Ironhead Station

Yay, tartan! I'm trying to imagine how
many of these I will need to paint.

I also started assembly on my Skorne Titan Gladiator. Wow, what a pain in the butt that is. I'm guessing that will generally be true of Hordes compared to Warmachine, thanks to the more organic nature of the models. Still, I used a half a ribbon of Green Stuff getting his torso caulked together. Okay, I stuffed a bunch down inside him as well, but the joint a the waist makes me nervous - there just is not enough metal there.

Surprsing how much green stuff can fit in there...

I'm not sure what I'm going to take on next. The Gladiator is really appealing to me (I jut love how that model looks), but I would also like to crank out a few more Trolls while I'm feeling the muse. I may keep working on Skorne assembly while I paint up the warbeasts from the Trollblood battle box. At some point I also need to do some work before next week's 750 mangled metal tournament (like assemble Darius and the Thunderhead), but I'm kind of in a groove right now, and I don't really want to stop... Anyway, I'll keep you posted as I make up my mind. I'm not really in a hurry - my focus for play is still Cygnar. My Hordes army is going to be more of a "masterwork" army that I can really take my time painting and lavish attention on. That ends up being hard to do with my primary army, as I feel so much pressure to get things painted up and on the table (as Brother Scott always says - "Painted models play better.")

Labels: Hordes, miniatures, wargaming, Warmachine

I'm back from my fishing trip, and barring a little excitement that involved the near-sinking of a boat, I had a good time. I took an extra day to hang around the house and help my wife get caught up with yard work, and then it was back to the grind. Ah, how the shackles of adulthood do chafe...

Anyway, over the long weekend I started thinking about what I wanted to do next. I’ve been paining Warmachine models for the last couple of years, and playing actively since last September, and I think I’m ready to shake things up a little bit. Like a lot of other people right now, I’m feeling the urge to pick up another faction and try something different. I’ve been holding out on getting into Hordes for a long time, mostly because I haven’t been able to decide what faction I wanted to play, but I'm thinking now may be the time. Plus, I need a break from painting Ultramarines blue for a while.

So, what is it going to be? Let’s get the easy decision out of the way first – it won’t be the Legion of Everblight. I already own a bunch of Crxy stuff, and I’ll dig stuff out if I feel the urge to play a dragon-blighted-dirty-tricks-fast-assassination army. While the Legion warbeasts look properly cool, I don’t really feel inspired to paint them, and I strongly dislike the look of most of the nyss models that make up the bulk of the infantry. If I don't feel inspired to paint just by looking at a model, it's probably a bad sign...

Next up, Circle Orboros: I like this faction a lot from a painter’s viewpoint. The models are cool, and there is a huge variety in the range (from Tharn vs. Druids, Constructs vs. beasts, etc.). I like the mobility of the army, and I think they would be my definite choice for a second Hordes army, but right now I’m in the mood to play something really beefy and destructive, which really leaves two options… Trollbloods or Skorne.


The Skorne: From the first time I picked up Primal I liked the look and feel of the Skorne. The titans had me right away – they just didn't look like any of the usual fantasy stuff I had seen before. I dig the samurai-flavored armor and the clean rank-and-file nature of the troops. The Skorne are easily the most “army-like” faction in Hordes, and I like the idea of well-ordered phalanxes of disciplined troops. Their different units all look very similar, and I have to imagine that when they are fully painted and all blocked-up together on the table they would look stunning. In general, they have great armor making them strong defensively, but they also feed off of their own souls, encouraging very aggressive play, which is appealing to me. I’ve been playing a fairly smash-mouth style with my Cygnar lately, and with good success – I’m guessing it would work even better with an army built for it. The downsides: Painting lots of repetitive armor, which is of course loaded with detail. It seems like very technical painting, but not very artistic. I’m also not fond of the heaping amounts of cheese the Skorne received from Metamorphosis. Sure, it made them way more dangerous, but it also pushed them across the line where they are just not fun for opponents to play against. I don't like the cheesy game, and I don't want to play it.

