Feat of Service: Spell Draft Trial Run

A couple notes before I get into what I'm here to do.  First, there will (eventually) be a Journeyman league wrap-up post.  Second, this will be one of those posts where I assume whoever is reading it knows what I'm talking about.  Normally I try to make posts as accessible as possible, for gamers and people who somehow stumble down this particular alley unaware of what they're getting into, but that's not feasible here.  Finally, chances are good I'll be dropping links into this post later, so if you want more information...check back later?  Apologies in advance if you have to break out your gold miner kit to sift for new things.

Nope, not even close.

My local gaming group, the Nova Nomads, is marching from semi-organized rabble to Legitimate Grouping of Peoples.  Part of the reason for this is to help us do bigger and better things, the first of which is coming up soon and has a suitably imposing name: the First Annual Feat of Service to Benefit the Wounded Warrior Project, Presented by the Nova Nomads.  This is a book release style day of open gaming with wacky achievements for zany tabletop heroics, but with the twist of using a customized caster/lock.  Without going into a ton of detail, which can be found  here (to be updated soon), you pick a faction to play, select a caster/lock (independent of faction, so you can play a Circle warlock in Cryx) from a big list (this time around it's anything found in the free version of War Room), wipe out the spell list, build part of your list, pick a new list of spells via drafting, then finish your list off.  If you're thinking it sounds like a Who's the Boss/Spell Draft mashup then you've got the idea.

Since the fine details are still getting ironed out, we did a trial run last Wednesday.  This is how it went
down, plus my plans and thoughts going in.  I picked Khador as my faction for a couple reasons.  Foremost is my blog's name has Khador in the title, which is extra incentive to support the Motherland.  I feel bad about not playing Khador more, so when the chance arises I try to jump on it.  My Khador is mostly painted, and to a higher standard than my Legion.  One of the common knocks on Khador is they don't have a lot of synergies.  This is considered a Bad Thing, but in this case it's quite helpful.  If all, or most of, my pieces are effective by themselves then they have the potential to be even more effective if I can get the right spells to help them out.

Dat chassis.

Picking a caster "chassis" was the hardest part of the process by far.  My first move was towards a high Focus/Fury stat.  In particular I liked the idea of pVayl because of her Fury 8, ability to make arc nodes (which I covet as a Khador player), existing wintry theme, suite of abilities (see: Dark Sentinel), and broadly useful if unspectacular feat.  I wanted to really dig around for something good and not just settle on my first impulse, so I set pVayl aside and kept moving through the list.  All the possibilities soon became overwhelming even when I limited the list to Focus 7 and 8 casters.  I needed a different approach, which I found, but first some background.

Very nice, very not my work.

A large part of this event is converting a model for your caster.  My first purchase for Warmachine, even before the initial Khador bundle I got from EV, was a MoW Kovnik.  I'd found Battlecollege and done just enough reading to be dangerous to myself.  The idea of MoWs appealed to me, the Kovnik sounded like a neat piece, and my FLGS had one on the shelf.  When I got the Khador seed from EV it included a painted Kovnik.  I wasn't comfortable with pinning metal models at the time, despite years and years in the hobby, so the Kovnik I bought got stuffed away in a box where it sits to this day, waiting for some love.  What better time to love on the poor Kovnik than this event where I can polish it up real nice and use it as something else?

Armed with this new criteria (medium base caster) the list was more manageable.  Many of the options were appealing, especially pGaspy and pThags, but in the end I narrowed the field to two, pGrissel and Bloody Barnabas.  Baranabas drew my eye because of his innate abilities: three initials (with Crit: Consume and Blood Boon no less), Unyielding, Counter-Charge(!), and a lesser version of pKreoss' feat.  My idea for him was pretty simple and probably predictable.  I've always loved Doom Reavers, and Barnabas is a pretty bad man/gator, so the two fit together with ease

As I thought about it more I didn't think Barnabas would offer the sort of support I wanted to really make Khador infantry a nightmare, so I turned to pGrissel who had that support already baked in.  With her Fell Calls she could speed up the slow Demo Corps I wanted to use or let Doom Reavers make an extra attack.  Her feat is a couple other feats put together and looks to be brutal with Khadoran infantry.  Her personal ass-kicking ability isn't as impressive, but her basic defensive stats are respectable and since the idea was to run her as a support caster they're not as important.  Fury 6 is a little underwhelming but not a deal breaker.  I also had a couple ideas for conversion themes (opera/black metal singer) that would work with her abilities and avoid the Blender of Death With Skulls and Spikes and Nastiness that I expect to see lots of.

