Captain E Dominic Darius and 3 Halfjacks

After finally wrapping up this project I'm actually not sure what more to say. Nothing particularly amazing. The model was a little frustrating only because of the tightness of the arms, but beyond that I'm pretty happy with the net result. I tried to get extra insignias on him due to all the flat surfaces and I also added a couple black plate options just to break things up a little more since all the other warcasters have had a fair amount of black cloth on them. Beyond that, nothing particularly special.

Major Victoria Haley

This was a fast but very fun project. After stripping her once to start over, this second time around I opted to use the airbrush to do the base layers of the cloak. This worked out really well. I did probably 75% of the work this way, and since her cloak is 80% of the model it really sped things up dramatically. It's really a lovely model and I could have done far more if I'd wanted to paint to a higher than tabletop standard. One thing special I did with the cloak was take the shadows all the way to pure black and take the tip highlights all the way to pure white. I really like the resultant effect it creates for the model overall.

Battle Report: eHaley vs eGoreshade

Aw yeah! eHaley and double Stormwalls! So douchy!

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

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

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

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

Games this year: 11

Stormwall (take 2)

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

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #75

I hate work travel.

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

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

Darius Tier List Progress:

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

Firefly

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

Nephilim Bloodseer

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

Harrier (take 6)

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

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #74

I hate work travel.

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

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

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

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

Darius Tier List Progress:

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

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #73

Play to paint, or paint to play?

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

Darius Tier List Progress:

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

Battle Report: Stryker1 vs Axis

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

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

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

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

Games this year: 10

Battle Report: Stryker1 vs Syntherion

First game of February!

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

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

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

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

Games this year: 9

Battle Report: Rotten Tomatoes Tournament

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Games this year: 8

From the Desk: Weekend Roundup #72

Worst play call EVER!

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

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

Darius Tier List Progress:

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