Strider UA Painted and Ready

Now the UA will blend in with the rest of the unit. 

Title says it all.  Now my Striders will all look the same.  Once I get the UA varnished of course.  The pair painted up nice and easy, as most of my recent projects have, but all was not peaches and puppy dogs.  While transporting the models from bag to painting table I lost another bit, this time the officer's scabbard.  As with the Strider leader's bow and BFS hand, I stuck it into a blob of bluetac to deal with later and pressed on.

Beyond the simple joy of crossing another item off my list of things to paint, I'm glad to get the Striders finished off so that I can really sink my teeth into them without the easy out of having only part of the unit painted.  Striders look like a versatile tool on paper, but my experience with them on the table has been somewhat underwhelming.  Then again I'm not a particularly patient player and don't do the whole "skirting around at the edge of your threat range" thing very well.  Of course that's why I want to start making a study of the Striders in the hope that they'll help develop that part of my game.

Nova Open Recap: Masters

After I failed to qualify for Masters (or the Championship, whatever you want to call it) after the Team tournament I threw caution to the wind and did the Deathrace tournament that started somewhat after midnight.  I'll do a tiny bit on it later, but for now the important bit is that I got into bed around 3.  After checking out and meeting up with NGF for breakfast (and to leave my non-gaming baggage with him) I made my way back to the Warmachine room trying to figure out how to make a list without knowing who my caster would be.

Nova Open Recap: Team

All for one and one for all and all that. 

Going into the Open the team tournament was a big question mark for me.  I didn't try to find a team before the event as conventional wisdom said it would be good to have some non-event time at a con.  With Iron Arena going, and a total lack of details before the Open began, I figured I could either get in Iron Arena games, nap, tour the con, or fill out someone's squad.  There was a bit of chatter about finding people on Thursday which grew in intensity through Friday and into Saturday.  I knew I could find a place to play if I wanted to, but the question of whether I wanted to or not was still undecided after the close of the morning's Steam Roller.  After three tournaments in a day and a half what I wanted most was to have a leisurely meal so I strolled over to the Bozzelli's that had spurned my breakfasty advances that morning to get a big, greasy meal that I could lord over like a dragon and its hoard.

Another painted warlock

Painted, but when will she see the table? 

Following the painting frenzy that was the Journeyman league, I took a bit of a break from the brushes.  Today that ended, resulting in a painted Rhyas.  Painting went along as it usually does, though I nearly repeated the scheme mistake I made with Saeryn.  Fortunately I have this handy record of my progress to check back on and was able to dodge disaster. 

The more interesting part, at least to me, of this latest project is that it represents a return to painting what I don't plan on using any time soon.  While I like the idea of a ninja sword princess just fine, looking at the cards that come with Rhyas doesn't fill me with playing fervor.  My first thought for painting was eVlad, but there's a high probability that I'll be fielding him tomorrow and most likely wouldn't have the time to finish and varnish the model.  Because I'm not itching to play Rhyas I could paint her at a leisurely pace, not that I did, without hearing the gaming clock ticking.  Of course there's more delicious irony here.  Now that Rhyas is painted, I'll be more eager to play her.  Having painted minis languishing in my bag is something I try to avoid.  I also need a new "noobhammer" (the caster I'll play against someone who's new to the game) as I've been getting better with pLylyth, my previous choice, who isn't as hamstrung as I first thought.

On the horizon are two events this weekend, located in the newly installed tab I posted about previously.  I got over my reluctance to dedicate another weekend to Warmachine after the marathon that was the Nova Open a mere two weeks ago.  Between recaps for those two, the three Open recaps that are still waiting to be done, and all the non-Warmahordes stuff I've been meaning to post about I'll have more than enough content to keep me, and of course my readers, busy.

Nova Open Recap: Steam Roller

The lead-up to Saturday morning's SR event could have been better.  The tier tournament ran a little late (1:45 instead of midnight), it took me far too long to fall asleep, and the place I'd spotted for breakfast (Bozzelli's) didn't open until 10 on Saturdays.  Most places around the hotel were closed, so I soldiered on with nuts and trail mix before I got back to the tables.

