uninteresting. I tried to paint it appropriately, but it basically felt very boring. Third was the lack of decent sized flat spaces on the armor for insignias. I essentially just crammed in as many as I could all over his armor without making it look silly. I really wanted to reinforce the sense of it being prototype armor per the original fluff.

Battle Report: Absylonia2 vs Axis (again)

My list: Absylonia2, Blightbringer, Carnivean, Seraph, Stinger, Shredder, Warspears (5+UA), 2x Shepherds.

My opponent: Axis (tier 4), Corollary, 2x Inverter, 4x Enigma Foundry, 2x Obstructors, Reductors, 3x Clockwork Angels, Optifex Directive.

This was sort of a refined rematch from the previous game. We played the SR2015 Outflank scenario again, and our lists were basically refinements from the previous game. I should also note that we played to deathclock during this match. Fortunately I won initiative again and opted to go first. I surged forward and tried to be in a good position to push harder into each zone. Axis' force then surged forward. Next I opted to use the Carnivean to get a deep strike and got a lucky assault spray damage on a Foundry and took it out, then used Slipstream to pull it back. On the other side I pushed forward with Warspears covered by the Blightbringer's aura for bonus ARM. There was a fair amount of killing of Axis' troops, but against this list it's just a matter of trying to overload the Foundries' ability to put them back on. The follow up was not so bad, with a key Warspear getting taken out and allowing Axis to score a scenario point. This turned out to be a key point later on, but more on that later. I then pushed forward further, nearly taking out a second Foundry with the Carnivean, taking out more Angels, and more troops. Unfortunately in the next round an Inverter (aided by Axis' feat) managed to take out the Carnivean. After lamenting my choice to not Slipstream it back again I realized that the right zone was starting to collapse on me, and while my Warspears were doing an admirable job of holding the other zone, they wouldn't last forever. I was also down to a little less than 8 minutes on my clock, and Axis' feat had hit most of my force. At this point I played pretty fast, pushing further into the left zone with my Warspears and Blightbringer to make sure I couldn't lose on that side, and then blocked off the Inverter with a Warspear and my Succubus on the other flank. I also put Abby into a somewhat dangerous position, especially given that my Shredder had been taken out by Angels in the previous round, robbing me of my precious Tenacity animus. So what was I to do at this point? I charged into the center with Abby, then teleported to the Blightbringer's cloud for the ARM bonus. I hit the clock and had just barely 2 minutes left. The reason I had to go down this path was not just deathclock, but also because I was down on scenario points. Although Abby was sitting on 4 fury, it wasn't enough and after a Corollary headbutt to knock Abby down, Axis finished her off with a series of nasty rolls.

Lessons learned: Well, I didn't lose due to countercharge! Also, Abby is badass, and the Seraph is just a must I think. In hindsight, I also need to make sure I'm remembering the Blightbringer's aura since I believe I spaced and forgot the bonus to Abby's ARM during the pummeling from Axis. Oh well!

Games this year: 3

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #105

Shiny happy week.

Got more painting done on Stryker2 and Acosta. Also ended up playing some Diablo3 due to the 2.4 patch releasing. In addition I have my Bone Grinders prepped for priming and played 2 games.

I cataloged my remaining unpainted stuff in an effort to get myself psyched. I'm so close to fully painted and the prospect of reaching that excites me. My goal is to close out mercs next, followed by minions. However I'm sure I'll crank out a few Cygnar along the way. I'm still sort of aiming at this pCaine tier list for now though so I'll leave it as my paint target for the time being.

Cygnar Paint Taget (tier 4):
pCaine - done
Ace - unowned
Reliant - done
2 Gun Mage Captains - done
Gun Mages + UA (1st) - done
Gun Mages + UA (2nd) - assembled
2 Hunters - done
Black 13th - painting
Tempest Blazers - done

Battle Report: Absylonia2 vs Axis

My list: Absylonia2, Blightbringer, Carnivean, Proteus, 6x Stingers, 2x Blight Wasps, Shredder, 2x Shepherds.

My opponent: Axis (tier 4), Corollary, 2x Inverter, Galvanizer, 4x Enigma Foundry, 2x Obstructors, Reductors, 2x Clockwork Angels, Optifex Directive.

We played the SR2015 Outflank scenario. Fortunately I won initiative and obviously chose to go first. If I hadn't it would have been a disaster since Axis' army deploys so far forward. The battle was a slugfest, with me ripping huge chunks out of his army every round and him putting most of them back out for the first 3 rounds. I ended up timing out on the deathclock first but we kept playing for fun. There's no other way to describe the game than grindy. In the end I was loosing on attrition, but he just couldn't get a grip on Abby. I managed to jam in and prevent losing on scenario temporarily and be set up for an assassination run. Unfortunately on my following turn when it was time to execute, I moved a Shredder up which then allowed Axis to trigger counter-charge and charge away from Abby. DOH! At that point I conceded.

