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

Phobos

Finally a finished model again! Only took me a month to get proper motivation back. Nothing particularly fancy here though. Mostly I'm just trying to clear out some of my DZC backlog.

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #94

I finally painted!

In a shocking turn of events, I finally painted. For the first time in over a month. Most of this post is going to be random housekeeping, so let me focus first on my burnout situation and how I overcame it...

So at the beginning of the school year my son started Kindergarten. I'll spare you the details of why, but this is a huge deal. There was a lot of challenges and stress. Between that and a wave of politics and shake up at work, I was pretty much completely overwhelmed. Slowly my hobby motivation got ground to a halt. Diablo 3 also released a big update that rekindled my interest. That combination (along with a fair bit of alcohol) basically sucked me down into a "knuckle under and just survive" mode. My normal gaming buddies are also pretty buried as well which made it even harder to break out.
So what's changed? Well my son's school situation is vastly improved, and work is better. Not just that, but my small gaming group is starting to rekindle interest. Those things are the fuel, but I think the spark was ironically that Netflix released another season of Hemlock Grove which I really enjoy. When I got the email that the new season was available, it was like the gentle whisper wake up call saying "Hey, it's time...". I've also come across this free app on my phone called Streaks which is used as sort of a daily task reminder tool and it tracks how long of a streak you can maintain on each of those daily tasks. So now painting is one of those tasks and I'm determined to see how well I can do. Nevertheless, sometimes it just takes the right confluence of events to get out of a funk, just like the funk is sometimes caused by the right confluence.

So what have I gotten done in the last month? Well...
* Assembled Acosta and a Reliant
* Put 3 coats of paint on these Helios tanks for DCZ
* Bought Devastation, and promptly got more excited about Cygnar than Legion (sigh)
* Leveled 2 seasonal Diablo 3 characters to level 70 and got 350 paragon levels on them
* Read a zillion books with my son


And now, begin the random notes!

When I cleaned my desk, I wanted to document all the paints I put away that I had been using for my DZC projects. So here's the list for my own reference:
SWW: Heavy Body Black, SWW: Baby Poop, SWW: Dark Sepia, SWW: Sapphire, SWW: Amethyst, SWW: Ruby, SWW: Concrete, SWP: Green Earth, SWP: Red Brick, SWP: Rust Orange, AC: Napoleonic Blue, AC: Slate Grey, AC: Violet, AC: Ultramarine Blue, AC: Prussian Blue, AC Basic Red, AC: Emerald Green, AC: Gun Metal, AC: Silver, AC: Beige, VMC: Smoke, VMC: Black, VMC: Glossy Black, P3: Black, P3: White, P3: KRH, P3: Frostbite, P3: KRB, P3: Jack Bone, P3: MWH, P3: Midlund Flesh, P3: Grey (90/10)

And here's a list of PP stuff in various states of progress:
Assembled PP stuff: Gun mages + UA, Eiryss2, Black 13th, Kara Sloan, Stryker2, 8 Blight Wasps, Gobber Tinker, Acosta, Saeryn&Rhyas2, Zuriel, Reliant, Acosta
In progress stuff: Murder Ponies, 2 Phobos, 4 Ares, 2 Helios

And this was my original paint target, which is completely blown out of the water now, but I'm documenting it here...
DZC Paint Target:
2 Zeus - assembled
2 Ares - painting
2 Phobos - painting
8 Immortals - done
4 Junos - 2 done, 2 assembled
5 Neptunes - 3 done, 2 assembled
Hades - assembled
2 Helios - painting
2 Janus - done
2 Sirens - done
1 Triton A1 - done

Triton A1s

Even better models than the Triton A2s! Again, nothing amazing to say here though.

Sirens

Infantry in DZC is just so small it's comical. Nothing amazing to say here.

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #93

Stupid Diablo 3 has claimed my life again.

