The Stars are Right!

January 12, 2010

Don’t panic!  Dread Cthulhu is not about to breach the surface of the sea, stalk the world of man and consume the faithful and the ignorant alike.  No, the stars have simply aligned and fortune has smiled upon this humble nerd.  Yes, there are some fiscal expenditures involved, but overall it’s nothing but good news:

• Mini War Gaming (A club / store in Welland) had an amazing clearance sale on old Warmachine blisters and boxes.  As luck would have it, I didn’t remember the sale until the very last day, but what they had left was exactly what I needed.  I got the Thunderhead (the last pre-MkII ‘jack I was missing), the final 4 Trenchers to max out the unit, the final 2 Stormlances to fill out their’s and the Arcane Tempest Gun Mages box.  All this for only 100 with free shipping!  And they should be here before the Resurgence tournament on the 23rd.
• MkII Prime is a gorgeous piece of work.  I’ve seen a lot of rulebooks in my time, but this one is the most tightly laid out and well designed tome I’ve seen since Dark Heresy.  Not only that, but the tweaks to the Sentinel and the Trenchers gives me hope that some of the niggling Cygnar problems left over from the field test could still be resolved when the decks are released.  Only a week and a half to go!
• No Quarter #28 had a preview of 2 new Cygnar units: The Trencher Commandos (Stealth! Anatomical Precision! Explodey grenades!) and the Stormsmith Storm Tower (14 RNG! 14 POW! Electroleap! Effective RAT 9!!!).  How much more awesome can they pack into the Cygnar force book?
• My wife just informed me that she’s switching out her last class of the day on Thursdays for something far better removes a possible impediment to my gaming  night.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: WIFE IS CREDIT TO TEAM!
• There’s so much gaming to be had this month I may collapse from an overdose of fun: 2 Warmahordes league nights, one tournament and a Malifaux night.  Maybe even one more D&D session to close out January.
• Our intrepid group of adventurers have reached 5th level in our Eberron campaign.  This is traditionally the point at which our games collapse, but this time it seems to be going strong.
• It’s a book flood!  I’m currently reading Atwood’s follow-up to Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood, and have the latest Wild Cards book Suicide Kings queued up.  Sandman Slim and the latest Gaunt’s Ghosts novel Blood Pact are incoming from the library.  So much reading!
• Lost and Chuck both make their returns in the next 2 months, but what I’m really excited about is the long-awaited reunion mini-series for the Kids in the Hall, Death Comes to Town.  So much watching!
• Back in the day (much like every other nerd) I played Magic: The Gathering.  Yesterday, M:TG Xbox Live game went on sale for 400 MS points.  Yep, just as I remember it but taking up way less space / costing less than the physical version.  So much nostalgia!

With so much fun happening all at once I’m afraid I may explode due to Spontaneous Internal Joy Combustion (SIJC)!

Written by kingmob | Filed under: 360, 4E DnD, Books, Malifaux, TV, Warmachine, Xbox Live | Comments (0)

Kicking Off 2010 with a Bang (and a Whimper)

January 4, 2010

Not only am I entering my 40th year, I’m also entering my third year as a miniatures gamer.  And boy, does 2010 look promising (and expensive) in that regard.

The year begins with a new Warmahordes league at my beloved Dueling Grounds on January 7.  Sadly, I’ll be a little late to the party due to scheduling conflicts, but I’ll be finishing off my tour of warcasters with Nemo.  Since I’ll probably only get one game in, it’ll have to be the non-epic version for now:

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The theme of these lists is to generate as much focus as possible per turn to allow Nemo to do pretty much anything he wants or needs to do.  ‘Jack compliment is relatively light as Commander Nemo only selectively supports his battlegroup.

While I have great joy in my heart for the following list of crap i want / need to buy, it also makes my wallet whimper:

• Prime MkII book (this week!)
• new template set (also this week!)
• Plastic heavy ‘jack kit for the cyclone (Jan. 20th)
• Cygnar and Merc card decks (Jan. 20th)
• FoW: Cygnar book (February)
• Kara Sloan (February)
• Mass Effect 2 (Jan. 26th)
• Bioshock 2 (Feb. 9th)

Now, some of this may be paid for by on-call pay or Xmas / anniversary giftage, but what I’m really looking forward to is the Detolf display cabinet from Ikea.  Seeing my models all arranged and painted is a great motivator to keep on producing at a respectable rate.  I’ve already cleared space for it.

Written by kingmob | Filed under: Video Games, Warmachine | Comments (0)

He’s so Dreamy!

