So that was Battlecry 2015

Well the first event of the year is been and gone and I am bushed. Been a while since I knocked out 8 games in two days and I am feeling it.

Upstairs rubbing elbows

Battlecry this year was at a new venue and whilst it was pretty nice, it was quite a bit smaller than the previous one leading to some compromises. On the positive side it was light, airy, in a rather fancy suburb of Auckland (which meant that there were nice places to hang out and have lunch etc, or go for a "between games wander". On the down side though itmissed a lot of the atmosphere of the previous venue where the larger space meant that there were plenty of non-wargaming things to check out. There was also a hiccup in the layout that meant that the upstairs (where I was all weekend) was a bit cramped and really noisy with that many gamers. Day two was not so bad as the Roleplayers moved downstairs and the 1 day Malifaux event had run its course.

On day one I played X-Wing in a 60/90/120/150 point escalation event. Dash and the B-Wings turned up with Dash Rendar leading the charge, and then at each points escalation another B-Wing joined the squadron.

Dash Rendar (57) YT-2400 Freighter (36), Push the Limit (3), Heavy Laser Cannon (7), Lando Calrissian (3), Outrider (5), Hull Upgrade (3)

Blue Squadron Pilot (31) x 3
B-Wing (22), Fire-Control System (2), Heavy Laser Cannon (7)

On day two we had more space upstairs than day one

In the couple of playtest games I had the list seemed really good but as it turned out I think I invested some of my points a bit poorly. Dash is excellent, and Lando is a fantastic (if slightly random) upgrade and I am tossing up between Lando crewing a ship, and Lando piloting a ship...

In the end the shortcomings of my list were found out a couple of times, and I ended up down the end of the rankings. Talking with Andrew and Victor after the event I found myself wishing I had taken a Decimator build. Ironically Victor was wishing he went with the YT-2400. I guess the grass is always greener!

Day two and I ended up taking a very low stress 'jack heavy Kara Sloan list to the 50 point Warmachine event.


Captain Kara Sloan - WJ: +6
- Squire (2)
- Defender (9)
- Stormwall (19)
- Thunderhead (12)
- Minuteman (5)
- Minuteman (5)

Journeyman Warcaster (3)
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator (1)

With no units I knew I would not have to think too hard about placement and if I could get some good matchups I would just shoot my opponents off the table. As it happened I managed to shoot one off the table (pXerxis) whilst two others outshot me (Legion beasts and Retribution Mage Hunters), whilst one ground me down (after I dropped his caster down to 3 health and missed 3 boosted RAT 6 or 8, Pow 15 or 12 weapon master shots!).

Downstairs luxury

Kara is fun and it was great to really try out the Minuteman 'jack. Not convinced that I am a good enough player to get the most out of them, or that Kara is the best caster for them, but damn the look cool (love the Hunter chassis) and I really do have the urge to paint them now! On the downside I am less interested in painting up Bradigus as every man and his dog had a freshly assembled or painted Brad force. Whilst I need every crutch I can get my hands on I am not sure I want to be one of "those guys" running the new broken toy... If I wanted to do that I could just run Banes of Legion beast spam :)


Next event up on the calender is Ides Of March, the big 50 point, 40+ players, all the hard men coming out to play. In theory I will be running my Circle as I have the most options that are fully painted (yep Ides is a fully painted event) but I am really struggling to pin myself down. I have a week to ponder it so I guess I better find some inspiration fast.

Choptober 2013 - the aftermath

Local "organised guy" Dave Stent rolled out a new tournament concept a couple of weeks ago named Choptober. What made it unique was that he had enough players to divide the entrants in to two pools, the Shark Tank (or eChoptober) and the Paddling Pool (or pChoptober). Using Rankings HQ points he divided us up and through the divine hand of fate I ended up in the Paddling Pool. Looking at who was in each field I was very happy - the Shark Tank was filled with some very competitive players, whereas the pool had a way more laid back feeling!

I won't go into the details about the event other than a few key points from each game, suffice to say it was a heap of fun and (spoiler alert) I even managed to go 3/4 and take out 2nd position!

