Trying New Things

Now with captions.  

Today's post is being produced entirely on my fancy new iPad.  We'll see how it works out.  So far no photo captioning or placement.  Not a great first impression.  Update: a few more steps, but looks workable.

After a longer than expected hiatus I again sat down at the painting table.  My ambition was only to knock the rust off, but I got some decent work in anyway.  Now I have a batch of Reiksguard with finished skin and armor, plus a start on red and white details.  There are some green details to be done and mouths to be finished, but that shouldn't take long.  Along the way I did a bad thing by changing how I did armor, so now I wonder if the knights and horses will match up.  Worst case scenario I redo the horse armor, which wouldn't be horrible, but I hope to not have to make that call.  With some luck I'll have the riders finished this weekend and shields soon after.  If the armor matches up then I'll just have to glue and varnish to have a painted, fieldable, and finished unit, which will be a nice little milestone.

Tomorrow is Foodmachine, my first "tournament" in a couple months.  It's a one or two list event, so I can pick a partner for the eVayl list I've been playing over the past few months.  Foodmachine isn't the best testing environment with the rampant and encouraged cheating, but it'll still be timed turns which will be a good exercise in speedier decision making.  I'm leaning towards Aby as a partner since her tier is like a well-worn jacket for me, but I love the idea of pairing prime and epic Vayl.  Also under consideration is eLylyth so I can east into running her in a "competitive" environment.  I have almost no practice with her though, maybe a half dozen games at most, and I don't really want to be the guy who brings a pair of big time tournament lists to a lighthearted charity event.  I don't have to decide for 12.5 hours or so, which is plenty of time to change and make up my mind a few times over.

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.

More Randomness

A whole posse of gatormans.  

If I've learned just one thing about creating things it's to go with what feels right.  While I should be working on Empire or Infinity I felt like putting together gators today.  By going with what felt right I got a unit (plus a solo) assembled that had been sitting in a box for far too long.  The alternative was to tell myself I should be doing something else, dicker around with the phone/tv/whatever, and make little to no hobby progress on anything.  I think I made the right call.  Now if I can roll into assembling the lingering Hex Hunters I can try out the Bethayne ideas that made me order these things in the first place.

Magnets Are Tough

Witness my amazing conversion skills.  

Continuing my recent trend of thrashing around between projects, this morning I dug out and assembled that lingering third Legion heavy kit.  To be fair I only did the torso, but that's all that I need for the moment as I have a number of limbs and heads ready to go.  It wasn't all step by step assembly though.  I made two vital modifications to this latest chassis.

Foremost is the epic conversion work I did to make this torso stand out from the others.  The first two I've affectionately dubbed Lefty and Righty, thanks to the choice between left- or right-pointing tails that come in the box.  What to do for the third?  I'd already exhausted the tail possibilities, at least the ones that are easy to execute.  I suppose I could have made a straight tail or an upward-pointing tail, but those would have required a lot of work.  Instead I decided to mess with the only permanent (meaning non-magnetized) limb that doesn't connect to the base.  I thought this would be as easy as shaving down the peg so the arm could turn into a different position, but I soon found this was to be a more involved project.  The shaved peg had no real contact with its hole, so I pinned the arm and stuffed the hole with greenstuff to keep it from spinning.  I also had to cut down the meat on the shoulder to have the arm stick closer to the body.  PP did a nice job of making all the bits fit together well, so it shouldn't have been surprising that I'd have to fill gaps when I moved a piece around.  All my effort turned out decent even if the results came nowhere near justifying the time invested.  Worse still is that the new pose doesn't really inspire.  It's a bit limp wristed, which doesn't suit the heavy chassis at all.  It is different from the others, so I guess I'll call it mission accomplished.

