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.