January 3, 2010

Well, in a hideous sort of way. With the completion of my Guild Executioner (sans sealing), I have now finished all of the models that I own for a faction of one of my 3 miniature games. ‘Tis a small victory, but I’ll take what I can get.

I think I’m also starting to develop a style of painting that’s a good balance of quality and speed. I’ve started feathering layers of paint as opposed to blending: it’s a bit faster and I find it visually appealing.

From Malifaux

From Malifaux

From Malifaux

I would add a poll to the blog If I knew how: I’m trying to decide what to paint next:

• The Viktorias starter set.
• The Defender and Stormclad simultaneously.
• The Stormblade’s UA
• 12 Precursor Knights
• Arlan Strangewayes
• A Rhino transport

I’m leaning towards the ‘jacks because they’ll see a lot of use in MkII this year, but there’s just so much to do I can’t decide.

Or maybe I should finish Dragon Age because Mass Effect 2 comes out in less than a month.

Written by kingmob | Filed under: Malifaux | Comments (0)

My First Completed…. Anything

December 29, 2009

I’m going to be spamming these all over the place today.  For the first time in my painting career I have fully completed an army/force/list/crew/whatever.  What follows are the Malifaux models from the Lady Justice starter set.  I’m pretty pleased at how well they turned out (although the pics are a little dark and I noticed the lens  smudge too late):

From Malifaux

From Malifaux

From Malifaux

From Malifaux

From Malifaux

From Malifaux

From Malifaux

From Malifaux

From Malifaux

From Malifaux

From Malifaux

From Malifaux

Next up is the Guild Executioner… hideous (in a good way) model and very fun to paint. After that, a return to Warmachine and I’ll try to tackle the 12 Precursor Knights, the Stormclad, the Stormblade UA and Arlan Strangewayes.

Written by kingmob | Filed under: Malifaux | Comments (0)

Taking Up the Brush Again

December 22, 2009

No, there aren’t any pics just yet, but work is progressing at a steady pace on my Death Marshalls.  I have a simple goal: get them done before regular Malfaux play begins at the Duleing Grounds in January.  Yes, I’ve had them since October, but at least everything is assembled / primed.  That counts for something. Right?

Anyway, I was able to get one last game of Warmachine in to close out 2009.  Once more I faced the Retribution in a 50-point game.  As promised, I ran Kraye against Adeptis Rahn.  The mitten squad was in full effect along with the usual ranged and stealthed assassins.  The Iosan ‘caster came out the victor, but the lists were much more evenly matched this time.  Oddly, certain of my models performed above expectations (the Sentinel) while others (the Hammersmith) disappointed, but that was largely due to uneven dice rolling.  Some things’s I’ve learned:

Kraye

Pros

• A “toolbox” warcaster: can provide benefits to his battlegroup and other units.
• Great mobility for his ‘jacks via Iron Horse.  Kraye is also very mobile himself: he can get out of trouble with his raw speed, Pathfinder and Parry.
• Mage Sight:  just like Siege, this is a lifesaver under the right circumstances.  Case in point: taking out Narn and a Mage Hunter Assasssin trying to flank on turn 2.  Unfortunatley, my shots missed Eiryss, which would prove to be crucial later on.
• Brings something to both ranged (accuracy) and melee (speed) ‘jacks.

Cons

• His very “toolbox” nature works against him.  While he has many options, his FOC of 6 doesn’t go far.  For example: Mage Sight costs 2 and only affects his battlegroup.  Need to actually charge a ‘jack (costs 1) through the forest that no longer blocks LOS, better be upkeeping Full Tilt (costs 1) or casting Easy Rider (costs 3).  Whoops, there goes 4-6 focus to accomplish one thing.  Hope you didn’t need the rest to fuel your other ‘jacks.
• Guided Fire is a resource waste, except in one very specific case: when trying to clear high DEF infantry with the Sentinel.  And even then, you may only get one shot for an investment of 4 focus (1 for Strafe and 3 for Guided Fire).  Contrast this with putting 3 focus on a Charger for 2 double-boosted POW 12 shots.  This MAY be worthwhile if you’re firing the guns of the Sentinel , Charger and Stormclad (see below) all in one turn, but this is pretty unlikely.
• His feat: Horsepower looks good on paper, but since Kraye demands a mixed ranged / melee ‘jack complement.  The feat really only benefits melee ‘jacks.  It can be powerful, but extremely unforgiving when it comes to focus management.