The other modification isn't as obvious visually (which is saying something considering how little the limp wrist stands out) but is vital for usability.  It is, of course, magnetization.  I took my sweet time coming around on magnets, but now I'm fully on board.  With this third kit I can now field a pair of Ravagores and a Scythean, or a pair of Scytheans and a Ravagore, or (provided I put the bits together and suffer enough head trauma to make this seem appealing) five Carniveans.  My first excursion into using magnets wasn't the smoothest ever, but since then I've had a few more reps and feel confident that I can do the job right the first time.  That said, you've probably already guessed that I screwed everything up and had to take all the magnets out.  I thought that both arms had the same polarity, so I wasn't too particular about which one I used to make sure I put the magnets in the right way.  This was a large mistake as it turns out that the arms aren't the same.  I also had to swap out the magnet in the neck for a larger size thanks to putting it far enough off-center that the smaller one wouldn't hold enough to stay in place while moving the model around.  At least my prior practice digging out magnets came in handy.

Things Still Happen Here

Au revoir MP85.  

I wanted to start this post with hobby news, but that just isn't working.  Today I blog with a heavy heart because a tiny ball of French-Canadian exuberance is moving from swampy DC to sunny CA.  Sports games are also numbers games sometimes, and the crunch is rarely harsher than when the season is about to begin.  I could go on for quite a while, but ultimately this is a hobby blog and I probably shouldn't indulge in hockey talk when I haven't had hobby talk in quite a while.  I has a hockey sad, but the show must go on.

Judging by the lack of posting for the last two weeks, you might think there hasn't been much happening.  You'd be right for the most part, but there has been some action going on.  Unfortunately there are no pictures of said action because pictures aren't appropriate.  There was a lot of reading, be it forums or rules, leading up to jumping in on Infinity.  After far too much effort I laid hands on a Military Orders starter box, a grunt, and a handful of Knights.  I've done a modest amount of modelling with much more on deck for tomorrow so I can have a squad more or less ready for Tuesday. Lack of fluff is starting to become an issue now as I start considering schemes.  I'd like to read more than just the blurbs on the Infinity site, and play a couple games as well, before I commit to a particular Knightly Order (and therefore paint scheme).  Painting issues aside, I'm looking forward to getting some reps in with my chosen faction.  In Empire news I built some Archers and got basing underway on painted and unpainted Spearmen.  The painting muse has been on vacation lately, and since Empire is mostly a painting project at this point that means there hasn't been much progress there.  Still need to finish reading the WFB rules as well.

There's less smoke but more fire on the Warmahordes front.  After girding my loins for competitive Khador play previously, I got to thinking about the best way to help my fellow gamers prepare for tournament play.  The Motherland hasn't had the best showing on the big stages over the past year or two for whatever reason.  One possible reason: Legion takes all their places.  It turns out I have a bag full of Legion, stocked with the vast majority of what the Internet tells me are the best choices.  [The only big hole I have are Raptors which I can probably borrow from a local (or build my Uhlans and use them as proxies)].  With this in mind I started assembling eVayl and the non-Shredder lessers so I could run the now-standard tier 4 list.  My first time out with it didn't go so well, but I did learn the pMadrak can be tough to kill.  I learned a lot from the game, which felt like it hadn't happened in forever, and I have some ideas for next time.  Once I get the Knights together I'll be looking to the lingering Gatormen and Hex Hunters, plus digging around while hoping that I have another Legion heavy kit hiding somewhere.  

Finished Hans, Future Plans

Ready for action, but still needs detailing.

I got a wee bit of varnishing in on Tuesday before the Snowquester hit, or missed, yesterday.  Since I didn't ballast the Ravenwing bases on Monday night the spraying was confined to a pair of Hans arms, but now I can field at least one (almost) fully painted walker for my Axis troops.  As I've probably noted before it still needs numbers/icons and basing, but it's as finished as my infantry is.  Despite having it be dry for about two days I haven't actually put a finished trooper next to the finished walker yet, but I'm confident they'll be consistent with each other.

Painting and more Archangel

Should be less shiny after varnishing.  . 