Local 40K 'ard man - Nikola with pVayl, big gribbles, Striders and solos

Boomhowlers in the middle as a tar pit, Stormwall and Gun Mages on the right

(Ignore the Iosan Cav...they are markers...) Hunters dish out the damage, Striders kill Boomy and his boys, Ravagore shoots Kara... and she dies from the Continuous Fire....

Gordon, old WHFB opponent at his first WH event with pKruger

We both rush the objectives, Boomhowlers try to contest while ATGM, Hunters and Stormwall go after the Gatormen on the right flank.

Kara feats, things die... a Totem Hunter gets the middle of the ATGM and causes some concern

pKruger gets down to 1 (yes 1) box for the 2nd (yes 2nd time), before I finally manage to kill him and win on scenario at the same time.

Reid gets his game face on with pMakeda, Molik Karn and lots of Nihilators

Boomhowlers get tar pit duty in the centre, Stormwall and Hunters to take on Warbeasts while ATGM take the scoring zone....

Kara feats, things die...

pMakeda feats, things come back...

Reid pushes up and carves a bloody swathe through my army, compounded by a couple of stupid mistakes by me, luckily for me though he times out before he can get the final blow in. Not a win that I can be proud of, but a win!

Andrew, a visiting American down in NZ to see family and hang at the office playing games. He was packing Gorten, 30 Forge Guard, 10 High Shields, Brun and Lug, Tactical Arcanist Corps and a few jacks

Wall o' Dwarves! Tar pit vs tar pit on the left, ATGM vs more Forge Guard and TAC on the right.

Stormwall and Hunters go to town on the Rhulic 'jacks using their superior range. ATGM go down to a hail of AOEs from the TAC.

Boomhowlers go down fighting (and contesting the scoring zone) whilst I secure the right hand one, eventually taking the win on scenario - 5 points to 4.

Dave look sleepy!

Victor's ATGM in trouble!

Something big this way comes (in the Shark tank)

Cool looking trolls (from the Shark tank)

Looking back at my games I was exceptionally lucky to place where I did, undeserving even. But, I had a pile of fun, learnt a few new rules (never having seriously played with such a big unit of medium base infantry before), and spent an enjoyable day out with the boys!

Thanks to Dave for running everything and thanks to Chris Baker and Victor for supplying me with tokens, objectives, flags and other bits after I suffered a complete brain fade and remembered to bring the army and cards, but nothing else (Chris' Dawnguard Destors have seen more table time as markers than actual models thanks to me!). Now I really must find the enthusiasm to get Boomhowlers, the ATGM and Stormwall painted before they go on another excursion!

Choptober - The List Playtesting!

With Choptober only a few days away, Victor and I finally managed to schedule in a game last week so we could have a practice with our armies. My Theory-Machine skills are sadly lacking so I need to put figures on the table to see if I can actually use their synergies. I also find that my first game or two of a tournament is marred by serious memory lapses resulting is missed shots during Kara’s Feat turn, so a warm-up game is essential for remembering how the list works.

I took:

Captain Kara Sloan

- Stormwall

- Defender

- Hunter

- Hunter

Journeyman Warcaster

Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator

Gobber Tinker

Greygore Boomhowler & Co.

- Captain Jonas Murdoch

Facing off against me was Ashlynn D'Elyse with a Nomad and Vanguard, Gun Mages with a Mule, Forge Guard, Nyss Hunters, Eiryss, Gorman, Lanyssa and Rhupert.

I took the centre of the battlefield, with Boomhowlers getting an Assault charge off on the Forge Guard, killing a few of them (damn Rhupert and his pipe!). The FG then counter charged and over the next couple of turns we ground each other out. I popped my feat and managed to achieve very little as I had placed Kara too far back and not planned out my moves particularly well, resulting in some lost shots. The Hunters skirmished on the right flank, trading shots with the Mule and Gun Mages, whilst the Journeyman took out Eiryss. Killing Eiryss was worth it, but two turns later (since I got cocky) the Journeyman was dead and the Stormwall lost the Arcane Shield (ultimately resulting in its death and the loss of the game). 