I'm going to be honest here: Painting and miniatures in general just haven't been a passion for me the last 3 weeks. School started for my son and it's been a rough transition to Kindergarten for him. Between challenges there and the stress of building the annual operating plan, my life has been pretty upside. I've fallen into a pit of booze and Diablo 3. A small amount of painting has gotten done, but very minor. My friends are sort of in a similar slump as well so it's sort of well timed.

So in an effort to get ourselves focused, we've set a goal to have 1500pts of DZC painted by Oct 13th. In that vein, let's see if I can focus on this specific army build...

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

Review: Dropzone Commander

Figured it would be good to do this one too...

Disclaimer:
I like this game. I'm biased to like it for a few reasons. Also, I've only played 6 games of it so far, so my opinion might change in the future.

Overview:
Dropzone Commander (DZC for short) is an epic-scale type game, using 10mm scale models and built around rapid deployment and sound strategic decisions. The games tend to have a rock-paper-scissors sort of dynamic in that there are aircraft, ground units and infantry, each with its own key value to the game.

What I Don't Like:
* No bases - Seriously, no models really have bases. This is a pain for things like determining movement and line of sight. Sure, they would ruin the aesthetic of the game, but it would tighten up the gameplay a lot. This is hands down my biggest complaint.
* Small models - 10mm scale is just weird to paint. Like weird hard. I've seen some pretty amazing paint jobs and would love to paint to that level, but it's really hard.
* Army building - This is just complicated to learn. It could probably be simpler, and in all fairness I get the purpose of it, but they really need an app to make this easier.
* Rules index - Their rule book index is terrible. Fortunately the rules are relatively compact to mitigate this, but learning the game is a real challenge.
* No cards - Come on! Seriously? Reference cards for models is just a de facto standard now!

What I like:
* Epic! - The battles represent a larger force. It's still a sort of skirmish, but they are battlegroups of models instead of the kind of stuff I've been playing with Warmachine or Malifaux.
* Tight rules - The rules aren't perfect, but they are relatively tournament worthy. Plus they have rules for when aircraft get shot out of the sky and crash, and for destroying buildings and such. I dig that.
* Different - This scratches a very different itch for me. The game has this very dynamic due to transports and dropships and how that can make everything move very quickly.
* Missions - The system for setting up missions works very cleanly and yet is very flexible. It might be my favorite aspect of the game so far.
* Strategic - I feel like the game allows for sound strategy to really take center stage rather than "this tricky models does X and wins".

Barriers to Playing:
Cost, painting, etc. But honestly, this company did something smart: They have faction starter boxes with a skirmish-level force for dirt cheap. It made jumping into the game ridiculously cheap, fast and easy.

Overall Summary
I dig this game. I'm looking forward to the next book and more releases and generally playing more of it.

Review: Age of Sigmar

At the request of a reader, here's my thoughts on Age of Sigmar. It's kinda long, so I've labeled sections in case you want to skip to specific parts.

Disclaimer:
First, let me say that I had played 1 game of 8th edition (which I can't say I was particularly fond of), and prior to that, had only played maybe 1 or 2 games of Warhammer Fantasy from some long ago edition around 20 years ago. I used to play a fair amount of 40k back those 20 years ago, but beyond that, my GW gaming experience is limited to all the fringe games like Space Hulk and Warhammer Quest. Thus my review here is more based on me primarily being a Warmachine player, so take it all with that context.

Actual Gameplay
For the 1 game I played, I played Skaven, only because I have a bunch of Skaven models. We actually played a starter scenario right before this as well just to get a grasp of the rules. But for the main event I rolled out a huge mountain of Skaven models. As you probably know though, there's no point amount for it. I think it amounted to something like 12 war scrolls worth of stuff deployed. My opponent (the fun and gracious Henry) played Orcs. During deployment Henry eventually stopped putting stuff down and chose the Sudden Death option where if he wiped out my Skavenslave horde of some 70 models, then he instantly wins.
The game was brutal, with a few ranged attacks before melee happened. Honestly, I was really impressed with the ratio of casualties due to melee vs ranged. So called "gun-line" armies might work in this game, but from what I can tell it's the grand melee that really gets things done.
During the course of the game it became obvious that if I left my mob of slaves in combat that they were going to easily get wiped out, so I executed a careful removal of casualties from the front to get them disengaged. Then I executed a tactical retreat with them and closed in the gap with my Rat Ogres and Clanrats. Eventually the tide of battle turned and I had the Orcs severely on the run by the time the game ended. I was victorious!