With a chassis selected I proceeded on to making part of my army list.  The event is a 35 pointer but you build your list in two steps, 25 points before the draft and 10 after.  I already had some pieces in mind, and 25 points doesn't go far, so it was pretty easy to come up with this:

Spriggan
Doom Reavers + UA
Max Demo Corps
Widowmakers

Doom Reavers are the ultimate self-contained package.  Widowmakers also do their thing without support.  I wanted some MoWs to screen my caster and echo the Kovnik starting point.  Normally I'd pick Black Ivan for my jack since he's relatively versatile, but character jacks are banned so I went with the Spriggan as the all-rounder.

All this was preparation for Wednesday's spell draft.  The other draftees were Ron (volt_ron), Brendon (Plarzoid), and Chris (no blog, feel shame).  I would be passing my undrafted cards to Brendon, who was running pVlad with Legion, which meant I wanted to consider what I'd be giving him to pick from when making my own selection.  What I was looking for in particular were broad buffs that would work on the Doomies (S&P, Eye of Menoth, Fog of War), a melee-specific buff (Fury, Battle Lust), and a debuff (Parasite, Crippling Grasp).  Jack/battlegroup buffs weren't high on my list because Khador, and caster-only buffs were down on the list since I wanted to do the support thing.  Keeping these parameters in mind, I got my first batch of spells:

There will be a theme...

Abuse
Malice
Parasite
Skyborne
Snipe
Sure Foot
Warpath
Wind Rush

The number of orgasmic sounds I made while looking through the cards was probably a bit high, and in retrospect unwarranted, but it was hard to contain myself when confronted with all these signature spells.  I discounted Abuse, Malice, and Snipe quickly since they didn't do what I wanted.  Wind Rush is a familiar favorite that would boost Grissel's DEF to troublesome levels, and Skyborne would also do that with some different utility.  Sure Foot almost got picked, but I decided the footprint would be too small to be effective for lots of infantry.  In the end it came down to Parasite and War Path.  You're probably thinking Parasite is the obvious choice since I listed it as a primary target, but I went with War Path because I couldn't let Brendon take it while playing pVlad in Legion.  Thus my first choice wasn't even for me but instead against someone else.  The round ended, cards were passed, and my second group was this:

Many choices.

Banishing Ward
Deadeye
Flesh Eater
Ghost Walk
Psychic Vampire
Razor Wind
Ritual Sacrifice

Lots of good stuff to pick from.  I discounted Flesh Eater, Psychic Vampire, and Razor Wind quickly.  Deadeye is super sexy for someone but not for what I wanted to run, and since I had already picked against someone in the first round I wanted to get something I'd use in the second.  Banishing Ward would be nice but limited as the Doomies are already protected from spells.  Ghost Walk would also be nice, especially for the Demo Corps.  In the end I couldn't pass up Ritual Sacrifice.  It would help mitigate Grissel's low(ish) Fury 6 and meh melee stats while also allowing me to (potentially) run multiple jacks or sling any juicy spells I came across.  Round three brought:

HURRRRR, we're gonna go fast and turn left!

Backlash
Energizer
Mobility
Mutagenesis
Obliteration
Tornado

Quality had already started to decline, but at least that made it easier to trim the choices.  Backlash, Obliteration, and Tornado were out quick.  Energizer and Mobility both give some welcome speed buffs, but since I already had Warpath I didn't want to double down on battlegroup spells I was unlikely to get much use out of.  Mobility would have been nice for the Demo Corps, but the DEF boost would be mostly wasted as the bump from 11 to 13 isn't that significant.  It was around here that I lost track of what my concept was (support caster), either willfully because I hadn't seen what I wanted and didn't think I would or unwittingly as I kept drawing stuff that would have been great for Barnabas.  I ended up with Mutagenesis because it's fun and potentially very useful when combined with Ritual Sacrifice to load up on Focus before (hopefully) teleporting in for the kill.  Moving on to round four:

Your draft may vary.

Arcane Shield
Boundless Charge
Fail Safe
Stoneskin
Snipe

More easy choices.  Snipe was from the same mold as Deadeye, though it could have been dirty fun with Widowmakers.  Fail Safe didn't appeal because it's just for jacks.  Stoneskin was potentially neat but speed debuffs that you apply to your own troops are always a bitter pill.  Boundless Charge is nice, but I get enough of it when I play Khadoran casters.  Arcane Shield was the clear winner for me as I could put it on a jack, the Demo Corps, or my caster and get good use out of it.