On the left flank the Nyss took up field position and peppered the Stormwall with arrows, and then the Nomad charged in and killed the Defender. The Stormwall killed the Nomad but lost time doing so thanks to Eiryss shooting it before her death. With the Arcane Shield down the Nyss charged in and knocked out the left side, then risked the free strikes to walk around to Kara and club her to death… If the Journeyman had retreated after killing Eiryss and survived (and by extension the Arcane Shield would have still been on the Stormwall) then the Stormwall would have been fully operation and capable of knocking out the last of Victors models, opening the door for Kara to safely shoot Ashlynn.

On the positive I learnt a few things and will (hopefully) get to try a slightly different list before this weekend:

Captain Kara Sloan

- Stormwall

- Hunter

- Hunter

Captain Arlan Strangewayes

Journeyman Warcaster

Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages

- Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer

Greygore Boomhowler & Co.

- Captain Jonas Murdoch

Dropping the Defender and Tinker I get Arlan and a full unit of ATGM. Arlan is more reliable when it comes to repairing the Stormwall, and has a few tricks of his own. The loss of the Defender feels like a big hit given how good it’s gun is, however the ATGM will give me more flexibility (I feel) and can really benefit from Kara’s feat (with Crit Brutal shots) and her spell that gives them an extra dice for their first shot.

Either way I have a few days to get in a 2^nd practice game in….  Luckily for me there are no painting requirements for Choptober (other than arc markings) since I am still painting stuff for work, so I’ll break my “no unpainted figures” rule and use this as an opportunity to get excited about Boomhowlers and hopefully make them a Christmas painting project.

Choptober 2013 - the planning

Recently a new event was added to the Auckland gaming calender with the announcement of Choptober - a 50 point, two list SR2013 WarmaHordes tournament in early October. Thanks to an important family event (my son's first birthday party) I pulled out of Call To Arms in Wellington - typically my last WarmaHordes event of the year - so I am keen to head along and get something new painted.

Digging through my piles of stuff I have picked a list that will require a fair amount of painting (bit of a worry since I have Israelis to paint for work as well as a Late War army for FlamesCon in late October) and still need to work out if I will field a second list.

The current plan is to stick with Kara Sloan as it easy and requires the least amount of painting compared with any other option.

Looks like Strangeways might be taking a break...

Captain Kara Sloan
Defender
Hunter
Hunter
Stormwall
Gobber Tinker (1 point of Stormwall repair seems too good to pass up on)
Journeyman Warcaster
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator

Greygore Boomhowler & Co. - Boomhowler and 9 Grunts
with Captain Jonas Murdoch

The Negatives - The Stormwall, Tinker, Boomhowler and Murdoch are all unpainted (and in some cases unassembled!) and I have a grand total of six painting sessions to get them done. My plan is to keep it as simple as possible and accept that the lot will not be finished (breaking one of my Warmachine painting rules!) and instead just get the base colours on everything if possible and finish them off at my leisure some time next (?) year.

The Positives - once these figures are assembled I will have one Cygnar unit and one light jack to assemble and I will be 100% built with no models sitting in blisters or boxes, making it much simpler to add new things for any events in 2014. The other big one is that adding Boomhowler and his boys will make the list much harder as good players get in close and disassemble my regular Kara force, so having a big mob of 4+ Tough Trolls will help no end. Plus I get to have a go at painting Trollkin skin (in preparation of 2014: The Year of the Troll!)

The Twist - two lists eh.... maybe I should have a go at running eHaley... I've heard she is pretty legit  :D

Wargaming Resin Bases

Like many gamers my creative streak only runs so far, so since getting in to Warmachine I've been paying a lot of attention to the various companies producing resin bases, with the aim of overcoming some of my own modelling deficiences by drafting in someone elses skills to help give my miniatures a little more "pop" on the tabletop.