What I Didn't Like:
* Pointless Warscrolls - Skaven slaves as an example. The lack of a point system does make things weird. I'd NEVER take slaves again if I played. There are a number of war scrolls for units that are essentially useless in the game as far as I can tell.
* Warscroll options - It's still a bit too complicated in terms of options on a warscroll. Things like "do these rats have 1 reach weapon or 2 short weapons" or whatever configuration. I get the whole "model accurate" thing, but there's also options that are not represented by models. Lots of notes needed and it's complicated. And again, no points, so why wouldn't I just load up every option?
* Ambiguity - There's definitely some ambiguity in the rules when resolving certain things like wound assignment to multi-wound models, or having multiple different types of banners. Maybe this will all get tightened up later.
* Measuring - Yeah, not using bases to measure is just dumb. I'm sorry, but it just made the game more complicated rather than easier.
* Initiative - I'm still not sure whether I like the way you roll each round for initiative. It can cause a pretty hard sway. In generally this is a bit of a preference thing for me though and I just haven't played as many you-go-i-go type games.

What I liked:
* Placement - The whole taking turns putting additional stuff on the board is an amusing dynamic. I could literally write a whole article about why I think this is a brilliant system. It becomes a combination of list building and deployment all at once. It gives you the option to adapt to what your opponent is placing to thus have a more balanced game. You have to make hard decisions quickly. It steers the game away from "playbook list building" and more towards an adapt-on-the-fly strategy game which I really love. This is hands down my favorite thing about this game. Or perhaps tied for my favorite thing...
* Hellpit Abomination - Straight up, totally fun on the board. It wrecks the shit out of things. The big models like that really shine as fun in this game format.
* Rat Ogres - Cause like, they are crazy amusing. They have lots of features and flexibility. It was fun crashing them into Orcs and watching massive chaos ensue.
* Clanrats - Cause nothing says amusing like a massive mob of 50 Clanrats all together getting big bonuses. Seriously though, I do really enjoy the whole "it's a huge mob of models moving in something resembling a formation" thing. This is one of the pieces of Warhammer that always appealed to me. I can totally see people continuing to use movement trays for big units and just house-ruling their usage in this new game system.
* Moar dice - Rolling tons of dice is pretty amusing. This game is great for it when you get to melee.
* Close combat - The game really gets epic when you're piling in huge amounts of stuff and the close combat trade offs turn into a game of chicken. This actually becomes a pretty important aspect of the game in that choosing when to activate something can make or break your whole army if you aren't careful.
* Strategy - There's definitely some tactical aspects to the game in knowing when to withdraw/feint and when to commit or reposition. More on that below, but I think this is easily overlooked.

Barriers to Playing:
So let's talk about this. Switching from Warhammer 8th ed to this has a barrier in that it's a clearly different game requiring a whole new mindset. Also because the war scrolls aren't balanced on a point system it's a whole new way of approaching what to include in your army. Previously you'd build (assemble/convert/paint/etc) your models with a plan of building a specific list. Now when you show up for a game, you likely need to bring your entire model collection to be well prepared. Yes, that's my opinion here: To play "competitively" you need to bring every model you have so that you can have appropriate things to counter what your opponent puts on the table.
What are my personally barriers to playing this? There's a few and I'll admit that lots of these are just cause I'm stuck in my own little bias.
1) I'm heavily financially invested in Warmachine/Hordes already.
2) I prefer games with really tight rule sets. This game is not nearly as tight as I prefer.
3) There's no way I'm painting hundreds more models for this game. I can't even catch up on the other games I play.