Round five we got back our initial group of cards, albeit picked over.  Abuse and Malice were still there, along with Sure Foot and Skyborne.  I took Skyborne because I wanted it the first time around.
Round six brought Razor Wind, Flesh Eater, and Banishing Ward.  I didn't want the first two when I saw them earlier, so Banishing Ward it was.  Round seven was Backlash and Tornado, of which I took Backlash.  Round eight I got Stoneskin.  My final list, of which I would get to pick Focus/Fury-1 (which is five for the math challenged) was:

Arcane Shield *

I don't know either.  Needed filler.

Backlash
Banishing Ward
Mutagenesis *
Ritual Sacrifice *
Skyborne *
Stoneskin
Warpath *

The ones I picked have the asterisks.  I ended up with none of what I wanted going in (broad buff, melee buff, debuff), which was partially my own doing.  Intentionally or not, I ended up with a list that would have suited Barnabas pretty well.  The clear winners for me are Ritual Sacrifice and Arcane Shield.  I could take a cheap unit like Mechanics or WGI strictly for bodies to sacrifice.  Arcane Shield is a great buff that would work well on anything except maybe the Widowmakers.  Skyborne gives some extra DEF even if I never use the MAT boost or Flying.  Warpath could be useful at times, as could Mutagenesis.

Things didn't turn out like I hoped they would, so I haven't fleshed out the list yet.  One path I wanted to pursue before doing the draft was double Doomies, which is as viable now as it was then.  To that I could add some Greylords or min WGI, but I don't know that I like double Doomies as much as I thought I might.  I'd also look at WGI as an offensive unit, which means Joe, and Mechanics for sacrificing.  Or I could add a Kodiak and Mechanics to make better use of Warpath.  There's also the option of redrafting, either this coming Wednesday when the general draft happens or the morning of the event, June 7th at Huzzah Hobbies.

Soon?

Looking back on the process now it's tempting to scrap Grissel and go with Barnabas instead.  Hoping for Eye of Menoth or S&P is a bad plan as I'd have to get them in the first round to come away with one.  I haven't dug deep into the list of available spells to see how likely getting a melee buff is, but I'm guessing it's not much better than S&P, though the chances of having it passed along to you are much higher.  It seems like there are a lot of things that would benefit a super solo caster, either as caster-only buffs or things that work well for anyone.  I'm trying to avoid over-"correcting" (unlike some hockey teams I could name following the 2010 playoffs...) based on what I got in this draft, so I'm skeptical of my own line of reasoning here.  That said, Barnabas has a lot going for him and would require less sculpting than trying to put a tuxedo around a MoW like I'd want to do for an opera singer. Counter-Charge on a warcaster seems like a thing that would be fun.  I could also take another, closer look at the small based casters, though that would mean far more work to figure out bits for a model.  I have until this Wednesday at the very least to decide.

Regardless of the outcome the draft was a good time.  Holding so many possibilities in your hand is dizzying, and trying to balance taking things for yourself against denying things to your future opponents makes for some tough choices.  I don't do a whole lot of conversion, especially in metal and outside of GW games, so that aspect of the event will be something different and a good chance to learn some new modelling techniques.  Best of all is the opportunity to support a good cause by gaming, which is a win for everyone involved.

Disclaimer: we are not this attractive.

Speaking for the group, we encourage everyone that can come to come.  There is a substantial time investment in getting a converted model together, so don't be fooled by the event still being over a month away.  I've scattered links to the event pages on the Nomads site, but I'll do so again here to keep them all together (caster rules, spell draft rules).  Please note that at the time of posting these are still in minor flux and likely to change, mostly in style and presentation but there could be minor tweaks in more substantial areas.  If you and/or your group are interested but think this isn't for you let me assure you that it is for you (and everyone).  You can bug me about details (I think I have contact info somewhere around here), or do the same to any of the people I've linked to, or on the Nomads site.

Errants Are "Done"

Remember this guy?    

A tasty bit of apocrypha tells us that a young Colonel Sanders once dropped a profound couplet on the world at large: know when to hold 'em/know when to fold 'em.  (Suspect pundits, quoting unvalidated sources, attribute this differently.  They're wrong.)