Resin bases come in two varieties (for the "rolled shoulder" Privateer Press style that is) - full bases, and inserts. A full base is exactly what is says on the box, you replace your existing plastic PP base with a sculpted resin version. Inserts on the othe rhand are small circles that you glue on to your base before attaching the figure. In both cases you are going to be pinning the figure to the base, rather than using the "slotta-tab".

I've looked at a lot companies online, and bought a few samples along the way. Rather than looking at the manufacturers initially, here are some of the things that I considered whilst assessing the offerings on screen.

1. Quality of the range. We are buying their bases because they have the skills (or time) that we do not have, so they must have a nice enough looking product that it is worth buying.
2. Number of ranges. If you find a company that you like, it is nice if they make more than one range of bases so you can stick with them.
3. Variety of the bases inside the range. A unit including UA can be 12 figures, so having 4 types of 30mm base in the range means a lot of repetition. In a perfect world there would be 3+, 6+ and 8+ base designs (50mm, 40mm and 30mm bases respectively) as this reduces the repetition inside a unit and across heavy Warjacks of Warbeasts (where 2 different designs will become very apparent).
4. Do they make a 120mm base? Chances are you are going to want a Collossal or Gargantuan (or Battle Engine) in your force at some point, nice to have it look the same.
5. Price. This one needs no explaination
6. Layout of the bases. Your figures will generally be standing in the middle of the base so big raised surfaces (such as logs) where you want to stick your figure can be a pain.

Links to manufacturers (not a complete list, just the companies I have been looking at) that make PP style rolled shoulder bases (or inserts).
Back 2 Base-ix
Fenris Games
Kerr and King
Iron Halo
Micro Art Studio
Tabletop-Art

So far I have bought bases from all of these companies with the exception of Micro Art and Tabletop-Art. In the case of Micro Art it is because they do not have something suitable for what I am looking for, and the same more or less goes for Tabletop-Art (although I am interested in having a look at their trench bases for my Khador).

Back 2 Base-ix: I've bought bases from their Slate (for my Rasputina gang), Forest (Kara's Cygnar), Dirt (earmarked for my Cygnar) and Dungeon Stone. I really like their Forest bases, although some of the bases are a challenge to mount the figures if you do not pose them with a specific base in mind. They do have some really nice sculpted detail are are good value for money. I am a little dissapointed that one of the bases (the left one in the picture below) appears to be a 40mm or 30mm base with a little extra added. If you look carefully you can see the extra putty that has been added to the detail starting at "1 o'clock" and going round to "9 o'clock" and it does not quite match the original design.

Back 2 Base-ix Forest bases (50mm)

Fenris Games: I only came across these guys very recently and picked up their Rubble City (planning on using these for my Trolls) and Woodland Path (Circle) bases. They are very competitively priced and have the best quantity of variants in each size that I have seen. They look easy enough to pose figures (have not tried yet) and have enough detail that they should paint up well. Quality of the sculpting is not as good as B2B but still significantly better than I can achieve. They are also the only people (out of the ones I have bought samples from) to make 120mm bases.

Fenris Games: Rubble City bases (50mm)

Fenris Games: Woodland Path bases (50mm)

Kerr and King: I've bought their Flames Of War bases in the past and thought that there were some cool design elements in them so I gave their 28mm bases a shot. They had some of the nice elements that I expected (the sharks fin in the water is a good touch) but were not all I hoped for. They range was also quite small which would lead to a lot of duplication if you have more than a couple of 50mm based models.

Kerr and King: Forest bases (left) and Dockside bases (right) (all 50mm)

I don't have images of my Iron Halo bases as I have only bought square bases from them (for a Warhammer army). Rachel's stuff is nice though, although her painting skills far (far far far) outweigh mine so no surprises that they look good on her website. Plus it is nice to deal with another kiwi. My preference is for full resin bases rather than inserts which is the main reason I have not picked any up.