Why All The Hate??
Honestly I don't get all the hate for this new game. Let's review a few points:
* The rules are free, and there's an app. They've made it accessible.
* It plays relatively smooth and quick, in my opinion.
* Every model that existed before is still playable.
* Nothing is preventing players from playing the existing 8th ed game also!
Seriously though, I think when you step back and look at it, this is actually a pretty good game for what it is. I personally think this game is better than 8th edition was, admittedly based on 1 playing of each. But in the end, AoS is it's own game, and should be treated that way.

Overall Summary
Do I like AoS? Yes.
Will I play it again? Maybe, but rarely.
This game could fill a miniatures gaming niche for me of large scale strategy battles which I don't have a game for today. I honestly felt like there's a good opportunity for proper strategy in this game after pulling off a feint with my slaves. Games that enable more proper strategy rather than just "I rolled a 6 on this spell and your unit blows up" are good in my book. I like strategy and planning in my games. In any case, I had fun and it was definitely worth trying out.

Neptunes

3 of my 6 Neptunes are finished now!

Dropzone Update

Last night I played yet another game of DZC and had a good time. I lost the game (against Shaltari) but it was somewhat by design since I wanted my opponent (a bigger noob than me) to have a positive experience so I was helping him a bit along the way. Plus it helped me get a better understanding of how Shaltari work. That actually makes 5 games played at the starter box level now. I'm really looking forward to playing a 1000pt game to get the feel of using a commander and the command deck.

I've got more painted stuff finished but it needs photos still so I'll try to get those up in the next couple days. In the mean time, my 1000pt paint goal is as follows:
4 Neptunes, 2 Zeus, 2 Odins, 2 Juno A1s, 4 Immortals, 2 Triton A2s, 4 Janis.
At present I'm over halfway on that. My extended goal is to also have 2 Ares and 2 Phobos painted as well since that will fill out a fully painted starter box.

One last note about the game last night is that I got several compliments on my paint scheme and how cool the airbrush masking looked, especially on the finished Neptunes which are fairly large. It gets me excited to paint more!

Oh and a resource link is the web-based army builder for DZC located here which was built by the local Talon. I can't say how stoked I am to have a mobile device friendly army builder for this game.

Triton A2

Quick post before I pass out for the evening. Here's my finished Triton A2 dropships. I really like these models and had fun painting them despite the challenge of how to hold them. Also, here's a picture of them carrying the 4 Janis walkers (via magnets). I have to say that having them magnetized and all painted does please me quite a bit. I'm looking forward to finishing up some Neptunes for this very same reason.

Immortals

This is actually a quadruple pack of Immortals that I painted all at once. Gets them done quicker this way. Nothing really special to say here though. They are tiny! So silly to paint!

Juno

Next up from my DZC is 2 Juno A1 tanks. These I feel worked better for the patterning by virtue of sheer size for surfaces. I also really liked doing a bunch of pigment application to the treads to dirty it up. These, like the Janis, are magnet-ready. I'll share a picture of that once I finish the Neptune that's going to be carrying them.

Janis

These are my first finished DZC (Dropzone Commander) models I've finished! Painting the 10mm scale is a real challenge I have to say. I really wanted to paint these to a higher quality but honestly it's pretty tricky to work with them for a number of reasons. Since I haven't done one of these in a long time, I'm going to take the time to do a proper painting analysis.

What worked well:
* Having a plan - If I learned one thing from my Cygnar army, it's that having a plan before starting an army is a massive help. I spent a fair amount of time before starting to have a plan, and especially experimenting on test models.
* Using the airbrush - I'm getting more and more comfortable with it, and especially at diagnosing problems along the way. Using it here to create the boxed pattern was both fun and fairly unique.
* Not going too crazy - I wanted to try using techniques I don't normally do and this definitely worked out well, but I didn't push too far out beyond what I already know.
* Using custom printed decals - Again, something new for me, and it went pretty well. I'm glad I used them to do the designations on them. The medium has certain limitations due to how they work so using black lettering sort of aimed my paint scheme towards a lighter base tone.