The Trolls: I love me some trolls. I like the look of them, and I like the fluff, and they seem like they would be a lot of fun to paint. The models have a load of personality and a little bit of humor, which I can appreciate. Mechanically, they are tough as nails, which is also pretty appealing, and they have the type of interdependent combined-arms mechanic that I find appealing. They also have some of the largest and most impressive models in the game, which calls out to the painter side of me. While maybe not as disciplined as the Skorne, the Trolls still solve problems the old fashioned way – by caving you skull in – which I can appreciate. Downsides: Unless I do something very different in the color scheme, I’m back to painting blue. On top of that, troll models generally have a relatively low point cost, which means a lot of models, and in turn a lot of painting would be required. Mechanically, they do have a number of abilities that are based on critical hits – combine that with tough rolls, and there is a lot of randomness involved in Troll success. Me, I don’t so much like leaving things to chance.

Not really sure how to decide. I think I could enjoy playing either one, so it comes down to the enjoyment I would get from painting them. For the next few months I expect to get in a lot more painting than playing… I already own a Skorne battle box, which I picked up as one of our local stores liquidated their stuff at ½ off… Maybe I'll just pick up a Trollblood box, paint them both up, and decide which one I enjoy painting more before I sink more money into extra units, etc… I'll keep you posted - feel free to throw in support one way or another.

Labels: Hordes, miniatures, wargaming, Warmachine

It has been a busy couple of weeks around here. Spring is finally upon us, and I've spent the last few weeks doing all the little lawn projects that spring tends to bring with it... Planting new shrubs, laying pavers, staining fence, blah, blah, blah. On top of all that, my computer experienced an Epic Fail, and Dell had to send me a new one, and that cost me a good week's worth of transferring files and getting everything set back up again. What does it all mean? It means I've done almost nothing Warmachine-related in the last few weeks.


Tomorrow I'm heading out to spend the opening fishing weekend with my dad. It was an annual tradition back when I was a kid, but one I've missed out on for the last bunch of years as life has gotten more hectic. It was one of my new year's resolutions to make sure I get up to his cabin this year and spend some time with him, and I'm really looking forward to it. Plus, the idea of completely unplugging for four or five days is really appealing right now. Hopefully when I get back I'll be recharged, ready for family, work, friends, painting and playing, and the last effects of MKII fever should have worn off.


I've got a lot to look forward to in June, and should be a great month for gaming. Bobaferret, my local press-ganger, has not one but two events planned for us, two weeks apart! The first is a Call to Arms kick-off tournament with what should be a pretty interesting format:

• 750 points, one list.
• Two 'casters or warlocks
• You may bring ONE epic (No, you may not bring the epic and non-epic version of the same caster)
• Mercenaries are the only faction that may field Merc casters
• No warcaster attachments (i.e. Hierophant or Squire)
• Derlyss is included in Mortenebra's point cost and is allowed
• Scrap Jack is included in Old Witch's point cost and is allowed
• Laris is included in eKaya's point cost and is allowed

I still haven't figured my list out for this one, although I'm thinking it's a great opportunity to get to know Darius. Might be time to get out Kraye as well...

The other event is a regional qualifier for the PAX Masters Invitational. This one is a straight-up 750 Steamroller 4 event, which is always fun. Winner earns a pass to PAX and the right to compete in the tournament there. I'd like to roll into that event fully painted, and depending on the list I bring, that is very possible.

Speaking of PAX, I made my hotel reservations this week, and now I'm starting to get very excited. I had a great time there last year. It's a fun show with a great vibe. If you are thinking about going, check out my impressions from last year, as well as my tabletop report. And if you read this blog and you are going to PAX, let me know - we'll have a beer and talk shop.

And that's all for now! I'll see you in a week, when I will probably be slightly hung over and smelling of fish!