It was eventually decided that this event was Divide & Conquer, which I was happy about.  There's lots of talk about picking complimentary lists, good/bad matchups, and getting "locked in" to a particular list on the podcasts I listen to, so I was eager to see how the format played out.  I've since tinkered with the existing lists instead of making new ones, as is my custom, so these may be slightly off, but this is what I ran:

Nova Open Recap: Tier

Tiers not as tasty as these. 

Going into the Open I had circled the Tier tournament as one I expected to do well in.  I've had a lot of success with Absylonia's tier list, which includes everything that I want (beasts and fury management) and gives some nice benefits (cheaper, faster beasts).  Aby is a pretty straight-forward caster, one of a small group (which might only include pVlad) that I feel comfortable playing competitively with no warmups or practice games.  My list was as such:

Absylonia, Terror of Everblight  +5 points
* Angelius  8 points
* Scythean  8 points
* 3x Shredder  2 points each
* Typhon  11 points

Shepherd  1 point
3x The Forsaken  2 points each

All the lessers get AD, all the heavies get to Advance Move, I get an extra Forsaken, what's not to like?  Oh, and all the heavies will have Reach.  The only real weakness is a lack of magic weapons/attacks, but that's common to many tier lists.  I would have liked another heavy, but the points just don't mesh at 35.  Enough rambling, on to the meat.

Journeyman Painting Log # 27

Ready to drop some clouds.

Earlier this week I realized that I was done painting for the Journeyman league.  I hadn't hit my ultimate goal (paint all the Legion) and the league hadn't ended yet (technically it goes until Sunday, at least I think so), but painting was done all the same.  Why?  In order to get the points for painting a model you had to play it in a game.  I won't play with something that's painted but not varnished and the usual DMV humidity wasn't going to allow any spraying in time to get something varnished for Thursday, so I called it a job well done.  After all I'd hit my first goal (be painted for Hardcore) and then some, so I took a well deserved break from painting.  At least until today.

Nova Open Recap: Hardcore

Where I spent my long, long, loooooooong weekend. 

Starting at the beginning of the Open may not be the best idea as my recollection gets hazier the further back I go, but I am no more capable of reporting outside chronological order than I am setting up non-symmetrical terrain.  We all have crosses to bear in life.

To really start at the beginning, I arrived Thursday night.  There weren't any events scheduled and Iron Arena wasn't running yet, so it was pretty quiet.  There were a pair of games running when I poked my head in for the first time.  After taking a lap of the 40k hall and future vendor area I returned to the Warmahordes room and got in a friendly with James, who I hear is a PG in training over at Huzzah. A very relaxed start to the chaos that would follow.

New feature, Nova Open coverage to come

Behold my newest creation! 

I've finally added a local events page to the blog.  This has been on the to do list for quite a while, and at long last I can take it off.  Part of the feet dragging was due to the nigh-identical list over at Anything But a One, but a quick glance will show the depth of dust that has settled there.  I do sweeps of my "local" stores periodically, trawl the forums a bit less frequently, and am on two local mailing lists so I hope to catch all the events and keep the list current.  It's possible, perhaps likely, that I'll miss stuff or slack on updating, so if you my modest cloud of readers see something I've missed be sure to let me know.  I'm restricting the list to single day events currently, so leagues won't show up as they're not the sort of thing I'd travel for.  Greater coherency in the DMV Warmahordes scene is something I'd love to see and keep bugging PGs about, but there's no reason I can't chip in even if my contribution is modest.

In other blog news, I'm putting together a Nova Open recap.  Things are a bit fuzzy so it's taking longer than expected, but considering the lack of Open coverage, or more precisely Warmahordes Open coverage, I'm more inclined than usual to ramble on about an event.  The plan now is to break it up by day.  Hopefully I can get Friday up today and get the whole recap done this week.