While napping through the Come to Jebus meeting at my local Waffle Barn I made a hard choice: put in some work making them look nice, then declare victory on the Errant front.  I've put plenty of time and effort into them, and I'm telling myself I'll go back and finish them properly later, but if I want to get my army even close to painted for the Journeyman league (and I do) then it's time for some triage.  The time-hemorrhage that is that unit had to stop, so I got my kit out today and made it so.

Turns out that Bush pic is really long, so I need a text buffer to make things look less like a puddle of vomit.  Hopefully this gets the job done.

Screw these guys.  I'm super seriously.

I felt like a heel while doing this since there wasn't a whole lot left to do.  It didn't take too long to get the black down (not highlighting saves a lot of time), which led nicely into finishing the bases.  All that was left after was a bit of silver here and there and then "victory."  To be fair to myself they look fine, especially on the table.

The big win here is that I can now plow ahead into the mountain of other models waiting for love.  Keeping with the triage theme the plan now is to base coat the lot so everything has the (beginnings of the) right color in the right place.  Then I can pull out whatever and finish it properly.  Will I get approximately 20 infantry and 4 jacks done in the next 2.5 weeks?  Doubtful.  Can I get base coats on that same group in that time?  Sure can.

Why stop there though?  Let's shoot for the moon.  I'm gonna base coat and wash those models.

Journeyman Update 2

Looks nice, takes years.  

To borrow a phrase from one of my favorites, we've always been painting Errants.  These little bastards are the gifts that keep on giving...an unending list of things to paint.  After a decent Tuesday of painting I thought I was on the last leg.  The whites and reds were done, leaving only the golds and blacks (and yes, also the inevitable overlooked bits and basing).  I rolled into Thursday feeling good about my chances of finishing the unit in advance of today's Paint the Target due date.  This confidence was misplaced.  Much suffering ensued.

Full disclosure: I was trying something new.  More fuller disclosure: the new thing was a different shade of brown.  I've been using the brown undercoat for bronze/gold approach for a while, but until yesterday the brown has been the VGC equivalent of Snakebite Leather.  This has served me well, but I wondered if a darker (some might say Beastial) brown would look better.  Fast forward some four hours of laying down brown so I could paint over it with bronze (and then highlight...) and something had to give.  I had an emergency backup plan in my pocket in case I ran into this very scenario consisting of one step: abandon the group and finish a single model.  Somehow the bronze and gold went on quicker than the brown, there wasn't much black to do, the base went as bases do, and I was able to get a model close enough to call it finished without any major psychotic episodes.

The bad news, of course, is there are nine more of these guys to do.  Plus the UA.  And a solo.  Ugh.

Finished Models, New Adventures

Behold my mighty works and despair!  

The first two members of the newly formed Northern Crusade are finished.  At least I think they're mostly finished.  I'm in the midst of a fierce internal debate over whether to add some static grass to the bases.  The grey cobblestones are the victory I hoped they would be, and the bases are pleasing overall, but I think a little something extra (like static grass) would really kick them over the line I was shooting for.  Are they worth the extra steps, and vast amount of drying time, for the results?  I'm not convinced just yet, but they do look nice.  Granted they're going quicker as I do more and get to know the process better, but it's still a couple extra hurdles to getting models assembled, let alone painted.  I'm already invested for this army, and they'll be a nice touch for character/showcase models, but I don't know that I'll want to do another whole army this way.

Painting With Actual Colors

The end of session one.  

With a couple painting deadlines just over the horizon, and with my the plague that knocked me on my ass for a week or so finally (hopefully) behind me, it's time to get the painting machine going.  This process has been underway for a couple days, so there will be more pictures than usual.  I'm sure you'll find a way to push through.

I've talked a couple times about how I want to push my limits a bit with this new project.  Some chances have already fallen short, notably jack construction, while others have yet to be given the chance to be pushed aside.  Of particular note for this post is painting approach.  I'm trying out a few things: following a studio scheme (more or less), painting with a reference, and trying out the PP style of shading and highlighting.  Basics remain unchanged, so my first session was still blocking in colors and applying a wash (even if the wash didn't go down until session two).

More Prime Puns

Old shot, now they're primed.  

Now I'm going meta with titles.  Look upon my works and despair.