Labels: wargaming, Warmachine

BattleTech was my first foray into gaming beyond classic Red Box D&D. I picked up the first printing back in the summer of 1985, which would have made me somewhere around 12 years old. We spent that entire summer fighting epic combats between huge, armored robots, and I loved every minute of it. This is the game that coined the term "Mech" - a term that has almost become synonymous for describing giant robots - it has become part of the geek vernacular, and you even hear it used by people who never played the game.

BattleTech is a game that defies categorization - it is one part miniature wargame, one part boardgame, and one part giant robot RPG. Each robot has its own character sheet, with tons of details and endless options for player customization. Half the fun of the game was pouring over technical specifications and building your own mech. The core robot-building mechanic involved a three-way balancing act between the available tonnage, structural space and heat management, and it was great fun to see what you could come up with. I still remember building incredibly risky mechs, heavy on the firepower but poorly equipped to manage the heat generated by those massive weapons - they would either deliver a rapid death to my enemies or mushroom cloud themselves as they quickly overheated their nuclear cores.

My attempt at painting up the plastic models from the Classic Batteltech Introductory Boxed Set

So, on a whim, and maybe with hopes of recapturing some of that nostalgia, I picked up the Classic BattleTech introductory Boxed Set put out by Catalyst Game Labs, the latest owner of the BattleTech franchise. At face value, it's quite a complete set that includes: Quick Start Rules, Introductory Rules, a fluff book called "The Inner Sphere at a Glance," a pair of maps, dice, and 24 plastic miniatures to represent your robots on the battlefield.

While the contents themselves have good artistic production values, the quality is a bit lacking on some of the components. The quickstart rules are printed on magazine stock (even the cover) and I doubt will stand up to much abuse, although the other two books are a better quality. The maps are printed on cheap poster-paper, like you would expect to get out of a magazine insert. This was especially disappointing considering the heavy-duty cardboard maps from the original boxed set (thankfully, I still have those). Map quality becomes especially important when you consider that Battletech is not a normal wargame that uses a tape measure and free-form terrain, and requires a hex map to play properly. But of course, if you read this blog, it's probably the miniatures that you are most interested in...

When it comes to miniatures, the good news is that Catalyst wasn't stingy... twenty-four models is a nice amount, given the small scale of the game. Unfortunately, the models are mediocre at best. This is partially the sculpts themselves, and partially the fact that I just don't like a lot of the mech designs. Back when I was first playing the game, most of the robot designs were stolen from anime sources, and frankly looked much better. The models themselves are made from a medium-soft plastic that isn't as nice as GW plastics, but not as bad as something like the D&D pre-painted miniatures. I was a little disappointed at first, but then I decided I would put some paint on them before I passed final judgment. Who knows - it worked for the Black 13th...

So, I painted three of them up this weekend, and I have to admit that they look a lot better with some color (see the pic above). I'm still not a huge fan of the robot designs, but I'd be plenty content to put them on the table and enjoy the game. If I were getting serious, I would probably be looking elsewhere: The Iron Wind Metals versions look somewhat better, and if I were really looking to get back into the game I would consider proxying the far-superior CAV models from Reaper.

All-in-all, the CBT Introductory Boxed Set still feels like a good deal for $40. I think BattleTech almost requires a box-set to introduce it to new players. Because it is more board game than war game, having everything in one place makes it much easier to get a sense of the game. Kudos to Catalyst Games Labs for realizing this and bringing the boxed set back. For many people, it's all they will ever need, especially for casual play. I'd definitely recommend picking it up if you've ever wondered what the game is all about, or if you share my fond memories of it from more than 20 years ago. Either way, it's a worthy addition to any gamer's shelf, and provides a taste of what was one of the seminal games of the last 20 years. I'm looking forward to painting up the rest of the models and getting a few games in with old friends later this summer at PAX.

Labels: BattleTech, miniatures, wargaming