The New Auto-Include Module

• The module of the Stormclad, Stormblades + UA and Arlan Strangeways costs a whopping 20 points, but pays off in spades.  This isn’t really news to anyone who plays Cygnar, but I can’t stress how game changing this has been for the Swans.  The Stormclad operates at an effective 3 focus independant of your ‘caster; the Stormblades provide effective back-up and Arlan has some tricks of his own he can pull if things go pear-shaped.  AND, this combination works with pretty much every ‘caster.  Of course, it works best in 35-point games or higher, but it’s hard not to include them almost every list I make.

The Stormclad

• Cygnar’s signature ‘jack finally come into it’s own.  Average speed, reach and a PS19 sword (with Electro leap) can be devestating fully loaded.  With the above module, the Stormclad should be running at full capacity all the time.  With MAT 7 he shouldn’t need to boost to hit, so on the charge he should be able to buy 2 additional attacks (or 1 with boosted damage).  Don’t be like me and forget Electro leap: it’s kind of important to take out hidden Arcanists, Vassals or Choir members.

Full Units

• Since I started playing, I’ve relied on min-units, straight out of the box, only adding in the UAs and WAs that may have been available.  New, shinier things always diverted my cash elsewhere other than bringing units up to 10.  MkII unit boxes will now always come with 10 models, so I decided to finally expand my Precursors, Longgunners and Trenchers.  Except for the latter, which I can’t find anywhere, I’ve been fielding full units of the others where I can.  Max precursors, plus UA, are beautiful thing to send at the enemy…

Precursor Knights

• With the proper protection (say Siege’s Foxhole or the Piper’s Dirge of Mists / Heroic call), a full Shield Walled unit of Precursors advancing slowly up the field are a tough nut to crack.  Using them to block LOS to squishier ranged troops with inevitably leave them open to a charge, but if they survive, their mini-feat retaliation can be brutal, especially since they ignore bonuses to ARM and DEF.  If they do get the charge, 12 + 4d6 damage is dangerous even to some heavy ‘jacks.

The New and Improved Ogrun Bokur

• No longer is he a “fire and forget” bodyguard in name only.  He can still hit hard when he needs to, but his primary purpose is to actually protect someone by automatically taking a ranged shot.  Saved Kraye’s ass once from a disruptor bolt.

In January, I’ll be ending my tour of Cygnar warcasters (save Kara Sloan) with Nemo.  I always liked the old coot, both rules- and fluff-wise.  No lists yet, but pNemo benefits greatly from the above listed module.  With the Squire, Jr., Aiyana and Holt, and the storm module, his army has access to an incredible 14 focus (11 for Nemo himself) on turn 2.

Written by kingmob | Filed under: Warmachine | Comments (0)

On a Pale Horse

December 18, 2009

I wasn’t able to get to the league this past Thursday, but I may be able to get some games in on Sunday.  One last hurrah to close out 2009.  This time I plan on fielding Captain Kraye:

I love the the detail and pose on this model, but sadly, overwhelming Official Forums theorymachine opinion is that, like Darius, Kraye is strictly bottom-tier.  Balderdash!  Look at this guy: he oozes cool!  How could he not perform on the battlefield?  On to the lists:

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Written by kingmob | Filed under: Warmachine | Comments (0)

2009: The Nerd Year in Review

December 15, 2009

2009.  The final year of the first decade of the 21st century.  Mindboggling and somewhat disquieting.  Where did the years go?  Where’d all these grey hairs come from?  And these children?

Regardless, 2009 was a banner year for nerdy old me.  Lots to keep me occupied in the 1 or 2 hours per day (week?) that I have free for personal pursuits.  I guess such limited opportunities make all the more valuable, eh?  Here are the highlights:

Hobby Gaming

This was a biggie as much of my time was spent with Warmachine, Warhammer 40K and, to a lesser extent, Malifaux.  I sort of regret not stumbling back into the hobby a lot sooner (say, 3 or 4 years ago), but it fulfils a need that I only recently realized I had.  Although my model painting output has been glacially slow, I find it relaxing to do when the house is quiet and I’m not be distracted by other, shinier hobbies.  I was able to build a collapsible gaming table (only used once, heh) but have a boatload of terrain to finish building.

The ancillary material for this hobby really adds up after a while.  Foam for my Army Transport, tools for assembly / modding, brushes and terrain supplies take a real bite out a model budget.  Paint has been virtually free due to my mother dumping a ton of my preferred Delta Ceramcoat paints on me when she got out of her crafting phase.  Paint snobs may snicker at this, but I’ve had great success with craft paints for far cheaper than the GW and P3 lines.

