Ironhead Station

Facing off against a pile of angry elves. Feeling the disparity caused by spending 21 points on 2 jacks. The blue tape marks the corners of the three control zones.

The good news is that my modified list worked out pretty well. Even against overwhelming numbers of ranged infantry I could push through. With this list, Haley's feat turn is an absolute bitch for your opponent. For those not familiar with Haley, her feat allows each model in her control area to have an addition attack at the end of it's activation, regardless of rate of fire. So, turn 3 tends to looks something like: Move Haley up, cast Temporal Barrier (to give all enemies in your control -2 DEF), and put Dead Eye on the Gun Mages. Then, you charge the Stormguard. Each Stormguard is POW 12 and causes a POW 10 electroleap, so they can spawn up to 40 damage rolls (two primary attacks each, two electroleaps). In my games so far I have been able to decimate the front lines, and if the army is packed tight enough, well into the back line.

The gun mages then advance and clean up. They typically use critical brutal shot, and thanks to the extra die from Dead Eye, they roll a fair number of criticals. They get 14 shots this way, with half of the attacks getting the extra attack die. Combine this with True Sight from the UA, and not much can hide. Finally, the marshaled Cyclone gets to go, generating 2d3+1 attack rolls, and thanks to Rune Shot from the Dude, he can use arcane effects as well.

You are starting to get the picture - in one turn 27 models generate up to 76 attacks/damage rolls without spending focus to purchase more. The biggest challenge is getting it all done in a 12-minute timed turn! (You have to resovle an attack every 9 seconds!)

It's great to see 'jacks on the table again, and the Cyclone is already turning into a favorite. Marshaled by The Dude, he's an absolute horror.

At this point I'm pretty happy with the list and how it's playing. It remains untested against a pile of heavy armored jacks, and that's the one thing I fear. I've proved it to be reliable against ARM18 infantry, but I'm worried about a heavy jack swarm. The hunter should help, but I might have to shift tactics and use the Gun Mages to slam things around rather than trying to kill them. A lot of AOEs that can deviate onto my fragile Gun Mages could spell doom as well, but I should be able out-range almost everything but mortars... Yes, I'm afraid of Khador. Hopefully it will hold up!

Labels: miniatures, MKII, wargaming, Warmachine

Epic Angry Old Man about to deliver lightning to your face-hole.

This is what Nemo would look like running away. You will never see this.

As I was playing a game the other day I was looking at my Journeyman Warcaster - he's really well painted (at least by my own personal standards), and I realize the difference is that back then painting was my primary hobby, and I played only the occasional game with a friend. Now that I am more of a player, I think I must be starting to cut corners to get models on the tabletop faster... My models these days don't seem to hold up under the scrutiny of a digital camera, but at least (I hope) they look great on the tabletop.

Labels: miniatures, MKII, wargaming, Warmachine

Labels: miniatures, MKII, wargaming, Warmachine

After playing 750 point games, the smaller size was really challenging to build a list for. The game itself was a rough one... We played a "Mosh Pit" type scenario using this roundish piece of hill terrain to define the mosh pit. I pushed ahead fast, but forgot that you can't run and shield wall on the same turn (I told you I was rusty). When the Houseguard Riflemen started shooting up my Precursors the next turn, I was starting to fear that I had seriously overextended myself.

Round 2 I moved up a little further, and this time I shield walled. Temporal Barrier would assure I didn't eat a charge this turn, and would force the 'Ferret to advance cautiously. I did manage to shoot some lightning around and take out a few enemies, which made me feel better.

Moments before the last of my infantry get wiped out by Rayvn's Thresher attack...

Round 3 was the money round: Haley pops her feat and throws Deadeye on the Stormblades. We wade in and manage to kill off most of the infantry. Suddenly things are looking up. I've got most of Ravyn's infantry dead, and a huge pile of troopers standing in front of her to gank her next round. Unfortunately, I don't know Ravyn very well... She casts Vortex of Destruction and then dives in and threshers my pile of infantry, killing most of them. My Defender (which has had it's heavy barrel destroyed by the Hydra in prior rounds) gets picked up an chucked at Haley, and they both get knocked down.

The assassination attempts drag on for a couple more rounds, both of us unable to get the job done. I finally get off a lucky damage roll to take Rayvn down, but by this time I'm down to Haley, the Defender, the Journeyman, 2 Stormblades and the Lancer. Bobaferret is down to Rayvn, the Hydra, 2 Halberdiers, 2 Riflemen and a Ghost Sniper. A brutal but good game. We were both fighting tooth and nail to stay alive, and it showed.

In other news, I picked up Darksiders on the XBOX 360 yesterday. I've seen this game at PAX for the last couple of years, and both times I knew there was something special about it. The visual style and polish is so far very impressive, and the game is a blast to play. Has a very visceral, Devil May Cry sensibility to it, and the controls are smooth like butter.

Also, went and saw Sherlock Holmes last night, and liked it much more than I expected to. It had a nice blend of steampunk and occult horror, and if you are a fan of either one, there is likely something here to enjoy... I was entertained the whole time (a rare thing these days, especially for movies over a couple hours long.) I approve.