Lessons learned: So yeah, countercharge. I forget about it all the time. I really need to start remembering it. I will say that after playing Abby a second time, I really enjoyed her. This was a good match up since she had plenty of targets to trigger Conferred Rage with which really kept my army rolling hot. I do however need to get better at holding her feat back for just the right time.

Games this year: 2

Battle Report: Nemo3 vs Doomshaper3

No picture for this battle. The report is 3 days late too.

My list: Nemo3 (tier 4), Finch, Stormwall, Dynamo, Thunderhead, Stormsmith Stormcaller, Mechanics (6), Silverline Stormguard (10).

My opponent: Doomshaper3 (tier 3), Glacier King, Earthborn, Mauler, Axer, Fire Eaters, Whelps, Krielstones (4+UA).

We played the SR2015 Outflank scenario. Henry won initiative, and in my opinion, especially given the scenarios and the lists, that dictated a huge amount of the battle. He jammed forward which put the Glacier King close to the center line. I moved forward cautiously trying to cover my heavies with Stormguard lined up to prevent charges, and my Stormwall on the other flank dropping pods hoping to block charges on that side. Then the Fire Eaters basically turned the entire game for Henry with assault charges, clearing stormpods and all the relevant Stormguard so that the rushed Earthborn was able to charge Dynamo. At that point the Glacier King was jammed pretty hard in the center of the board and Doom3's feat was up. My only real counterattack options were to pray for crazy dice and charge in, or go for the assassination, which is what I tried. Here's how that played out, with numbers commentary so that you can get an idea of what the math looked like between the two feats...
Doom3 was under the effect of both his feat and the stone's aura and the Glacier King's concealment area. This put him at effective 15/17, untouched at 16 boxes, with 1 less die on damage rolls and healing d3 after each hit. He also had 2 Fury on him for transfers.
Nemo allocates 2 focus to the Stormwall and Thunderhead each, which with Finch's bonus gives them 3 each.
First I charged with my Stormguard into the Fire Eaters. They got 4 hits, killing 1 of them. This allowed the leader to then drop the 5" AOE effect on Doomshaper (and his UA) that gives +2 to any lightning damage rolls against the affected models.
Next Nemo3 feats (granting an extra die on all lightning damage rolls) and moves just enough to have Doom3 in range for his lightning strike. He boost to hit (6 RAT vs 15 def) and hits, and then boosts damage (10+2+4d6-1d6, or 12+3d6, vs 17), and rolls 1-1-4, which then gets healed leaving Doom3 at full. Lightning bounces into the UA who gets snuffed handily.
Next Finch moves up and makes an attempt at Doom3 with her tuning fork but misses on the attack rolls (RAT 5 vs 15). If miraculously she had hit, it would have been effective 12+2d6 vs 17.
Next Thunderhead moves up and takes a boosted shot but misses (RAT 6 vs 15). If he'd hit, he'd have sustained attack, meaning he'd get 3 hits of effective 16+2d6 vs 17.
It was at this point that I actually just conceded the game, but here was the remaining of the potential attacks.
The Stormwall could then march forward, lining up on Doomshaper for the big guns, and take 2 shots. These not being lightning makes them unfortunate, but it was RAT 6 vs DEF 15, so my plan was to boost one but not the other, hoping for average rolls on the attack to hit both times. That would have been 2 boosted damage rolls of effective 16+2d6 each.

Lessons learned: Doomshaper3 is ball-busting. The Glacier King is super legit. And most of all, the Fire Eaters have assault with their 6" sprays which is a real flexible option for them. Perhaps the real takeaway though is that I'm just not prepared enough to deal with jam lists and I need a lot more practice against them. I will say that I really enjoyed playing Nemo3 and I'm looking forward to playing him more.

Bonus analysis: So yeah, failed due to key roll failure unfortunately. But let's look at the math overall. Assuming all average rolls (and rounding down 0.5's) for all of the above, and taking out Finch since on average she would miss, it turns into the following net damage amounts: 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4... for a grand total of 23 (not counting that the last d3 heal would not actually happen though). Even if one of the Stormwall big guns had missed, it still would have been 19. The assassination run plan was sound, but I needed slightly better than average dice, and for Doomshaper to not make a Tough roll. It was bad.
Now as a thought experiment, let's take out Doom3's feat, but keep Nemo3's feat. Those damage rolls suddenly turn into averages of 9, 6, 6, 6, 9, 9, for a total of 45.
Now let's take out Nemo3's feat but keep Doom3's feat in. The average damage rolls now turn into: 0, 0, 0, 0, 4, 4, for a total of 8.

Games this year: 1

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #104

Fantastic week! Except for the whole going back to work thing.