That whole tournament thing I was going on about?  Didn't happen for me.  Illness stepped in and said "No, you will not be playing games this weekend."  Fortunately I was still able to make good use of my time by assembling a unit of Errants and a Vigilant.  The Vigiliant went together quick and easy.  The Errants, not so much.  Each model was at least 8 pieces, not counting the base, which takes some time even in plastic.  The metal models must have been a nightmare, one I'll get a taste of when I do the UA and solo.  Now I have a reasonable collection assembled and the biggest remaining hurdles from my initial batch are the TFG and Cinerators.  Everything else is single models or small groups.  Granted some of those are Wracks, which look frustrating, and most are metal, but it's easier to get an Errant solo and UA together than those plus the unit.

All this force congealing is coming at a good time, more or less as planned, because there's now a lot of Journeyman chatter going on the local email group.  The plan all along has been to gather Menites, assemble and prime them, then initiate a painting orgy when the league starts.  While I'm on the hook to paint a couple before the league starts (thanks in large part to local Ron's attempt to reboot Paint the Target) I'll still be in a good place.

Stumbling Out Of the Gate

Who leaves a triangle out where someone can trip on it?  

After my (minor) Herculean effort to get models together and primed I got to put them on the table last night.  My opponent was Justin, a buddy of EV's who is fairly new to our local Warmahordes group and the game in general.  Normally I'd pull out Zerkova or Rhyas for a relative newcomer, but having brought just the one list I didn't have any options.  When models started coming out this lack of diversity bit me square on the ass.  As you may have gathered from previous posts I was playing pKreoss.  Across the table was his natural predator: Ravyn with MHSF.  There wasn't a whole lot to do, and in retrospect I'm not sure I had any play other than running off into a corner and praying, but at least it was over quick.

As the night was wrapping up I heard that the Game Vault tournament I've been getting ready for was full, which was unfortunate as I hadn't claimed a spot since I wanted to make sure I had enough Menoth together to make a 35 point list.  There may also have been a bit of procrastination involved.  Regardless of who made what mistakes based on which shortcomings, I figured it wasn't meant to be.  Then I got a highlighted email today pointing out that someone had already signed me up, so the trip is back on.  I'm a little concerned about running into poor match-ups while bringing just one list, but this trip will be more about getting some reps in with a new faction and seeing if Game Vault has some of the bits I'm still looking for on the shelf.  Of course there's also a little place called Sonic, but that's a bonus.

Ready For Prime Time

The fruits of my labors.  

The title of this post is a little misleading, which I'll cover in a minute, but it was too good to not use.  With the "polar vortex" poised to freeze all of reality solid sometime today (Monday) I took a look at forecasts for today while watching the foosball yesterday to see if I'd be able to squeeze in some priming before the 9th circle of hell (which your classical education taught you was frozen) descends upon us all.  Turned out there was a window this afternoon, so last night I got to work building a Reckoner and pinning two heavies to bases, the final items on my pre-priming list.  As the picture above shows the work went well, and now I have a fully assembled and primed 35 point pKreoss army ready for a test run on Wednesday before their maiden competitive voyage this weekend.

Crusade Gains Ground

From last night.  Not exactly frightful, but nice anyway.  

Amidst a flurry of snow there's also been a flurry of hobby progress.  I got a bit handsy with the bases last night and gave them a good ballasting ahead of schedule, which paved the way to get the Zealots assembled today.  I stuck with the smaller pinning option, piano wire, and things went much easier.  I learned some good lessons while doing the unit, to the point that I'm a little concerned about the first couple.  Not that I expect them to come flying off their bases, but they're not as solid as the later ones.  High on the fumes of victory, I plunged ahead by greenstuffing three large bases and (finally, years later) putting together a Vanquisher (full glue, I skipped the magnets this time).  I'll ballast the bases either later tonight or sometime over the weekend.  Pinning the Vanquisher should be far easier than the Zealots because plastic/resin is a thing that's great.

The Crusade Takes Shape

Still working on that whole "regular update" thing.  The silver lining is that when I get around to posting I have a decent bit of progress to report.  I've made a reasonable dent in the pile, as you can see on the right, and there's even a bit more unshown progress in the form of a cleaned, ready for bases unit of Zealots.  The bases for the Zealots are in progress with the largest hurdle (greenstuff) done and curing at this moment.  I'll do ballast tomorrow and hopefully get the models on the (dry and finished) bases over the weekend.
Turning to the completed construction, the jack support is ready to go with the Choir and a pair of Vassals waiting for primer.  The Choir was more of a pain than anticipated.  The tabs and robes were all one big piece, so clipping and filing took a while.  Pinning was a pain as well, but for the Vassals I tried swapping my standard paper clips for the (relatively) new piano wire with pleasant results.  The drilling went much faster, with less worries about potentially drilling through a leg or ankle.  I didn't try bending the piano wire and greenstuffing it to the base like I do with the paper clips.  We'll see if this causes problems down the road, but the Vassals felt plenty secure even without dry glue.  As a bonus I did a bit of greenstuff on Kreoss' base to blend him in with the rest.