Labels: miniatures, MKII, video games, wargaming, Warmachine, XBOX

I finally got my Precursor Knights completely painted and sealed today. They have been sitting on my painting table and taunting me for over a month now, and it's good to have them finally finished. They are a unit I really enjoy playing, and I think I'm going to be using them even more frequently now in MKII with the reduced power of the Sword Knight.

The gang's all here. Zombies everywhere be a'feared.

For my color scheme, I went with a GW shadow grey and P3 Menoth White Highlight. I wanted them to fit well with my Cygnar army, and yet still stand apart as something different, and I think I've accomplished that. I made liberal use of a Menoth White Base-colored wash to give the whites a very antique ivory look. The white stripe across the bottom of the robes was an afterthought, but I thought it tied the whole scheme together nicely.

The unit leader and the UA. Nice models.

And that pretty much wraps up Christmas vacation for me. I'm planning on setting a new painting and playing goal this year, and hopefully I will do better than last. After taking on a whole unit, I want to take a break and paint some single models - I'm behind on epic warcasters and I need to get my Thunderhead (and soon a Cyclone) painted. Once I've recovered I'll probably tackle the Long Gunners or the Gun Mages. I'd like to get caught up on what I already have before the new wave of trencher stuff hits.

Of course, to acomplish any of this will mean that I have to shake the horrible Dragon Age addiction that current has a hold of me. I loved Mass Effect, and I had high hopes for Dragon Age as well - and I'm happy to say that so far it is living up to those expectations. I'm about 30 hours in and well on my way to saving Ferelden from the Darkspawn hordes. Of course, Mass Effect 2 drops at the end of January, so I'd like to have saved the world by then. At least January won't be boring!

Labels: miniatures, roleplaying, RPGs, video games, wargaming, Warmachine, XBOX

Happy new year to my friends in the blogosphere! Here's hoping that 2009 treated you well, and that 2010 treats you even better! All told, it was a good year for me - I find myself more than a little disappointed that we are almost a decade into the twenty-first century and I still don't have a flying car or a robot sex slave, but what can a guy do? A new year always makes me feel both nostalgic and hopeful, and this morning I'm sitting at a coffee shop this morning looking back on the year gone by, and thinking a lot about the year to come, and I thought maybe I should put some of those thoughts to digital ink. So here goes...

Last year was my first full year playing Warmachine, and it was a great year. I've made some great new friends down at my FLGS, and I've learned a lot about how important a good community is to the health of a game. When I first started getting interested in Warmachine I was really intimidated. The game had been out for years, and was on it's fifth expansion. I hadn't really played tabletop games before, and I thought there was no way I would be able to get involved in any competitive way - but thanks to a great local community and an outstanding press ganger, I've been able to jump in with both feet. I've won more than I've lost, I've been in the hunt at several tournaments, and even placed third in out Breast Cancer Brawl!

Of course this year looks to be one of the best ever for Warmachine players. Mark II promises to clean up much of the sediment that has built up in the system over the years, and new models and books will revive interest after what felt like a long draught in 2009. We should see even more new players as the new rules level the playing field - at least for a short time. I know that I personally can't wait to get my hands on a Cyclone and a Firefly and put them to work!

I picked up a couple of started fleets for Firestorm Armada, and I'm hoping that game catches on (and that Spartan Games doesn't errata the rules to death like they did with Uncharted Seas). I'm a huge fan of Sci-Fi fleet combat stories like Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet series or David Weber's In Death Ground and Shiva Option, and I love the idea of playing out my own fleet-scale broadside battles in deep space. I have no idea if the game will even catch on locally, but I'm hoping I can find at least a few other folks with an interest.

I also finally got my D&D game back on track last fall. I DM a long-running Eberron game that went on hiatus late in 2008 when 4E hit the scene. Between D&D and Warmachine, it has become abundantly clear that a change in core rules (even for the better) is a disruptive thing, and the shift to fourth edition had quite an impact on our game. It was only after playing in a couple of RPGA events at PAX that everything clicked for us, and everyone finally decided that 4E was going to be a good thing. When we got back, we rebooted the game, and we've been having a blast ever since.

So, what's in store for 2010? We'll, I still have the goal of paining my entire Cygnar army (as well as their supporting mercs). I didn't make as much progress on that as I wanted to last year, so I'll have to keep working on that. I like to get a regular schedule and play Warmachine at least one time a week, and I need to do a better job of planning for (and defending) that time. I'd like to get my Khador army on the table and get some play time in there.

On the roleplaying side, I'd like to see my D&D game push well into the paragon tier and finish the current story arc of their campaign. I'd like to host of couple of "NanoCons" and run one-shot games of couple of other systems that I have a lot of interest in - most notably Spirit of the Century and CthulhuTech. I'd love to go to GenCon (I've never been!) but I need to figure out how to do that while still being able to attend PAX (GenCon is a convention, PAX is more like a family reunion.)

Ah, so much opportunity. There is nothing like the first day of a new year. Hope springs eternal, and none of my best-laid plans have had a chance to go completely to hell yet. Here's to a great year!

Labels: Dungeons and Dragons, Eberron, Firestorm Armada, miniatures, MKII, PAX, wargaming, Warmachine