Messiah's First Outting

Wednesday night I got to roll out eThagrosh for the first time and I have to say I really enjoyed it. I've got a goal to have him and Typhon ready for the tournament on Aug 8th and I figured I'd better get at least 1 practice game in with him before that tournament. Note that I'm working on refining my individual battle report format so I'd love feedback on how this works out. Sorry, no pictures though.

The Lists:
Me: eThagrosh, Typhon, Carnivean, 2 Shredders, Striders+UA, Incubi, Shepherd, Forsaken, War Chief, Deathstalker, Totem Hunter, Gobbers
Henry: eDoomshaper, Earthborn, Mauler, Axer, Bouncer, 3 Longriders, Champs, 4 Krielstones + Elder, Fell Caller, Gobbers

The Mission:
Ridge Runners - We decided to play this mission since it is already a known mission for the next tournament and is the least practiced for both of us.

The Throwdown:
There was a lot of marching to the middle and then punching in the face. The Earthborn, Mauler and Axer were all on one flank and eDoomy and his Bouncer on the other flank with the Champs following the Longriders up the middle. The Striders tried their best to clear a hole and kill the Fell Caller, but those darn trolls just wouldn't give him up. The Musician at least was able to stall the Longriders with his mini-feat which bought me the time needed to bog them down. In the end though, the Striders were mainly delivery mechanisms for Incubi. In the middle, the Champs charged forward to kill a couple of Striders and the War Chief, but then Thagrosh and Typhon took the opportunity to charge back, and boy did they charge back. Thagrosh easily dispatched 2 of them, and Typhon threw the other 3 back, killing 2 of them. On the flank, the Deathstalker started picking off Krielstone bearers and the Totem hunter charged in on the Bouncer. Thagrosh also feated and used the opportunity to position the Carnivean safely back to remain as a damage sink.

The Endgame:
Doomshaper boldly went for the kill. First the Bouncer charged in on Thagrosh, but unfortunately missed. Then Doomshaper charged in and got a couple good hits in on Thagrosh, allowing him to spawn out an additional Shredder which was positioned to block a future charge lane. Then after clearing out the Longrider/Strider/Incubi quagmire, the Mauler threw the Earthborn over the mess in the middle. Then the Fell Caller walked forward and gave the stand up call. At this point the Earthborn walked in, snacked the Shredder, goaded closer to Thagrosh, and started wailing. Unfortunately with the combination of Spiny Growth and a gobber cloud, it made things rough for the Earthborn and he failed to finish Thagrosh off by 2 points! Henry gracefully conceded at this point.

The Highlights:
* Thagrosh is a beast. His spell is has a nice combination of buffs and offense. Dragon's Blood combined with Tenacity from a Shredder can put Typhon at Def 14, Arm 20 which is pretty butch. And Glory of Everblight is ridiculously useful.
* Typhon is like a big warm bundle of cheating. His throws are ridiculous. I didn't even get a chance to try his sprays and I'm completely impressed.
* Shredders were great this game, actually getting into the fray!
* The Earthborn, Bouncer, Doomshaper, Krielstone combo is crazy, just like I thought it would be. Without the Deathstalker to start picking off Krielstones it would have been really challenging.
* The War Chief, as usual, basically just blocked charge lanes and absorbed some impact.

The Reflection:
In hindsight, I think dropping the Shepherd from this list makes sense. Thagrosh's control area is plenty big enough. I continue to imagine that Bone Grinders would make an excellent addition to my Legion army. Swapping out the War Chief is still a consideration, but my only option there would be for a Shredder or Gudrun. Overall though this force provided a nice balance between flank control and face punching. I'm very much looking forward to playing something close to this in the tournament.

Forsaken

The Forsaken, although still not a favorite sculpt, wasn't so bad to paint. It went fast due to the fact that it has very few unique elements on it. It basically breaks down into three categories: skin, chitin/claws, and wing membranes. This made painting it very fast, especially given that it's a pretty small model.

I should note that this base was actually the prototype base I had made originally when working out a basing scheme for my Legion force. All I did was carve out enough cork to fit her feet down, and then add the small amount of moss. Ironically I hadn't used the base up till now because I felt it was too crowded, but for this smaller model it worked out nicely.

What went well:
* Fast, and I mean FAST to paint. I was just aiming for tabletop quality, so this was probably under 4 hours of painting time easily.
* Wash experimentation with black ink, matt medium, flow improver, and water made for a pretty nice way to deepen the chitin and wing definition.

What could have been better:
* Bloodstone is not really a good base coat to start with for the chitin and claws. I ended up covering the majority of it by the end. It just ended up looking too "wet".
* Lack of "feminine" impression. The model, if you look carefully, is actually meant to be a woman that's been blighted. Unfortunately I just couldn't quite bring out more of a feminine appearance in the face.