What could have been better:
* Spending more time - I could have easily spent way more time painting these, but honestly, painting at this scale is just really challenging for me still.
* No base - Seriously! No base?? You've got to be kidding me. I rubbed so much paint off while handling them during the painting process.
* Gloss but no matte - I sealed with only gloss and no additional matte coat. It makes them shiny which I'm not super happy with, but I sort of had to keep it that way to preserve the armored look.

Summary:
There's more coming. My goal is to get most of my army painted in short order and then get back to WM/H. I've got a wide variety of types and sizes of models for DZC to paint so this will definitely be a learning experience. It's a refreshing break though.

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #92

Late update. Very late.

My desk is a total train-wreck. I'm going to do a whirlwind roundup here. I've been really slacking on blog posts and I'll make no apology for it. Perhaps one day I'll explain why I blog, but that's another story.

Lately I've been painting stuff for Dropzone Commander a lot. I'm currently working on painting up a 1000pt force for it, which necessarily means I'm taking a bit of a break from painting Warmachine. Just temporary. I'll post some finished stuff from DZC in the next few days.

On the Warmachine front, it suddenly struck me how many tier 4 lists I've painted for Cygnar so far. In fact, the lists built so far include: Nemo1, Nemo2, Nemo3, Darius, Siege, Haley2. So why is painting to tier lists is a good option? I end up with models that I may not otherwise have added. Generally it isn't that far out of stuff I would have painted, but it does force me a ways out. My next paint target for Cygnar is going to be a pCaine tier list I think.

What else has been going on? Well I've obviously been playing a bit (3 games so far) of Dropzone Commander. I'll try to post thoughts on that in the near future.
I also played a test game of Age of Sigmar, which shockingly didn't completely suck. If anyone out there wants my modest perspective on it I'll share it. It's not amazing, but I also don't get what all the hate is about. There's some interesting differences between it and other games I've played before. Plus never having played much of previous editions of Warhammer, I was fairly untainted. I also am not burdened with a huge mountain of Warmhammer army painting time invested in the game, so I was just looking at it from a mechanical way. But again, if no one cares, I won't waste the internet bits on it.

Review: Shipping containers

Just a quick review on the Knight Models shipping containers "kit". I got 3 sets of these on a whim and have to say I'm very pleased with them. They look nice, are perfect scale to use with Warmachine, and go together really easily. The doors even open and close if you assemble them properly. Sure, they aren't painted and say Wayne on them, but honestly, for 10 minutes effort to assemble 2, it's a pretty sweet terrain option.

Lost Among Bananas and Insidiousness

This is just a quick post to note that I am currently taking a bit of a break from Warmachine. Not a serious one. Just temporary. My life was completely upside-down for the last 6 weeks and is finally returning to something resembling normalcy. Health issues with my son, challenges with my job, injury to my back, and other random small things sort of smothered my hobby activities. I've decided to take this time as a bit of a break from Warmachine and play some other things for a bit. I'll post those activities here as time allows and eventually will circle back on Warmachine once I feel properly rejuvenated for it.

Some Good Basic Painting Tips

Read this post the other day and really liked these tips. Several of those are things I wish I'd known sooner rather than later too.

Inspiration: Tiny Sculptures

Damn this is cool...

Battle Report: Nemo3 vs Sorcha2

No picture unfortunately. Also, it'd been a whole month since my previous game which sucks, but at least I got to play and had a good time.

My list: Nemo3 (tier 4), Finch, Stormwall, Jakes, Dynamo, 3 Stormsmiths, Stormblade Captain, Stormblades (6+UA), Stormguard (10).