Let's start with what everyone is interested in: a WIP shot of a Destroyer.  While the exact timeline is lost in the misty depths of my less than airtight memory, this Destroyer may be the first Warmachine model I put paint on.  At worst it's one of the first three, and regardless it's been "in progress" for the better part of two and a half years.  If you're wondering why I haven't finished it off yet then you've probably never played Khador.  As the faction stands there's no compelling reason to take a Destroyer instead of Black Ivan, despite the latter costing an extra point, and I'd argue there's no reason to take a Destroyer to begin with outside of some wacky Harkevich Broadsides list.  But that's a tangent for a different day.  Taking up the 5th Border Legion scheme again after a significant break was somewhat uncomfortable as I'm sure this Destroyer will look a little off compared to the rest of my jacks, but it was a nice change of pace to play around with a different palette.  The jack itself is done but I still need to texture the base, then varnish, then paint the base and arcs, then final varnishing.  While it won't take long to do it's still time consuming with all the drying time required.  Fortunately there's still almost two weeks before the Paint the Target deadline which I'm determined to hit this month after slacking in October.  In a perfect world I would have painted up my still unassembled Nephilim Protector, which has begun to figure in AA musings, but I'm not convinced I'd be finished in time.  Plus it's nice to send a little bit of love back to the Motherland every now and again.

Archangel first impressions

Some imagination required. 

We'll start with the obvious: I am still not dead, despite the lack of recent posts.  I blame my lack of painting, which leads to a lack of pictures of what I've painted, in turn leading to an absence of drive to post said pictures and formulate some sort of text to accompany them.  Trickle down apathy at work again.

And then a ray of sunshine: Archangel stats.  After being taunted by the gorgeous model-in-progress for so long, finally its capabilities were revealed.  (I won't post up the stats here as they aren't hard to find and they're also in the forthcoming No Quarter, so you have two different avenues to get them if you're so inclined.)  At first blush it looked underwhelming.  The Internet agreed.  Still the lure to (sort of) see it in action was strong.  What's a boy to do?  Write those stats on a CD (it's the same size as a Huge Base you know), take a stab at arc markings, and take it out for a spin at the FLGS. 

Caution: alliteration ahead

The most kick-ass B and B ever.

It's been far too long since I actually painted anything.  When combined with the looming league deadline this provided all the motivation I needed to get back to the table.  I felt a little slackerly when I picked assembling and painting Bethayne and Belphagor as my design-your-own hobby badge goal for the (tardy) Dark Secrets league...until a few days ago when I realized I had until Sunday to get the pair (plus inserts) out of the box and finished.    I flew through assembly, though I fear my lack of pining will come back to haunt me, and got the models primed yesterday morning.  Fast forward through today (you can slo-mo through some of the brushwork, I won't tell anyone) and I've managed to crap out not just one but two models (and a pair of inserts) in a single day of painting.  Even after being away from it for a while I slide back into my Legion scheme effortlessly, as if it were a thing I designed (mostly) myself and (arguably) perfected over countless (~70) repetitions.  Varnish will have to wait a few days, but this newly painted pair won't be debuting until Thursday at the earliest.  Hopes are high that Bethayne is the spell slinger I always wanted pVayl to be, or something close enough to hold me over until I finally free eVayl from her plastic prison.

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.

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.

Last(?) bit before the Nova Open

Shamelessly plundered from the PP forums.

Once again I slacked on going out to Huzzah.  On the one hand it's unfortunate as I haven't been there in a while and won't have a chance to hit Game Parlor on Thursday before heading to the Nova Open, so this was my last chance to test lists pre-con.  On the other hand I assembled the rest of the pieces for those lists today, so it's not like I just sat on the couch eating truffles and watching Oprah.  What did I get built?  Just this:

• Strider UA
• Totem Hunter
• Naga Nightlurker
• Nephilim Bolt Thrower
• Rhyas

Rhyas was more bonus than anything as I wanted to assemble another caster and she looked easier to deal with than eVayl and her huge, floaty cloak.  I may prime this latest batch if the opportunity presents itself tomorrow, but I'm content with my collection as it stands and don't feel compelled to do anything else to get ready for the Open.

Between now and Thursday I'll need to pack a suitcase, which is boring, and also pack the new bag that just showed up today, which is exciting.  I got some purpose made Legion and Khador foam to fit the problem pieces (warnouns and MoW) and am looking forward to splitting my collection later tonight.  The one issue I foresee is gaming accessories: dice, markers, tape measure, that sort of thing.  Perhaps I'll look into a small shaving kit sort of bag to keep all those bits in so I'm not fishing things out of one bag and plopping them in another.  Fortunately there aren't many, if any, models that work for both Khador and Legion so I won't have to worry about which bag a model is in.