Well my DZC collection is now fully painted as well. Now on to Cygnar to catch up on. As you can see pictured here, I've got Stryker2, Acosta, and the Black 13th on my desk right now all in progress. The Black13th models are just crazy small in comparison.

I've packed away a bunch of models as well. All of my trolls and menoth are packed away. I also threw a few blisters for models that I've classified as "never going to paint" into that storage as well. I've removed them from my collection on this blog more for psychological reasons to myself than anything else. The models I packed away include:
* Arkadius and Carver - Because I'm never going to play a pig army.
* Kreoss3 and Durant - Because I'm unlikely to pick Menoth back up anytime soon.
* Triton A2s - I'm actually looking to find a new home for these with the local DZC community since they are extra that I can't really use.

Cygnar Paint Taget (tier 4):
pCaine - done
Ace - unowned
Reliant - done
2 Gun Mage Captains - done
Gun Mages + UA (1st) - done
Gun Mages + UA (2nd) - assembled
2 Hunters - done
Black 13th - painting
Tempest Blazers - done

Remaining DZC models:
2 Triton A2s - selling
2 Phobos - done
2 Odin - done
2 Enyo - done

Reliant

Finished! Nothing especially amazing. It's been a while since I finished Cygnar warjack.

Enyo

Enyos done!

Odin

Odins done!

Phobos (take 3)

Last Phobos done!

Neptune (take 6)

Last Neptune done!

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #103

First roundup of 2016 is late, but off to a good start.

Lots of progress in the last couple weeks. My remaining DZC models are almost done. My Reliant is started. I've got a few models ready for priming tonight too. I'm hoping to have all my DZC stuff closed out by the end of this week. After that, it's time to focus on my remaining Cygnar and see how much of that I can get done before new releases start hitting. Having the pCaine tier list target will be key to getting a big chunk of that done.

Cygnar Paint Taget (tier 4):
pCaine - done
Ace - unowned
Reliant - painting
2 Gun Mage Captains - done
Gun Mages + UA (1st) - done
Gun Mages + UA (2nd) - assembled
2 Hunters - done
Black 13th - assembled
Tempest Blazers - done

Remaining DZC models:
Neptune - done
2 Triton A2s - selling
2 Phobos - done
2 Odin - painting
2 Enyo - painting

2015 Wrap Up and 2016 Resolutions

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

2015 was generally a solid year for hobby time. There was a pretty solid block where family stress smashed my motivation though and I fell into a Diablo3 pit for probably 4 months. If it hadn't been for that, this would have been a banner year for playing.

Last year's goals:
1) Get my Cygnar force up to 100 painted models - Success! Easily beat this goal.
2) Get caught up on all new Legion releases - Fail! But oh so close. I'm missing Blightblades. Otherwise I'm caught up on new things. I'm still behind on older units as well, specifically Archers, Swordsmen, and Grotesques.
3) Play 52 games of Warmachine - Fail! There was a solid block of 3 months where I barely played anything. If I add in my DZC games, I'd actually be closer, but still a ways off. Probably 44 games total.
4) Attend 1 convention - Success! Lock & Load for 3 years straight now! Not only that, but I played Unbound there AND got to play a game with Jason Soles which was hands down the highlight.
5) Not delude myself on other factions - Success! Other than the foray into DZC, I stayed very focused this year as my painting tally shows. Speaking of which...

Models painted last year:
Cygnar: 66
Legion: 16
Mercs: 7
DZC: 41
Looking at it from a size perspective (excluding DZC):
Small based: 63
Medium based: 10
Large based: 14
Huge based: 2

So this year I painted a total of 130 total models (89 of which were 30mm scale) compared to 85 the previous year. This year I was again very focused on what I was painting, with Cygnar being the bulk of it.

Goals for next year:
1) Paint arcs on all my Legion models - I love having arcs painted on my Cygnar. Time to bring my Legion collection up to the same standard.
2) Close out DZC - There's only a few left, but it would be nice to have it completed. I don't anticipate needing to add a whole lot of models to that force.
3) Get my Cygnar collection up to 95% painted - This is just so I don't lose steam and end up with a bunch of unpainted things sitting around.
4) Play 52 games this year - Gonna try this one again. If I can keep pace and not fall into "Murtaugh Mode", then it should be easy. I should note this is not limited to Warmachine.
5) Attend 1 convention - Again. Probably gonna be Lock & Load.
6) Paint a Batman model for my comics fixer - A friend of mine (who doesn't play miniatures games) is my fixer when it comes to comics. He has made amazing recommendations. He's a big Batman fan so I managed to get one of the great Knight Models versions of Batman and I want to paint it for him to premium quality as a way of saying thanks. 7) Play tighter games - More about this below.
8) Pack away old models - I don't want to get rid of anything, but there's lots of models I simply don't play anymore, and they are taking up precious case space. I think it's time to put them in long term storage.
9) Archive selected models - I've got a bunch of models I'm just never going to paint. For my own sanity, I owe it to myself to just pack them away in long term storage or find new homes for them.
10) Read another book about painting - I've already got a great book sitting on the shelf about the history of pigment that I'm very keen to read. I just needed some motivation.