Going through this process I have managed to (hopefully) nail down my basing style for my Trolls and Circle, my Cygnar were already sorted of course, leaving Khador and Rhulic. I am keen to check out the Tabletop-Art trench range for my Khador but their lack of variation in the 50mm size is a problem for me. So far I am lacking inspiration for my Dwarves, but am contemplating the Back 2 Base-ix Slate bases with a very different colour scheme compared with the dark greys for Rasputina. Of course another option that is open to me is to try my hand at making my own and casting them, but that is another story - assuming I am crazy enough to go down that route!

If you have not looked at the resin bases on the market, or are looking for some non-PP style bases have a look at this article on Dakka Dakka for some more links to manufacturers.

Minutemen might as well JUMP!

I've had three Minutemen sitting in a blister pack ever since they were released. As this blog makes pretty clear I love the Hunter chassis, so adding a 'jack that could jump, had two nasty little guns and a flak field to that chassis meant I was always going to be getting some for my Kara Sloan list! I was a little disappointed with the models when I received them, not because the 'jack looks anything less that outstanding, more because the pose was so distinct that you had to do some serious work to make them look like individuals. Of course PP probably did not expect people to want to own three of them (I figure I had three Hunters so each one needed a friend!).

The solution was simple and just required a little work with brass rod and GF9 clump foliage. Hope you like the result...

The 'jack on the left is as standard from the blister, the other two have had their legs reposed to appear in-flight.

Close up rear view - the foam needs a few applications of watered down PVA and will be painted black and grey.

As the Van Halen song says... Might as well Jump. Go ahead, jump!

The Kara Sloan Tactical Fun Line Goes To NiCon

Another year has rolled by and Sean, Victor and myself headed off for another weekend of playing WarmaHordes at the now annual teams tournament, this time in sunny (and rather beautiful in an art deco kind of way) Napier.

Plan was simple - don't do as badly as last year.... Looks rather like my usual Kara Sloan force, but swapping out the Rangers for ATGMs and a Hunter for a Sentinel (sick of Kara dying to a lucky shot!).

The list was...
Captain Kara Sloan
- Squire
- Defender
- Hunter
- Hunter
- Sentinel
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator
Journeyman Warcaster
Captain Arlan Strangewayes
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages
- Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer

Round 1 - Richard from Frozen Nightmare. I said I was not playing either of the two Cryx players and instead faced off against Richard and his Conquest. As usual, round 1 forgetfulness kicked in and my feat turn was a disaster! The Conquest with four mechanics proved too hard to shift and despite shooting up a lot of his army my failure to put the big man down resulted in eSorsha having a good day at the office.


Round 2 - Mark from Grumpy Old Men. Mark is an old school gamer and was running his Menoth eSeverius list. He pushed up the table and decided to not use his Choir to protect his 'jacks. I asked if he was sure.... he said yes... I removed one and badly damaged the other two. His caster spent the rest of the game hiding whilst I tried to push up field to him. In the end I timed out (50 minute death clock) however Mark conceded the game as he only had a couple of models left and was about to time out himself.


Round 3 - Dave from Good Players. Dave is another old school gamer, yet I think I have only played him once before (my Savage Orcs vs his Lizardmen about 6-8 years ago). He picked up WarmaHordes a couple of years ago and has been undergoing intensive tutorials and is one of the better players in NZ (although he does stick to Cryx...). I basically shot a third of his army off the table on my feat turn and left his Kraken on 1 box (which he failed to repair). He valiantly tried to take the game out by control points and did my best to help him, but managed to pull off the win. Lets be honest Dave is a way better player than me, but now that I am up 1-0 I am happy to let the record show that I am "statistically" the better player.... hehe.


Round 4 - Vincent from Mentally Impaired. Vincent was running a Nemo list with lots of units and I cannot remember much of this game other than it went the distance (i.e. he would have run out of time after forgetting to hit the timer at the end of his turn, except we "turned back the clock"). If I remember correctly Nemo was down to a couple of boxes and Kara found herself on the receiving end of a couple of lightning spells resulting in her looking a little crispy!


