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| Not bad for an hour or two of work. |
The past couple days have been lost to reading. While a pleasant pastime, it makes painting progress proceed at a plodding pace. Today I managed to put the book down, for a little while at least, and pick a brush up once again. My intention was to work on Kovnik Joe and basecoat Torch along the way, but it ended up the other way around. Everything got a base color, save a few details like the collar badge and shoulder spikes, plus some sort of wash. Tamiya Smoke was slathered across the metals while I gave Badab Black a trial run on the other bits. (A few days ago I hit the FLGS and completed my GW Wash collection.) I had considered doing Torch in an alternate scheme, either red or black, to differentiate between character and standard jacks. Black seemed the most appropriate for the whole stealthy, black ops angle with Strakhov. Torch was already primed grey though, plus Black Ivan is...black, and ultimately I wanted to paint some green across huge surfaces. If Torch seems to have sprung out of nowhere to land on the painting table then blame this month's Paint the Target, which is a character beast/jack or a beast/jack that represents one of the league upgrades. Since painting up Torch was easier than converting something up that's the road I took, but it will be nice to have it painted up. Torch has three initial attacks, to say nothing of the Sustained Attack Ripsaw, and is the jack I currently reach for when I want an assassin jack. Plus it sets things on fire. What's not to like?
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| Joe marches on. |
Kovnik Joe got a little love as well, mostly in the beard/hat and coat. I put in some (bad) work shading and highlight the coat, which I hope to cover up/distract the eye from with a 5th Border Legion logo on the back. Since I'll be playing Legion in the upcoming league I feel like I should be trying to get some of those models painted up instead of chipping away at the Khador backlog. I'm loathe to play with models that are in progress though, and I don't have enough Legion stuff to take some of it out of rotation for painting without feeling an extreme pinch on the table. I'm assembling a list of reinforcements though, mostly Typhon (who is a big sack of nasty), so there might be some wiggle room in the near future.
In other Warmahordes news, Templecon kicked off today with a couple big reveals. You've probably already read about them elsewhere (if you get your PP news here then something is wrong), but I'll drop an opinion or three to fill some space.
- Colossals - As the title implies, I'm not sold. This is mostly a size/transportation thing for me. The Khador colossal (Conquest) is freakin' huge, as wide as a Throne of Everblight is tall. Since I've all but discounted the Throne because I don't want to lug the thing around then having something even bigger isn't something I'm eager for. Getting colossals hot on the heels of the battle engines also seems a bit too quick for me. The Black Dragon UA is a great idea because it provides more options on the table without introducing a whole new unit, which is an approach I can get behind. Bloat isn't something I want to see in Warmahordes. Colossals seem big and bloated at first impression (though I will say the models look great), but I'll be glad to be proven wrong. Time will tell.
- The app, War Room, is something I've been longing for. iBodger is great, but without the stats and rules I still need to have a book or deck handy if I'm trying out something new. I never thought I'd see a company digitize their IP in this way, though I suppose an app is a little more secure than a PDF. Getting new releases beamed to my device and being able to connect with my opponent (so I can look at their cards without having to look at the actual card) are pure bonuses. Hopefully they do some sort of faction mega-pack so I'm not faced with the decision to get everything or just what I'll be using.
- Perhaps my recent discovery of the Warmahordes community hiding (in plain sight) in my own backyard will also spawn an IKRPG game. It's been a long time since I got my RPG on. If it uses mini-based combat then so much the better. Hopefully the IKRPG books will also shed some light on the setting as a whole, which I always feel behind on since I came in during Mark II.
I'm actually liking the concept of the colossals, although I will concede that transportation will be a problem.
ReplyDeleteI suspect (and hope that I am correct) is that a lot of the worry know about colossals will be similar to that expressed about the battle engines - namely, that they would break the game, and be uber-powerful, and you would see a lot of them. From what I have read and seen, that does not seem to be the case, and I am hoping that it works out the same way with these new models.
PP seems to do their homework with play-testing. As you point out battle engines didn't break the game, so I don't expect colossals to either. My concerns are based solely on transportation and, to my mind, unnecessary/premature expansion.
DeleteI see the point. If think if you play Hordes as well, then it really seems like they are on top of each other. If you just play Warmachine, then the last battle engine came out several months back, and you're waiting for the next Big Thing (and the Wrath releases).
DeleteI am not sure how I will transport them. I suspect that they will occupy the same space as the battle engines. Right now, I don't take them to my FLGS, since we are still playing small games - this week marks the shift to 35, but we are still under Journeyman rules. Once people are comfortable with 35, I might bring one of them for my army, and one for loaning, but that would be about it, no matter how many of them I have.
I'm just going to use a box, perhaps even with foam. It sounds silly, but how far do you really have to walk to get to where you game? (A: 2-3 flights of stairs down, about 1/2 block on the ground, then 1 flight of stairs up...but that's just me).
ReplyDeleteI've done my fair share of improvising ways to transport models (I'll post a pic of how I move my Seraph from place to place eventually) and I just don't want to do it anymore. That's the reason I got the Battlefoam bag, so I wouldn't have to try and bore out that square hole to accommodate my round peg. If you go the box-with-foam route then you're carrying it in addition to whatever you have the rest of your models in, plus any other gaming ephemera. I know I only have so many hands, and considering the size of the colossals the box you put it in will be sizable.
DeleteIn the end I'm not saying colossals are bad things for bad people. I'm wary of over-expansion in general, and for me they're simply too big. I already have issues with the size of a Carnivean, and the colossals dwarf things of that size.
Backpacks are your friend. I keep hoping Battlefoam will put out an awesome mini carrying backpack but, until then, I use my GW backpack with two figure cases in it. Then I carry my box with odds and ends in it.
DeleteDon't get me wrong, Colossals will be hard to transport, but that shouldn't be a reason to hate on them. Wait for the rules, then (potentially) hate on them.
Those Battle Engines are running $96 (at least the Throne of Everblight) while an Ork Stompa runs $99. HordesMachine cavalry costs ~$100, and so do Blood Knights (both are obscene prices). More and more I wonder why people complain about GW's prices. Sure the bar to get into a GW game is higher, but they're not any cheaper by a long shot.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to assume that Clolossals are going to be about the same price, just for comparison purposes. That Stompa is a whole lot bigger than the Colossal mini, and while it needs a certain scenario to be fielded, is a much more impressive centerpiece.
What I'm getting at is that there is no real difference between 40k and HordesMachine any more (aside from PP having an arguably tighter ruleset). These gigantic models really get under my skin, and have no place on a Warmachine table. This is a skirmish game, not an army level game. Battle engines of that power would not be fielded in small skirmishes, and should (in my ever so humble opinion) be reserved for Unbound games. They're threatening to "jump the shark" as it were, and I'm really sad to see it.
Perhaps this rant should be reserved for my own blog, but honestly this news just got me going.
Let's end this on a positive note, shall we? Kovnik Joe is looking good. It'll be really cool to have two fully painted armies going at it in the future, so keep up the good work.