Whew! That's a lot of goals. Some of those are pretty small though. I am a little concerned though because there's 3 big "distractions" from these goals that I can already foresee:
1) Diablo3 2.4.0 patch - Whenever it hits, it will definitely distract us with a big rash of playing.
2) Malifaux - The new campaign rules have us very intrigued, so I suspect that we'll play a bunch of that and I'll want to paint a new crew for it.
3) Unbound at Lock and Load - If they have it again, I will most definitely want to play in it and I already have a scheme in mind for it. But I'll save that for a future post.

On the topic of playing tighter games, there are 3 specific things I want to start doing in every game this year. First is use a tray to roll my dice to eliminate confusion and cocked dice. I think this is just a good practice in general and avoids lots of problems with hitting models as well.
The second is to not do any more rewinding of model moves. This is something that I've grown to dislike a lot. positioning is really important in this game, and as soon as a model is picked up and moved at all, it can completely skew things. Whenever people back things up, it always becomes a "I think it was about here and had a line to this" sort of thing, which usually benefits the person doing the moving. I'm going to start treating it more like chess where once it's picked up, it's committed.
The third is simply to play to a death clock in every Warmachine game, even if I don't enforce it on my opponent. I want to play faster and get used to making sharper decisions quickly. I find that mistakes breed better future choices better than spending lots of time mulling over options.

And that's it. Here's to a great 2015 and hopes for a great 2016. Cheers to all!

From the Desk: Cleaning Amusement

I was cleaning up my painting desk yesterday and came across these. To the recycling bin with you MK1 cards!!

Tempest Blazers

Finally finished the Murder Ponies! It only took me a year to get these painted. They were a Christmas present from my buds last year. A couple notes about these for other folks that end up taking them on:
1) For anything beyond very careful handling, I recommend additional pins into the hooves to make it more stable to the base. A single plastic leg to support the whole model and bond it to the base is just ridiculous.
2) Make sure to fit the riders to the horses before putting the arms on. The riders with the arms outstretched forward can be a nasty fit around the horses' heads.

Quite honestly, I can't say I enjoyed painting these that much. I hate painting horses, and the final assembly was very tedious. I'm glad they are done.

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #102

Last roundup post for this year.

I'm fully painted on my Legion collection! Hooray! Let's see how long that lasts. I'm starting to think about getting caught up on the remaining Legion things I don't own, but that might get eclipsed by whatever plan I make for Lock & Load this year. This year will probably be another focus on Unbound, but I haven't settled on what to bring.

As pictured here, the Murder Ponies are getting closer to done. Not doing anything amazing from a quality point of view to be honest. I'm going to try to get a little more contrast and color on them tonight before I crash. I did also get the Reliant primed just in case I end up finishing these and have a little more time left before the Christmas time crunch starts.

My buddies got me a wonderful gift for Christmas too. It's a total trolling: a Woldwrath. I hate to admit it, but I do want to paint it and am thinking about ideas for how to make it really interesting. I will not concede that this is getting me into Circle though.

I'm leaving my paint targets on this post for my own tracking, but honestly they aren't getting much attention for now other than trying to finish up the Murder Ponies.

Cygnar Paint Taget (tier 4):
pCaine - done
Ace - unowned
Reliant - primed
2 Gun Mage Captains - done
Gun Mages + UA - done
Gun Mages + UA - assembled
2 Hunters - done
Black 13th - assembled
Tempest Blazers - painting

Remaining DZC models:
Neptune - primed
2 Triton A2s - assembled
2 Phobos - primed
2 Odin - primed
2 Enyo - primed

Blight Wasps

2 units! Done! And to my buddy Mike: HAH! You trolled me into 2 units, and I've painted them. Just wait until I field them and start owning face!!

It's really hard to take these models seriously. I mean really... They're butterflies! But seriously, they aren't that horrible to paint except that their poses are all crouched up. They also required some special work since I needed to seal them before putting them on the flight bases. Otherwise, they are about the same effort as a Harrier.
I gave each unit a slightly different tint, with one being more red and the other being more blue-green. This makes it simple to differentiate them on the table.

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #101

Bite me holiday busy time!

Day behind since I forgot to post last night. This week was pretty productive. Finished up Zuriel and the Twins. The Butterflies are nearly completed, with just detail work remaining. I even got a bit of work done on the Murder Ponies, finishing up the horses and getting them attached to bases. Hopefully I can finish up both of those projects before the end of the year.