The First Step

Now in a darker grey.  

The pile of boxes lost a member a few days ago when a Redeemer took form.  Building a whole mini without a base was as odd as expected and pinning the model to the base caused some collateral damage (the gun popped off), but aside from seeming to take longer the process went off without a hitch.  The weather broke after everything was glued together and dry, a clear sign that I'm on the right path, so I even got to prime the little bugger.  It's incredibly top heavy even discarding the Vlad-esque shoulders, so I have a few concerns about the load-bearing chicken legs, but it's a finished model which is what counts at this point.  I've been planning to do TFG or Errants next, but now I'm thinking about doing the Choir.  They're single part sculpts for the most part, will feature in every list I'm likely to field, there's only six of them, and it'd scratch one of the metal units off the list.  We'll see how it turns out.

In keeping with tradition, I added another model as soon as I finished the Redeemer.  In my defense I didn't exactly go and get it for myself.  We had a white elephant/yankee swap/whatever holiday free play event on Wednesday, so I had to walk away with something.  I've never done one of these events before, but my initial impression was a good one.  Everyone seemed to have a good time and the amount of Menoth in the swap was nice as I had plenty of options but also a bit daunting as I'm now wary of faction overload.  I finished towards the sharp end, which meant I could almost take my pick of the litter.  There was a Devout floating around that tempted me greatly, but ultimately I went with a Vigilant because it's plastic.  I brought a Nephilim Soldier (it seemed prudent to bring something I'd like), so I think I made out fine.

Now With Title!

My latest endeavor.  

Fun fact: this is version three of this post.  The previous two were lost while trying to get the phone and tablet, and multiple apps on both, to play nice.  The future, it is not yet here.  This third iteration brought to you the old fashioned way, with a keyboard and mouse.  I had missed natural, effortless typing.  But I digress...

My lack of hobby progress over the past month or two has been unsettling.  Things are fine on the gaming side, but modelling and painting has slowed as much as possible without hitting a full stop.  The only sensible thing to do in this sort of situation is to add more models to the queue, which is exactly what I did thanks to Black Friday sales.  It took a while, but I finally pulled the trigger on Menoth.  I settled on a list of (what I consider) core choices, ran it past my locals, and finally gave Spikey Bits a shot.  Now I have many more mans waiting (and waiting) for some TLC.

One Foot at a Time

My most recent construction project.  

Been a while, eh?  You may have noticed that I tend to post when I've painted something.  Since I haven't sat down to paint in far too long, I also haven't sat down to blog in a while either.  That doesn't mean I've been idle, just occupied with things that aren't painting.  There's plenty of non-wargaming things that have taken up my attention (EV got married for one, hockey season for two, NHL14 for three), and there's been plenty of boxes being opened and models assembled as well.

I'm still working on eVayl and getting more comfortable with her and her tier list.  After 8-10 games played, a couple videos watched, and the much debated decision to kill my own mans for a turn one Shredder, things are starting to come together.  The Legionnaires are putting in more work (outside of simply feeding the pot) and I'm getting more lessers on the table in general, though people are starting to target the pot sooner as a result.  In recent games I've sent the Angels further up the table on turn one to make use of the tier SPD boost.  While this has cost me an Angel early on, which isn't so good, it also gets the Angels involved much earlier and puts some heat on my opponent from the very beginning.  This is true of the list in general as I've been running the Ravagores in turn one as well, plus trying to charge Vayl for the extra movement, all with an eye towards dictating the line of engagement instead of getting bottled up on my half of the table.  Vayl doesn't feel nearly as survivable in her epic form so it's been a learning process, but I hope I'm turning the corner on it.

Finally, there's the outstanding matter of the Empire.  The train has ground completely to a halt after a hard opening charge.  With EV due back from his honeymoon sometime soon, and our usual Tuesday game to resume after that, it looks like my grand plan to have a painted (starter) force ready to go is going to come up short.  I've been sniffing around it of late, notably to finally get a handle on Reiksguard schemes, so hopefully I get back on the horse soon.