This is probably the last post until I get back as I don't have anything exciting to do between now and then, but you never know.  I keep hearing about this Twitter that all the kids are going on about, and it seems the Open is using it to make announcements and the like.  It's possible, though highly unlikely, that I'll be Twittering during the Open.  If that sounds interesting my handle there is demitra_kmnb.  I have no idea how to link it, or where to link it to, or really much of anything about twits in general.  Just in case I've missed the mark, let me stress again that there will likely be nothing happening there.  With that, I'm vacating this particular part of the intertubes.  For now...

Journeyman Painting Log # 26

Head scratching monkey is also confused.

Before getting on with the meat of the post a little diversion.  I took a look at where I get traffic from today and found something quite surprising.  I got a handful of hits from the UK's "#1 Adult Social Network," which in turn looks to have been bounced from what sure looks like a site that streams shaky cam versions of current movie releases.  Pure happenstance, or is my little corner of the internet getting a bit bigger?  If the latter, is this really the sort of traffic I want?

Journeyman Painting Log # 25

Leader lost a hand, as is tradition. 

Quite the round number this series has gotten up to.  Today was more relaxed than yesterday's frenzy, but I still got some good work in.  I finally got started on the Striders, as you can see, and would guesstimate that I'm about halfway through them.  I'm still slacking on building the UA, which is one of four things I absolutely have to construct by the Nova Open, but there's still time to get it done.  Ideally I'd assemble and paint them before the Open, but a look at the 48ish hour forecast shows that the next likely spraying window is midday on Monday.  Priming should be no problem for the stuff that I hope to build by then, but painting and varnishing before I leave for the Open is a longer shot.  The current plan is to finish the Striders Monday morning before my spray window opens, then varnish my recent haul and prime the stuff I hope to build tomorrow.  If everything goes according to plan and if there's another spray window sometime Wednesday then I'll push to get the Strider UA done as well and call it a job well done.  I've already hit my (realistic) goal for the painting portion of the Journeyman league, namely getting a list painted for Hardcore, and will even take a decent run at my unrealistic goal of painting all my Legion stuff.

In non-painting news (!) I realized I've made a mistake over the last few weeks.  Hardcore has been my overwhelming focus for most of August, and July, and I still haven't fully settled on a list.  I have a general idea and a few iterations, but it's looking like an executive decision will trump play testing.  This is not ideal.  Even worse, I've neglected the rest of the events.  Since Hardcore is 50 while the non-"Championship" rounds are 35, this is a double whammy as I've been focused on one level and so haven't gotten a lot of practice at the other.  The lists themselves haven't been much of a problem, aside from a complete lack of recent testing, but a bigger issue has emerged: reinforcements.  At 35 points I'll need 7 points of reinforcements (I think, another bad sign) and I have few viable options for that level.  Striders are 6, but lack the UA.  No beast comes in at 7 points with the exception of a discounted Seraph, which will likely be in my Absylonia list already.  Raptors run 6 for a min unit, which would be ideal, except I don't have Raptors.  The best solution I've come up with thus far is Annyssa and a Totem Hunter, but best is relative here.  I've played Annyssa exactly once, which is one more game than the Totem Hunter has seen.  At least Annyssa is assembled.  On paper I like the pair as they're both fast, Stealthed, and reasonably resilient, but my lack of experience with them is unsettling.  Then again I'll be less familiar than I'd like with most of my lists, so at least they'll have company.

Journeyman Painting Log # 24

You can never have enough Shredders. 

Today was my most productive day of painting probably ever, but certainly since I made my triumphant return to wargaming.  While finishing the Angelius yesterday I got a start on a trio of Shredders.  That's really a bit generous since my "start" consisted of a single layer of my flesh base, which was already present on the models when I got them from EV.  My plan for today was to finish off the Shredders and get a similar start on the remaining Swordsmen, though I hoped to proceed further with the Swordsmen than the Shredders.  I was confident that I'd finish off the Shredders since they're so small and relatively simple sculpts, but the Swordsmen were less certain.