Cygnar Paint Taget (tier 4):
pCaine - done
Ace - unowned
Reliant - assembled
2 Gun Mage Captains - done
Gun Mages + UA - done
Gun Mages + UA - assembled
2 Hunters - done
Black 13th - assembled
Tempest Blazers - painting

Remaining Legion models:
Blight Wasps (8 total) - painting


Remaining DZC models:
Neptune - primed
2 Triton A2s - assembled
2 Phobos - primed
2 Odin - primed
2 Enyo - primed

Locked!

Got my hotel reservation and purchased my badge for Lock&Load 2016 yesterday! Thus begins the next 6 months of obsessing about what I will plan to play at L&L this year. Perhaps another Unbound game hopefully!

Saeryn and Rhyas Talons of Everblight

Let's see how much I write up in 5 minutes here. Loved painted these two. Great sculpts, albeit a little tedious to put together and handle due to the flowing sashes. I went a little out of style for myself and did some OSL on the glow from Saeryn's hand just for fun. Otherwise these are pretty standard for my Legion painting. For not having painted a Legion model for quite some time, I have to say I'm pleased with how these turned out. Sorry the picture tint is off though.

Zuriel

It's been a while since I finished a Privateer Press model. Almost 5 months actually. Getting Zuriel done feels like a real success. I've been painting, but all DZC stuff lately, so to step back into Legion was a refreshing experience. Why? Well quite frankly, the scale is more pleasurable and painting Legion is always a refreshing break because I can play with color options a little more freely than my other projects. Zuriel here in particular was a lot of fun cause he's big and posed well. It's also a morale boost since he'd been sitting on my desk for quite some time before I got around to even priming him. Once I started putting paint on him though, it went fast and joyfully.

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #100

Three and a half years of roundups instead of random desk updates. Crazy.

So despite being the "100" milestone of doing weekend roundups, this one is not particularly special in any way. I'm almost done with Zuriel and the twins now. I'm hoping to get cranking on the murder ponies again once I finish these, but it's possible that painting the butterflies will instead spark my interest. In general though, I'm really finding my joy in painting again. One particular thought that is now striking me is whether to start painting arcs on my Legion models. I've found it very valuable on my Cygnar and not really that distracting from the quality of the models. Perhaps these will be the first ones to try it with.

On the topic of paint targets, below is my next major paint target for Cygnar which I'm planning to aim for next once these Legion models are done. Note that this list actually contains a model I don't own yet as well, namely Ace.

Cygnar Paint Taget (tier 4):
pCaine - done
Ace - unowned
Reliant - assembled
2 Gun Mage Captains - done
Gun Mages + UA - done
Gun Mages + UA - assembled
2 Hunters - done
Black 13th - assembled
Tempest Blazers - painting

Remaining Legion models:
Saeryn & Rhyas, Talons of Everblight - painting
Zuriel - basing
Blight Wasps (8 total) - assembled


Remaining DZC models:
Neptune - primed
2 Triton A2s - assembled
2 Phobos - primed
2 Odin - primed
2 Enyo - primed

Battle Report: PHR vs Scourge

Basically just posting pictures here.

Finally played a game of DZC with my 1500pt force. This is less of a battle report and more just notes about the game.

Wrecking buildings is fun. Especially when the building contains a bunch of enemy infantry and has vehicles next to it. I really enjoyed that and I see that as a viable PHR strategy overall.
Having a higher commander rating really is useful, not just for the initiative bonus but for the additional cards. There were a couple times when my opponents cards really swung the tide of the game.
Finding the right balance between infantry, anti-ground, and anti-air. I'm starting to see more and more the merits of walking onto the battlefield rather than spending points on transports to do it.
This game is hot looking with fully painted armies on the table.
A full 1500pt game really takes longer than I expected. Like a lot longer. We had to look up lots of rules and by the middle of turn 4 (out of 6) we'd been playing for 3 hours. I was starting to fall asleep from exhaustion so we estimated the rest of the game. I was losing the overall attrition war, but I'd eliminated almost all of his infantry which thus prevented him from scoring much at all.

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #99

Still painting, but posting before I pass out with my face in the palette.

So I'm finally painting something other than DZC! It's about time too. With my recent surge of playing Legion again, I've got a renewed vigor to paint some Legion models and the Twins and Zuriel were already primed and ready to go. I forgot how much I enjoyed painted Legion models too until I picked these up.

In other news, I realized I haven't got a new paint target. Normally I was working in lists, but that broke down once I finished my DZC paint target so now I need a new one. However first I'm hoping to close out my remaining DZC models as well as finish a few more Legion things. I might just work from a favorites list for the time being. The next week will really prove out what draws my enthusiasm. In the mean time, I'll track my remaining DZC models to finish on my weekend roundups.

Remaining DZC models:
Neptune - primed
2 Triton A2s - assembled
2 Phobos - primed
2 Odin - primed
2 Enyo - primed

Poseiden

This model was actually quite fun to paint since it had such a large area to work with and crisp details. I'll try to get a picture of it with the Hades carried underneath it later.