My opponent: Sorcha2, Beast 09, Ogrun Bokur, Reinholdt, Andrei, Decimator, Manhunter, Drakhun (no dismount), Winterguard (10+UA), Kovnik Joe, Widowmakers, Aiyana & Holt + Valechev, Eiryss2.

We played the Recon scenario and I won initiative, choosing to go first. I ran, then he advanced and used Shatterstorm to take out half of my Stormblades, then I feated and started laying out some hurt. The Nemo3 feat round is pretty ball busting especially when I use focus to extend his control area. Stormguard killed the Drakhun and tied up some Winterguard. A Stormsmith snuffed Eiryss. Dynamo mostly shot the Decimator off the board, with the final blow coming from the Stormblade Captain. The Stormwall had dropped a lightning pod right near Sorcha which afforded Nemo the opportunity to use his ranged attack on it and bounce lightning into Sorcha. The next round however things got messy for me. Winterguard cleaned out my Stormguard and then the rest of the army created a hole for Sorcha to do her whole Cyclone/Wind Rush charge thing and head in on Nemo. It was well done, and perfectly ranged with about half an inch to spare. And then dice happened. She had to take a free strike from Dynamo on the way in. He hit and rolled just above average and slayed Sorcha.

Lessons learned: Sometimes it's better to be lucky than smart! Sorcha2 has crazy threat range which I forget about, and even just camping 2 would have turned her assassination run from "average dice kills" to "average dice doesn't come close". Also, Nemo3 is super fun to play, but I doubt I would play in tier next time. The Stormwall is just not a great pairing for him in my opinion. Dynamo, with Jakes, is still the bomb and I love that combo to pieces. It's important to note that Dynamo still gets his affinity bonus in Nemo's control area even if he's in a different battlegroup.

Games this year: 31

Avenger

This is probably the last warjack I'll paint for a while. It's the last warjack from my unpainted pile, and more specifically, the last I wanted to add until either the Reliant or Hurricane come out. I really did like this plastic kit though and thought it gives the model a very large bulky feel, appropriate for a heavy jack.

Triumph

Another one done. This is actually the first Warjack that I've ever painted that was an add-on kit to a base heavy. Technically I'd done Proteus before, but never for a warjack specifically. I have to say that I like how well this add on kit worked for Triumph.

Major Markus Siege Brisbane

It's Siege! He's done! Moving on.

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #91

Short update cause I'm exhausted.

I meant to get this out yesterday but the crazy situation in my household caused me to fall asleep early. Hence, a day late and, well, just a day late. So what's been happening on my desk lately? Well...

Siege, Triumph and the Avenger are all done and just need final seal coats. I'll have pictures of them this week. I got the riders for the Tempest Blazers primed and Saeryn/Rhyas assembled. I also got Zuriel mostly assembled. He's going to require some up-front basing work to get ready but that will make things much easier in the final steps. I also started monkeying around with some terrain stuff but odds are low that I will give it much attention during the next couple weeks. At this point I have almost everything in my backlog assembled, with the exception of finishing Zuriel, and then assembling Stryker3, Kraye, and a second unit of Stormguard.

I've been watching some basing tutorials off and on and it's getting me all excited to paint something to premium quality again, which may end up being the twins if I don't find a suitable alternative.

Rutger Shaw

Finishing a merc for me is sorta like watching a random movie trailer in the middle of watching a whole season of a show. Rutger here was more added to my paint queue due to the Moving Targets fiction that I listened to on Audible than because I'm super hot to play him. That said, it will be interesting to put him on the table with Tarin and perhaps put some ranged merc jack with him.

When I painted this model I took an approach of trying to get color on 80% of the model before doing highlights and shading. It was an interesting practice exercise for me since I'm used to doing the "finish a section" process method. After my discussion with Matt from PP, I decided this is something I need more practice at if I ever want to up my game on overall composition and quality.