Mostly Empire, But I Still Play Warmahordes

Done.  For now.  

After a long(ish) break I got back to painting today.  More Empire, but some new models at least.  Before getting to the new, let's cover the old.  The horses got their finishing touches today, not that it really shows.  I did a search for horse hooves, which turned up no porn or other questionable material for a change, and found that they're black.  Unfortunately the hair is also black, so the hooves and forelocks blend into each other.  When it's time for the inevitable post-basing touch ups I'll see what I can do about the hooves, but ultimately they're so small I may just let it slide.  In the meantime I'll check out some examples for around the internets and see how others handle it.  In other horse news I went ahead with highlighting the barding, which produced no visible results as anticipated.  If anyone can pick out which one is the one with the highlights I'll go back and do the others, but since I know which one it is and can't tell any difference I don't think I'll be doing any more pointless silver highlights.

Journeyman Painting Log 14

I painted Sorscha, so it only seems fair to do Beast 09 too.  

Another day, another finished model.  Today we have Beast 09, a model that rivals Gorman for having the best reputation that I get the least work out of.  I can see where some of the hype comes from since Beast's imprint will let you absolutely murder any living model, Reach is a rare treat for Khador jacks, and Thresher isn't bad either (especially with Reach).  Free runs are nice, as is Hyper Aggressive, but when you strip out the neat shiny bits Beast is just a Juggernaut that costs an extra 4 points.  That's a bit simplistic but still true.  As for the actual model, I assembled it in this static and boring pose for ease of use.  There's nothing worse than having to accommodate multiple models that hang over their bases, as many PP models do, so I had Beast 09 pull his arms in tight to make room for victims.  I went with the studio scheme (more or less) since Beast 09 is a character jack with a reason for being white, and this way no one will mistake it for a regular Juggernaut.  As usual I spotted a missed spot while putting the picture together (knee rings), but considering I started and finished the whole thing today I'm happy with the results.  Not my best work, but not embarrassing either.  I'm targeting the Spriggan as a "take your time and do it right" piece, though I'm still not sure what I'll do with the shield.

Speaking of the Spriggan, I took advantage of a break in the recent humidity to spray a bunch of stuff.  The Spriggan and IFP got primed, the latter taking quite a while and almost a full can of paint as I gave each one the royal treatment (holding the model and rotating it to get all the nooks instead of lining them all up on a box top).  I also varnished the Drakhun, Yuri, and the Mechanics so they'll be ready to go for Wednesday.  Hopefully I can varnish Beast 09 in time for gaming as well.  I think I can crank out another finished model and field it, but I doubt I'll have time for more.  The cross hairs are on eEryiss for this as she's got a decent start, is only one model, and would be nice to get back into the fold.

Journeyman Painting Log 13

These slackers can finally get to work.  

Hot on the heels of yesterday's painting triumph comes an even bigger victory today.  Both the Mechanics and the Drakhun were already under way when I sat down to paint today, but the whole point of laying a foundation for future success is reaping that reward when the time comes.  The Mechanics were close to finished yesterday, so it didn't take much pushing to get them done.  This unit is particularly satisfying since they've only been a full unit for about a week.  When I got them way back when I only got four bases in the blister, so whenever I ran the full unit I would use some of my extra Sorschas as stand-ins because I never got around to digging out my extra bases.  When I pulled all the unpainted stuff out of my bag last week I rode that wave of good feelings straight to my modelling bag and got the other two based and ready to go.  Now the whole unit is together, painted, and with any luck will be varnished in time to make it to the table for the Journeyman league.

Journeyman Painting Log 12

Who loves pelts and handing out Treewalker?  Yuri does.  

After a reasonable break from painting I dove back in today.  The result was a finished Yuri and a (now max) unit of Mechanics approaching completion.  Yuri got bumped to the top of the queue because I figured he would be quick and easy to paint, which he was thanks to all the leather and furs.  I took some time with the fur cloak to add some different shading to the different pelts and still got him finished quickly.  I'll be glad to get him back on the table as well since for this final week of the Journeyman league we're stepping up to 75 pointers.  I've never played a game over 50, so it'll be interesting to have all that extra elbow room.  While I like the full Manhunter suite (Yuri and a pair of Manhunters), 7 points for three models is often too steep a price to pay.  With an extra 25 points to fill I'll have less reservations about shelling out for the fur crew.  Yuri is potent enough on his own, but he really earns his points when he has a posse to run with.  Treewalker lets me use some of my Legion tricks with Khador, and running a mini "unit" means I can put a credible threat on a flank instead of a lone Manhunter looking to tie up an arc node or draw attention away from my main force.  Maybe Yuri will even manage to survive a game for once.