Battle Report: Bethayne vs Borka2

No picture for this battle. It was just ugly.

My list: Bethayne, Belphagor, Succubus, Blightbringer, Seraph, Beast Mistress, Stinger, 2 Shredders, Blackfrost Shard, Hex Hunters (10+Bayal).

My opponent: Borka2, Mauler, Earthborn, Axer, Bouncer, Fell Caller, Janissa, Fennblades (10+UA), Krielstone Bearers (3+UA), Totem Hunter, Thrullg.

We played a basic killbox/center zone scenario. In all fairness, I should have lost this game too. Henry had me dead to rights given his brick of Borka/Mauler/Earthborn that was able to march forward with the protection of Janissa's stone wall. Unfortunately for him he positioned his Mauler too far to one side on the advance and I was able to Gallows it out via arcing through Belphagor. After 2 pulls of it (getting it out from protection of the krielstone aura), the Blackfrost Shard harmed it and then the Beast Mistress' posse was able to take out out the Mauler handily, and left the Mistress free to energizer them all back and heal 1 point of the Stinger's body back up. I was pretty happy with the execution of that. From there things slowly went downhill for Henry. In the end he made a bold attempt and took out the Blightbringer with the hopes of eliminating my main hitting power. However with the combination of Harm and the Beast Mistress' posse, things came to a bloody end for Borka.

Lessons learned: First, and most importantly, Carnivore short-circuits Battle Wizard because the targets are removed from play before being destroyed. That was really inconvenient for my Hex Hunters when it was pointed out to me. As a result I completely wasted my feat. The Blightbringer continues to be pretty mediocre. Being able to give it's template Continuous Corrosion from Bethayne was pretty amusing at least, but still not amazing. To be honest, all of it's blight effects tend to be pretty underwhelming to me.
I do really like the Beast Mistress and her posse. It's remarkable how much threat range and hitting power they can pull off, especially with the Blackfrost Shard there to harm stuff for them.

Games this year: 36

Battle Report: Thagrosh1 vs Syntherion

I continue to be underwhelmed by the Blightbringer, but I'm having trouble justifying it.

My list: Thagrosh1, Succubus, Blightbringer, Carnivean, Ravagore, Stinger, Seraph, 2 Shepherds, Forsaken.

My opponent: Syntherion (tier 4), Corollary, 2 Diffusers, 2 Galvanizers, Mitigator, 2 Ciphers, 2 Assimilators, 2 Dispersion Optifexes, 2 Optifex Directives.

No scenario yet again, which by halfway through the game was being lamented by Lance. At SPD 4 and going second, the Blightbringer is really hard to get upfield and be a melee threat. However I will say that putting the Blightbringer heavily forward with Spiny Growth on it against a mob of light jacks is pretty amusing. It would have been even more amusing if I'd had Thagrosh far enough forward for his aura to cover the space and improve the Blightbringer's effective ARM even more. Still though, this was a pretty decent combo. After jamming the Blightbringer forward, a wave of jacks and Syntherion eventually took it out after stacking a very respectable Synergy bonus. However at that point I had Thagrosh within range to Slipstream him up enough and charge Syntherion and put him in the dirt.

Lessons learned: The Blightbringer's +STR/ARM aura is warriors only, not the Blightbringer itself. That's really disappointing. totally missed that the first time through. The more I actually review it, the more I feel like everything the Blightbringer has is just a little bit curbed back from being good. Still though, having a gargantuan on the table brings a certain dynamic to the force. I will also say that playing against a Convergence list with no Prime Axiom is like playing a really different faction.

Games this year: 35

Neptune (take 5)

Yet another Neptune. That makes 5 now. Just 1 more to have them all painted.

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #98

Distractions distractions!

Last week I had my hobby time crushed by work stuff. And then this week is also a holiday week so who knows how much hobby time I'll actually get in. I'm still stuck against a Warmachine painting block. The Murder Ponies are still in progress and have a lot of inertia to getting moving on them again. Once I get rolling they will probably go fast, but I just need to get over that hump.

As a note about my DZC paint target, I've decided to just go ahead and wrap up the unpainted stuff I have for the sake of being complete. Hopefully I'll actually get another game in soon to justify this, but I will freely admit that closing out my DZC unpainted models would feel really great.

DZC Paint Target:
2 Zeus - done
2 Ares - done
2 Phobos - done
8 Immortals - done
4 Junos - 4 done
5 Neptunes - 4 done, 1 painting
Hades - done
2 Helios - done
2 Janus - done
2 Sirens - done
1 Triton A1 - done


Remaining DZC models:
Poseiden - painting
Neptune - primed
2 Triton A2s - assembled
2 Phobos - primed
2 Odin - primed
2 Enyo - primed

Battle Report: Lylyth3 vs Skarre1

Sometimes you just gotta proxy the new hotness.