Spawning Vessel Acolyths

There's something unfortunately soul crushing about painting a whole unit most of the time. This unit was no exception. I really do like the sculpts, but for some reason these little ladies just turned into a chore instead of a pleasure. I couldn't really explain why either. Probably my own state of mind at the time.



What went well:
* Cloaks turned out ok. I did a speed-version of the cloak I did for the Shepherd and it worked out ok.
* Feathers also turned out decent. Again, a speed-version of what I did for the Shepherd. Funny how that worked out.

What could have been better:
* Metals are pretty lame. Just not my normal effort on these.
* Flesh is a little flat. They don't have a lot of flesh showing, so it made it hard to really put much pop into it without doing serious detail work, which I was not interested in doing.

Anyway, just a quick post this time. I'm on to the Forsaken and Typhon now.

2nd To Last Place

Another 500pt Steamroller 4 tournament come and gone. Hats off to our local unofficial press ganger Marco for putting it together.

My list: Thagrosh, Carnivean, Raek, Shredder, Shepherd, Deathstalker, Striders+UA, Totem Hunter, Swamp Gobbers

Round 1: Krueger, Gnarlhorn, Gorax, Druids, Wayfarer, Shifting Stones, Sentry Stone, Dhalia & Skarath.
This first battle was a blast. The mission was to control 3 of 6 zones (2 of own and 1 of opponent's). The battle was pretty vicious, with me taking advantage of the forest in the middle. The Striders dealt with the Druids fairly well, but Krueger's feat was murder on them. The Manikins were annoyingly good in this game too, actually taking out the Deathstalker on the first round. The endgame was fun. Krueger was positioned back behind a Shifting Stone, with the Wayfarer and Gnarlhorn guarding the way around to him. I set up a 4 part assault. First my Raek advanced and lept up behind the Wayfarer, blocking a key counter-charge lane for the Gnarlhorn. Due to some poor dice rolls the Wayfarer lived, but it was unimportant. Next the Carnivean did an assault charge on the Shifting Stone in front of Krueger, ending too far for melee but destroying the stone. Unfortunately the Carnivean did not hit Krueger though due to his Wind Storm. Next I used some careful positioning to get the remaining Striders into a CRA against Krueger, laying some damage onto him. (Important tactical tip: Having the officer on a hill to lead the CRA was very valuable, granting the elevation bonus to the whole CRA) Finally, with 10 points of damage left to do, and no fury on Krueger, Thagrosh charged the Wayfarer to get into position to target Krueger with Obliteration. I cast, I hit, and then the boosted damage roll resulted in a 7 (3+3+1), for a total of 22. Fail! Krueger had 2 damage left and Thagrosh was completely out of Fury. At that point my opponent won not only on caster kill but on scenario as well.

Round 2: Magnus, 2 Renegades, Mariner, Dougal, Orin, Nyss Hunters (10).
The mission was mosh pit, which I can honestly say didn't play into the battle much at all. Again, another vicious fight, with the Striders getting crushed by the Nyss template and then failing their break check. It wasn't until afterwards that I found out my opponent was wrong about shallow water (his claim was that it granted concealment, which it doesn't). I've made a mental note to call that particular player out on any rules I don't know for sure in the future. He was also rather sloppy on his measurements which I had to call him on a couple times. If I'd been in the winners bracket, I probably would have been much more strict with him, but I hate being a anal during a game and appearing like a jerk. Anyway, once again I got an assassination run in. Magnus (with no focus remaining) had used his feat to pull back, hide behind Dougal and a Renegade, and engage the Totem Hunter and Raek with the Mariner. The Carnivean was knocked down, preventing my favorite assault charge move as well. First, the Deathstalker stepped around the Nyss and laid a couple shots on Magnus, scoring a couple points of damage. Next, the Totem Hunter bravely walked out of melee with the Mariner. Now in all honesty, I got a bit lucky here. The Mariner had Frenzy on it, so it only needed a 5 to hit the Totem Hunter. Fortunately it missed, and he walked around, lept, and pounded Magnus futher. The Carnivean stood up and killed one of 3 Nyss engaging Thagrosh, with the Shepherd killing another. Then Thagrosh walks out of melee (taking some unimportant damage from the remaining Nyss), blasts Dougal with Mutagenesis and killing him, at which point he was sitting right on top of Magnus with 3 fury left. MAT 7, POW 16 vs DEF 14, ARM 17 and 12 damage left. On average dice rolls, just buying unboosted attacks with fury, I would have hit 2 out of 3 times, scoring 12 points of damage. Again though, my dice didn't come through for me. I scored 2 hits, but only scored 10 points of damage. I promptly forfeited at that point.

