Shock Troopers finished, a small measure of redemption, Super Dungeon Explored

Waiting for an opportunity.  And varnish.  Mostly varnish. 

Details took longer than expected, as they always do, but I still got the Shock Troopers finished on schedule.  In retrospect I should have had a Bombardier handy to make sure my treatment of Man-o-War armor remained consistent as the Shock Troopers seem darker than the Bombardiers.  I guess I can call it diversity.  With the Shock Troopers complete I'm well above 50% painted (for Khador), which is very nice.  Once I get the Demo Corps done I'll be able to field a fully painted pButcher tier 4 list, which is always satisfying.

A little less clutter.

Speaking of fully painted pButcher lists, I played with one yesterday as my Olgunholt finale.  My return to Khador has been a dismal failure as all my infantry gets slaughtered with a quickness, but I found some tiny success yesterday.  I hit the FLGS to round out a team game, bringing pButcher with a Kodiak, Doomies + UA, and Widowmakers.  My teammate brought eSorscha with a Marksman and two jacks.  We faced Plarzoid's pStryker, Reinholdt, and three jacks along with eBaldur, Megalith, and the Circle battle engine.  I had played another team game on Thursday with that same Circle setup as my teammate and watched it dominate the game, so I made it a priority to cripple that side as soon as possible.  Things went well for me starting with three charging Doomies taking out the battle engine, followed by an epic feat turn that saw off Megalith and a Minuteman, plus assorted damage to other stuff on the table.  We eventually hit the time limit for three of our four players, but by then the Motherland had the situation under control.  I'm heading back to Legion for a while, so it was nice to leave Khador on a high note.

I got to sit down for about five minutes after getting back from Warmahordesing before it was time to head back out, this time to EV's place for Super Dungeon Explore.  He's been on a painting rampage over the last week or two, knocking out the whole set and doing some of his best recent work in the process.  After a couple folks fell through I ended up fighting against EV's horde of minions with his newly-minted fiance.  Despite a casualty and more than a few hairy moments, the heroes were victories.  The game came down to an epic face-off between the big dragon boss (who is somehow smaller than the mini-bosses) and the barbarian (who I thought of as the Butcheress as she was a hurricane of choppy axe death, much like Orsus).  The barbarian survived a furious draconic onslaught, then chopped her way to glory.  There were mistakes on both sides, which is to be expected when it's still a learning experience for most of the players, but it was very entertaining.  It's mildly reminiscent of Warhammer Quest without the randomness or potential for disaster at any moment, but with the downside of requiring a "GM."  That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the most appealing part of Quest to me is that everyone is on the same side, which SDE doesn't do.  Lots of fun despite that, and my concerns about the durability of the components was assuaged after seeing them first hand.  EV tells me there's a second edition coming out with pre-assembled minis (which are amazing looking but reportedly come in approximately one billion parts per model) and more robust cards, which may well tempt me when it comes out.  Then again, there's another game of that sort sitting at Huzzah that's calling to me, one that has applications beyond the original intent of the game.  I'd say more, but I have a local reader or three and don't want to draw too much attention to this diamond.  I'm having a hard time justifying the purchase, but the process of wearing myself down is already under way.  Will I beat out the competition?  Only time will tell.