My list: Lylyth3, Succubus, Blightbringer, Ravagore, Naga Nightlurker, Shredder, Stinger, Warmonger War Chief, 2 Shepherds, Spell Martyr, Warspears (5+UA).

My opponent: Skarre1, Skarlock, Nightwretch, Kraken, Darragh, Tartarus, Bane Thralls (10), Bane Knights (6), Mechanithralls (10), Necrosurgeon, Saxon.

No scenario for a third time, although I think given my tactical retreat during the game, I suspect that will come to an end now. My real aim anyway was to test out the Blightbringer. On paper I've been very disappointed with it, but in the spirit of practical experience, I decided to proxy it and try it out. After all, it's a pretty cool looking model but it's not cheap. So what did I discover? Well first is that being able to put the Ravagore animus on the Blightbringer is pretty hot. The blight effects for the template are a little tricky to deploy effectively. The no-spells one would have been more handy against Cryx if I could have gotten it somewhere that would have made a difference. The bonus STR/ARM one is sort of easier to get in place when there's a good target to take out first. I also like that template with Ogryn since it makes them even more tough. The Concealment template has a bit of Skornegy to it though since it grants Concealment to ALL models, including enemy. However overall I have to say that I was pretty happy with the performance of it, and having Escort from Lylyth to get it up to SPD 6 was very handy. I definitely want to proxy it a couple more times before I make up my mind on getting one or not though.

Lessons learned: I really enjoy playing Lylyth3. I played a much better early game this time around too which made me feel better. And trying out the Blightbringer just reinforced my mantra of practical experience over theorymachine.

Games this year: 34

Zeus

And finally I have a command unit for my army!

Juno A1 (take 2)

Second batch of Junos. I chose an opposite color pairing from the first so that I could differentiate my Immortals to this pair. If I'd been thinking clearly from the beginning, I would have had each one only have a single color to match their unit, but again, not a fully cohesive plan per the previous post.

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #97

Distractions distractions!

Nothing special to report. Painting this weekend didn't really get very far because I went to the Raiders' game. My final DZC model for my 1500pt force is in progress but has a long ways to go before it's done. Otherwise I'm close to finishing that paint target and will need another shortly.

DZC Paint Target:
2 Zeus - done
2 Ares - done
2 Phobos - done
8 Immortals - done
4 Junos - 4 done
5 Neptunes - 4 done, 1 painting
Hades - done
2 Helios - done
2 Janus - done
2 Sirens - done
1 Triton A1 - done

DZC: Callsigns for PHR Models

Just a quick note for myself mostly on how I'm doing the callsign assignments for my PHR models.

I had originally thought of this great plan of having very clearly set up callsign scheme where I'd paint transports and ground units assigned together in a permanent way. Then I realized that it would become quickly unworkable, so now I've got myself in sort of a hodgepodge situation with the callsigns. So this post is really just me making an assessment of what's already assigned a callsign and what still needs one so that I can have a plan for the remaining ones that doesn't end up in some sort of overlap or clear disaster.

Status	Models	Callsigns
Assigned	Poseiden	F1-P1
	Neptunes (4)	A1-N1, B1-N1, C1-N1, C2-N2
	Triton A1 (2)	E1-T11, E2-T12
	Triton A2 (2)	D1-T21, D2-T22
	Hades	F1-H1
	Juno A1 (4)	C1-J11, C1-J12, C2-J13, C2-J14
	Zeus (2)	A1-Z1, A1-Z2
	Phobos (2)	B3-PH1, B3-PH2
	Ares (4)	B1-AR1, B1-AR2, B2-AR3, B2-AR4
	Helios (2)	B5-HE1, B5-HE2
	Immortals (8)	By color: red, blue, purple, blue
	Sirens (4)	By color: purple, blue
Unassigned	Neptune (2)	G1-N1
	Triton A2 (2)
	Phobos (2)	B4-PH3, B4-PH4
	Odin (2)
	Enyo (2)

This game has a bit of a frustration factor in that the assignment of transports to units is so strict. The idea of having a really nice cohesive color/callsign scheme would please me to no end, except for the fact that I'd have to paint a lot of extra transports in order to make it work properly. If this was my only game, I'd very likely do that. But with other miniatures games in the mix, there's no way I'm devoting that much of my time and budget just to have a really kick ass army for DZC. C'est la vie!

Hades Super-Heavy Walker

Well the current centerpiece of my PHR force is completed and what a beast this thing was to get painted. For a Dropzone model, it's huge. And even for a normal 30mm scale model I'd paint for Warmachine, it's pretty big. The tricky part was getting all the metal bits properly painted without screwing up all the white armor work. Once the white and metal parts were done though, it was a snap to finish it up. I had promised myself and my buddies that I wouldn't field it until I had it fully painted so I'm very excited to get it on the table and see how it performs.