Round 3: Shae, Mariner, Commodore, Meg, Aiyana & Holt, Doc, Walls, Grogspar, Hawk, Rockbottom, 10 Sea Dogs.
The mission was ridge runners. My opponent was Marco the tournament organizer so he put us on the table with the desert terrain so that he could claim to be defending his beach, which was extra amusing. This game was a brutal fight. The ridge really saved my bacon, preventing the Commodore from getting many shots. In the end I pulled out another assassination run. First the Totem Hunter got a clear run at Shae and laid in some damage on a lucky attack roll. Next the Raek advanced and lept around to get on Shae and get 1 good hit in. Finally, after a little jiggery-pokery with Thagrosh (who was engaged by Grogspar and couldn't afford the risk of a free strike cause of Heave Ho), I managed to close just enough to get an Obliteration shot on the Mariner which was standing next to Shae. After boosting the blast damage, Shae went down like the pirate scum he is. Now, that being said, Marco's dice had betrayed him multiple times during this battle. He clearly was outplaying me and just got unlucky on some key dice rolls. However, every the good sport, we played it out. One of the most amusing moments of the game however was when the Commodore rolls up onto the ridge as a result of Shae's feat, turns towards the Carnivean and blasts the poor beast backwards into the Shredder and Shepherd in a marvelously comical maneuver.

So, in the end I got 2nd to last, which I can't complain about. In all three games I managed to organize a viable assassination run with Thagrosh, which was one of my two goals for the tournament (the other being show up with fully painted Legion). Assassination is not my strong suit, and playing Legion now means I need to sharpen those skills dramatically if I want to feel competent with them.

Later that evening I played a 4th game against my buddy Mike from out of town. He rolled in with Calandra, Impaler, Axer, Slag, 6 Kriel Warriors with UA, Fell Caller, and 3 Longriders. I opted to play Cryx to get a break from Legion and brought Deneghra, Nightmare, 8 Bane Thralls, 9 Revenants, Rengrave, Skarlock and Pistol Wraith. I abused poor Mike, and I sort of feel dirty about it. Now, in my defense, Calandra is a pain in the ass. Star Crossed is just crazy. It turned my already sad Revenants into even more pathetic lumps of soggy deck scum. However, after some flopping around at the beginning, I hit my stride. Despite a lack of an arcnode, I got Crippling Grasp on the Longriders, and on my feat round did a pile of shooting, slicing and regrouping. Now, I'd love to say that in the end I pulled out some elegant No-Quarter-Challenge style win, but the truth is this: I didn't win, Mike lost. Due to an unlucky threshold roll, the Slag Troll frenzied right next to Calandra and wailed on her. She didn't die immediately, but with 1 damage left and no beasts to transfer to (the Axer was dead and the Impaler also frenzied) it pretty much flushed the game unfortunately. Despite being rather one-sided, it was fun to roll out my Cryx again after having spent time to paint them and then promptly move on to Legion.

Anyway, this is probably a record setting post for length for me, so I'll wrap this up. This was a fun weekend and overall I had a great time. It helps that I didn't ever have ridiculously bad luck with dice in any given game. And I can also claim my status as a faction whore now, having played 5 different factions in tournament play (Menoth, Cryx, Mercs, Trolls and Legion).

Crushings All Around

First some minor business: This blog is joining the Iron Agenda Blog Network. Welcome to any new visitors and please post comments!

So this last week has been busy. I haven't painted hardly at all unfortunately. Work has been ridiculously busy and I just haven't been home much in the evenings. It's unfortunate, but my painting rate prior to this was going pretty well, so I was due for a slowdown.

Last weekend (I know this is coming in late) I played a 500pt game of Legion vs Trolls. It was Thagrosh vs Doomshaper and unfortunately the game came down to a tough roll on Doomshaper's part. After making that roll, I was out of juice and the game was over.

Two nights ago I got a pair of games against my regular opponent Henry. Battle 1 was Thagrosh vs Grissel, and Henry just smoted me. His list was pretty tough, but I made a serious deployment error and he did a good job of capitalizing. The second game was Thagrosh vs Deneghra and unfortunately this game was pretty one-sided, but with a twist. About halfway through the game I was completely stomping Henry. Then Deneghra feated and then busted out Dark Seduction on my Striders, which of course failed the CMD check. That pretty much turned the game around entirely at that point and after a bit of calculating we agreed there wasn't anything to really do at that point.

Despite my 3 losses, I'm going to be attending the tournament at my LGS tomorrow. This will be my first tournament fielding Legion which should be entertaining. For now though I'm enjoying a good beverage (Grey Goose Screwdriver), a good podcast (Tabletop Quality), and a nice relaxing evening. Perhaps I'll actually get some painting time in this evening!