Construction Ahead

Welcome to Khador.  Have a lance and shield.  

The painting mojo didn't make an appearance today.  Taking its place was the elusive building mojo.  This is a rare beast, so I like to lasso it whenever it appears and ride it for all its worth.  Today it was worth a Spriggan and, at long last, the completion of the Iron Fangs.  I've gone on about IFP previously, and Black Dragons in particular, but I'll take a bit of space here to dig into the Spriggan a bit.  Much as many proud sons and daughters of the Motherland might wish otherwise, Khador is primarily a single jack faction.  There's no real jack support beyond the Koldun Lord, which is dubious "support" when compared with the options available to the other factions, and the majority of casters don't do anything past handing out Focus (which they'd rather keep) and maybe Boundless Charge.  Khadoran jacks aren't really compelling on their own, especially when compared to Khadoran infantry and the support available for the footmans.  You're more or less locked into taking a jack (if only to use the bonus points), so it makes sense to make your one jack a good choice.  The Spriggan is that good choice.  It's the only non-character jack with Reach (not counting Conquest, which is a fine choice as the lone jack but not yet available to me), has Bulldoze, is ARM 21 (via a shield, so it could go down to 19), has Powerful Charge, sports a pair of grenade launchers, and can fire off a flare to counter Stealth.  At 10 points it's the most expensive non-character jack in the faction, and on the expensive end for non-character warnouns in Warmahordes overall, but it's has so many tools that you can get value out of it on every turn (outside the running turn) and in all situations.  Last night I encountered Satyxis Raiders with Occultation, which is a real pain to deal with.  I ended up sending Sorscha way too far forward to get in range to (try to) Freezing Grip them, which led to a messy death for her.  If I had a Spriggan I could have fired off a flare to reveal a Raider so I could have targeted them from a more reasonable range.  Plus it looks awesome and has two big open spaces (forehead and shield) that are just begging for a nice 5th Border Legion icon and something else.  There are already a ton of Khadoran anvils on the model and I don't want to double up on 5th Border Legion so I'll have to consider what to do with all that prime real estate.

Something Other Than Finished Painting

Everything in my bag that isn't painted.  

Still about painting, just not finished minis.  After the informal listing of unpainted minis in my last post I decided to dig out the models and get a look at them as a group.  The results were better than expected and pictured to the left.  It's worth noting that this is only what was in my bag (except the mortar) so it doesn't include what was on the painting table at the time (eEryiss, Beast 09, eButcher) nor does it include the stuff that isn't completely built yet (the other two mechanics, IFP, all the horsemans, Spriggan, Conquest).  Despite those caveats, I'm basically down to three units (Great Bears, Mechanics, Mortar [which still needs the telescope]), three large bases (Drago, Drakhun, Beast 09), two medium bases (dismounted Drakhun, eButch), and two small bases (Yuri, eEryiss).  This is not much to finish and while it's not reasonable to think I can get them all done (and played) before the Journeyman league ends next Sunday (maybe Saturday) it's more reasonable to think that I could get all that painted by the end of the year.

Journeyman Painting Log 11

My MoW unit collection is now complete.  

My most recent painting success, the Demo Corps, were a rude awakening.  Speedy success with solos/pairs gave me a false sense of security.  After a marathon session today to finish the Demo Corps my illusions have been shattered.  I had expected to get this unit done quickly since they're mostly green armor, but I was unwilling to skip large amounts of detail this time around and my lap times suffered as a result.  To be fair this was a medium based unit, as opposed to a handful of small base solos, and I did the vast majority of the work in a single day.  Cranking out this many large(ish) models in that time frame is still a fine result, and the Demo Corps look better than the Eliminators.  I wanted to do a blend/glow thing on the ice mauls but had run out of steam well before I got to them so they just got the electric blue treatment for now.  Resizing this pic also showed me that I forgot the rivets on the gloves.  I took three shots of the group, which is the standard approach, but none of them showed the face inside the leader's helmet.  I kinda like the headless horseman vibe in the picture though.