Neptune (take 4)

This is my 4th Neptune. I have to say that out of the color pairings, blue and green is my favorite I think.

Battle Report: Abby2 vs Asphyxious1

Wow am I rusty with Legion!

My list: Abby2 (tier 4), Archangel, Seraph, Neraph, Shredder, 4 Stingers, Forsaken, Striders (6+UA).

My opponent: Asphyxious1, Skarlock, Malice, 2 Nightwretches, Bile Thralls (10), Withershadow Combine, Aiakos, Leviathan, 2 Warwitch Sirens, 2 Pistol Wraiths, Saxon Orrick.

No scenario again. More of just getting back into playing. This battle could have gone better but early on Asphyxious managed to take out my Archangel and then teleport back to safety. After that my dice completely screwed me and things went downhill from there. Every time I had anything even remotely looking like a chance to assassinate Asphyxious, my dice would fail attack rolls and it would all come apart. It was pretty frustrating, but I played through anyway for the sake of learning.

Lessons learned: Asphyxious is such a pain to play against. And Abby2 is just... not... really... exciting to me. Maybe she'll grow on me eventually. I do however like the Neraph and I'm looking forward to trying him some more. Perhaps with a different caster though, like Abby1.

Games this year: 33

Helios

More anti-aircraft for my army. I really liked these models actually compared to some of the others. I have to admit that the more "tank" looking things are definitely more fun for me to paint. I should probably be playing UCM for that reason.

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #96

Oh right. The blog. Let's do this.

I'm doing this post early since I'm hoping to get a game in tonight. I'll probably get a little painting done today as well. However since I'm at my desk now with a few spare minutes, I wanted to get this done. Staying on my blog has been pretty challenging and I've still got pictures of the 2 Helios tanks to post. I did get some more painting done though! This Neptune and my Hades are on the desk currently. The next step is to get the metals painted and then it's super fast to finish up. I'm pretty hopeful of still finishing up my 1500pt PHR army before I set them on the shelf. The process is well defined and honestly goes pretty fast once I get past the base coat and airbrush steps.
I also got a bit more work done on the murder ponies, but those are proving harder to stay focused on. Once the horses are done it should get much more exciting to paint the riders. I feel like the murder ponies are honestly the big painting block to getting more PP stuff painted.

DZC Paint Target:
2 Zeus - assembled
2 Ares - done
2 Phobos - done
8 Immortals - done
4 Junos - 2 done, 2 assembled
5 Neptunes - 3 done, 1 painting, 1 assembled
Hades - painting
2 Helios - done
2 Janus - done
2 Sirens - done
1 Triton A1 - done

Battle Report: Haley1 vs Grim1

No picture. Was just shocked to actually get a game in again.

My list: Haley1, Avenger, Sentinel, Squire, Journeyman, Gun Mage Captain Adept, Horgenhold Forge Guard (10), Murdoch, Rutger Shaw, Nomad, Tarin.

My opponent: Grim1, Bomber, Impaler, Slag, Fennblades (10+UA), Long Riders (3), Fell Caller Hero.

No scenario. Just killbox assassination. We hadn't played for so long that we just wanted to get a "training wheels" game in. The game was pretty much dictated by Haley standing on a hill and repeatedly casting Temporal Barrier in order to either prevent chargers or gain shooting bonuses. There were plenty of mistakes on both sides during the game. I also had a round of exceptional rolling where things like the Gun Mage Captain managed to shoot a Long Rider dead with a single shot. In the end, Grim made a somewhat low-odds run at Haley and if it hadn't been for a specific missed shot, would have pulled it off. However in the end I was able to just keep the pressure on during the attrition game and grind it out.

Lessons learned: Having not played for so long was helpful for remembering that my early game is terrible, but my mid and late game play is substantially better. I also really enjoyed playing Forge Guard with Murdoch attached and having Arcane Shield on them with Temporal Barrier available to give them cover on the way in. I'm really hoping to start getting more games in before the end of the year.

Games this year: 32

Ares

A double pack of Ares here!

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #95

More stuff done. I'll get more pictures up this week as time permits. Hopefully my ridiculous work situation doesn't overload me with a wave of stupidity. In any case, the tally for this week was finishing up 2 Helios, 2 Phobos, 4 Ares, and then getting a bit more work done on the horses for the Murder Ponies.

I'm still not sure whether I'm going to stick to PP models now, or get back on more DZC. I did prime the Hades and another Poseidon in case I decide to come back around on them. However I really would like to wrap up the Murder Ponies before I lose steam.

DZC Paint Target:
2 Zeus - assembled
2 Ares - done
2 Phobos - done
8 Immortals - done
4 Junos - 2 done, 2 assembled
5 Neptunes - 3 done, 2 assembled
Hades - assembled
2 Helios - done
2 Janus - done
2 Sirens - done
1 Triton A1 - done