Round 5 - Graeme from Lobster Magnet. Graeme and I played at the last tournament and I pulled off a lucky win against his eCaine list. Short version... same deal! I shot a lot, he shot a bit less, kept eCaine out of the line of fire whilst we chipped away at each others forces but in the end he ran out of troops and Caine had to put himself out in the open, if he survived he won... thanks to a lucky shot from Kara he did not survive.


Round 6 - Mike from Maximum Compensation. More old school gamers... Mike was handy with his High Elves but has now turned to the Galleon/Bart list. He used the Galleon well, getting some lucky shots knocking out the guns on both Hunters before I could feat. I played poorly in places forgetting small things that would have made a big difference - that is instead of leaving the Galleon on 5 boxes he probably would have been dead (and Kara would have been alive). Came close to buying two Galleons and Bart after the game... but since my wife reads this I thought better of it!


Round 7 - Peter from Angry Birds. Last round, very tired... and playing Peter who I also played at my previous tournament. Peter was teamed up with two of my gaming buddies that have been playing a lot of WarmaHordes over the past few months. He was running a  Morvahna/Tharn Bloodtrackers/Warpborn Skinwalkers list and I remembered my lesson from the last time we played... kill ALL the Bloodtrackers in one turn or don't even bother trying. We spent the entire game trading figures and although he won, he did it with his caster and three Shifting Stones left and I just had Kara.... the Stones pulling off the win on Control Points.


Three wins out of seven games... that is about as good as I can expect at any WarmaHordes event, at least this time around I could honestly say that I had a couple of games where it would not have taken much for them to go my way, and a couple of the the dicey games turned out in my favour. Summary, great games, great opponents, great weekend... already planning for next years teams tournament in Tauranga. The only bad bit was that I failed to take many photos....

Waking up to this beautiful sunrise... but damn it was cold!

The hall

Dave, after loosing the figures on his left flank, failing his repair check and needing a wee break

At the venue there was also a Model Expo with some cool toys, including this awesome model

The Galleon and Bart - turns out that despite most of my force being alive the Galleon was enough to finish the job

Sean's Nemo3 list finally finished and based!

P.S. thanks Chris B for the new name for my list....

WWPD4Vets Gaming Day (at BF HQ)

Over the weekend we rounded up a few people to spend the day playing games all in the aid of charity. It's a hard life.....! Wayne and Mike organised a large "Return to Budapest" game with 4 generals per side and 1000 points each. I thought this could be a good chance to roll out my T-34s that I had just finished painting. 

I also dug out some old LOTR Rohan figures that I picked up for a long forgotten project and turned them in to a force for Saga (I am calling them the Ro-Normans or Ro-Bretons) for an intro game with Wayne. Finally I managed to play a couple of games with Warma-Hordes verses Casey and long time Warhammer opponent Reid.

It was great to spend a day gaming, but even more importantly it was nice to help the WWPD guys raise some money for a very worthy charity.

Wayne and Mike set up for the big game

Mike's Strelkovy move up through the factory

The Sturmtigers hold the plaza

My T-34/85s support the advancing IS-2s - The T-34s would be routed from the field but no until we had a commanding lead on Victory Points

The Ro-Normans take the field (and get smashed - probably the lack of paint)

Kara's gun line vs Casey's Legion. Too much shooting for Casey to get his head around

Reid and Gordon have a game (converting them both from Warhammer)

Kara vs Reid, seconds after her Feat and a lot of shooting remove Molik Karn

Kara Sloan Artwork

Sean came across a forum post on the PP site earlier in the week where a Hungarian group used some of the images from my blog to make a piece if artwork to promote a tournament. The piece of artwork is outstanding and I am pretty flattered that they used my stuff to create something so cool! I just need to paint up my Squire so that I can field this force.

Original Privateer Press Forum Post

 

Thunderhead!

Took a few photos of the Thunderhead and Journeyman Warcaster that I painted up for Ides of March. I decided to paint the Thunderhead in a bit of a reverse scheme (white with blue accents) to try and make it stand out as something different. When I paint up my Squire I might do the same thing. As for the Journeyman I tried to make her look as much like Kara Sloan as possible - maybe she is a young Kara?

Journeyman Warcaster and Thunderhead