Raek

This was the specific model that got me interested in painting Legion. I love this model. I'm not sure why, but for some reason it really inspired me. Something about the pose and the details. This model was a joy to paint. I had primed it and the Acolyths at the same time and had intended to paint the Acolyths first, but the Raek kept whispering to me. So, he got all the attention and the poor Acolyths are still sitting there with only a couple quick coats of paint on them.

What went well:
* Skin turned out better than previous beasts. I do like the lighter color for this model. I used some pretty dramatic shading on this guy to accentuate the lines and muscles.
* Carapace turned out nicely. Not all of it though. The larger sections worked out just how I was hoping. Lots of washes and 2BB used.
* Speed painted and yet I'm really happy with the results. This whole "force myself to speed paint" thing is starting to pay off. I'm getting quicker with techniques and better at choosing which colors to shade with.

What could have been better:
* Claws/teeth were ok, but could have used a bit more character and definition.
* Tail spike is alright, but I just couldn't quite figure out what more to do with it to really bring out some detail.
* Tail carapace was pretty small detail to work with. I did a fair amount of zenithal highlighting and shading, but in the end I'm only lukewarm on how it looks.

Despite his mediocre performance on the table last night, I still love this model and I'm pondering getting a second one to paint. But for now, I still have 6 Acolyths screaming for paint, along with some other really badass stuff in the queue.

Skarre vs Thagrosh

Quick battle report before I pass out from exhaustion. Played against my buddy Henry in a very fun match up.

Me: Thagrosh, Carnivean, Raek, Shredder, Shepherd, Deathstalker, War Chief, Striders with attachment, Swamp Gobbers.
Henry: Skarre, Cankerworm, 2 Deathrippers, Skarlock, Bane Knights (10?), Bile Thralls (8-ish?), Mechanithralls (10?).

Overview: I won the initiative and got to go first. The Bane Knights were deployed far enough back to prevent the Striders from getting the drop on them right away, so I used the opportunity to carve out the arcnode of one Deathripper and clear out a couple Mechanithralls and Bile Thralls. Unfortunately the volume of infantry was rough to fight through and eventually the Bane Knights swarmed the Striders. Skarre feated early, and then the Carnivean got a good assault spray hit on her, leaving her with just 4 health left.

Endgame: Thagrosh got a run on Skarre, using Mutagenesis to kill a Bane Knight and end up in melee with Skarre. However she was camping 4 focus and despite needing only a 7 on 3 dice (boosting the damage roll), I managed to roll a 4 and fail the kill on Skarre. Stupid dice!

Highlights:
* Thagrosh was awesome. I need to remember Death Shroud's -2 STR to everything, which I forgot a couple times.
* The Carnivean again shined using his assault to get a great long range attack on a caster.
* Skarre didn't skarrebomb! Against Hordes it's a much smaller threat, but still, it was nice to not be constantly worried about it. Henry's a good sport that way.
* The Striders continue to please me. They did a good job of thinning the infantry and holding a flank.

Shepherd

This was perhaps my favorite Legion model to paint so far. The Incubi were definitely very cool, but getting to focus on this beautiful single sculpt was very refreshing. I'd been wanting to pour extra time into a single model and this was the logical choice. A special note, this was the model I got from the Tabletop Quality contest.

What went well:
* Overall composition seemed to work out pretty well. I tried to create a triadic color scheme to keep the overall look of the model in harmony. It's not traditional triadic, but hey, it worked.
* Greens on the cloak worked out nicely. Using Moldy Ocher for the highlights really enhanced the depth of the color.
* The feathers came out better than I was hoping. I used a number of thin washes that used matte medium, flow improver and various P3 paints (tans, browns, sanguines, and blues) which gave it good overall color. Then I hit the whole thing with GW black wash to darken the whole thing.
* Complimentary color shading is something I'm trying to practice more of and for the most part worked out well here. I used violets to shade the greens, blues to shade the browns, and sanguines to shade the blue skin.

What could have been better:
* The metals on the staff could have been a little more defined. Partially my photos washed out the detail that is there, but it certainly could have been better.
* Complimentary shading worked well, but there were some places where I had to clean it up and smooth the transitions more. My mastery of color is still lacking in this department.

Overall this was both a delightful model to paint, and a good learning experience. I spent more time than my typical to get small details done (like highlights on the staff wraps), and did a lot more thinning of paints when doing shading. Ironically I have nothing else assembled at this point so I'm going to be spending the rest of the weekend getting stuff put together to have something new to paint.

Out of curiosity I posted this one on CMON to see how it rates. (May take a day or two to show up)