On the playing front, I’ve got all of 3 40K and Malifaux games in, but a shitload of Warmachine via my league involvement.  In retrospect, my current sucky performance belies a fairly successful year: I placed in the top 4 of half of this year’s leagues and won 50% of the games in both tournaments I participated in.  The last tourney even netted me the Cygnar coin.  I’ve definately progressed as a player and painter: this blog helps me realize that when review older posts.

Video Gaming

Kind of lean this year even though I revamped our home PC.  Purchases have been pretty light: DoW2, Blood Bowl and Dragon Age on the PC; CoD:Mw2 and Fallout 3 on the 360.  Not to say that I haven’t played more games than this, but these were what I spent most of my time on.  I even briefly took up Battlefield 2 again for nostalgia’s sake prior to MW2’s release.  Together, it and Dragon Age have been eating up my time and detracting from my painting output.  But goddamn if they aren’t addictive for wildly different reasons.

Dragon Age has a wonderful story (as is typical for Bioware), looks fantastic, and manages to play around with fantasy fiction archetypes while feeling fresh and new.  I think that Mass Effect’s design, as simplified mechanically for the consoles as it was, has had a lasting effect on its successors.  It is VERY long: I was shocked to discover that even after completing 2 of the DLC quests and 3 of the major quest lines, the game tells me I’ve only completed 20% of it.  Wow.  I wonder if I can finish it before Mass Effect 2 comes out early next year…

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is a twitch product so carefully optimized and designed to be as addictive as possible it may as well be packaged an invitation to your local “Addiction-of-your-choice” Anonymous group.  The single-player experience serves up some excellent action set pieces, but in true Michal Bay bullshit fashion, the “plot” makes absolutely no goddamn sense.  War may be the ultimate result of terrible decision making between nations, but the characters and organizations represented in MW2 all behave thing fucking sociopaths.  I know I’m meant to like Soap and Ghost and so on, but doing so makes me somewhat queasy.

Regardless, the multiplayer is top-notch.  Nearly everything you do immediately feeds back with some kid of xp reward.  It builds upon itself: each +100 that flashes on your screen adds to the potential of even greater rewards.  +1000.  +10000.  It just keeps adding up, slowly unlocking rewards based on purely participating in the mayhem or rapidly in response to your own twitch abilities.  I’m approaching my first prestige already, a feat that took me months to accomplish in the first game of the series.  I just can’t stop  myself from picking up that damned controller.  Especially now that I’ve got akimboed 1887s.  Paybacks a bitch.

And, of course, Team Fortress 2 continues to delight.

Roleplaying

I like GM’ing.  I’d like it more if I weren’t always trying to do it while tired.  Our D&D Eberron campaign is moving along slowly (like one encounter per night slow), and I long for a return to the days in which I could run a combat AND have plenty of time for the group to actually get some roleplaying in.  I couldn’t ask for an easier system to run, however, and the D&D Insider membership has been worth more than what I paid to subscribe to it.

So, to you and yours, may 2010 be filed with nerdly bounty.  And Monoliths; we’re overdue for those.

Written by kingmob | Filed under: 40K, 4E DnD, Dragon Age: Origins, Malifaux, PnP, RPG, Video Games, Warmachine | Comments (0)

A Step Backwards

December 12, 2009

Ugh.  This Warmachine league has not gone well.  So far I’ve won a single game, and I feel like I’ve taken a huge step backwards in my competancy.  I say “feel” because I honestly don’t think I suck: I suspect it has to do with poor list match ups (60%), not being able to roll even average dice (20%) and brain-farts (10%).

Case in point:  ran the pHaley list in a 35 point game against a Retribution Ravyn army.  Gunline unts versus largely stealth models.  Even Haley playing to her strengths can’t help her army shoot what they can’t see.  I’m also starting to see a trend in MkII - unless your force is composed to directly counter the army you face, you are almost required to take an all-comers list.  In my opinion, this leads to larger games on average and a dilution of fluff.  We’ll have to see what happens when the Cygnar book comes out in February and get a look at the tiered lists to see if the trend continues.

The second match was a 50 point game versus Brian’s Amon led Menoth.  This was a much closer affair, but in the end I suffered from dice-failure.  While shooting was shut down by the choir, eHaley’s incredible, tool-box spell list played havoc with plans every turn.  Hell, by round 3 I think we had both only lost one infantry model each.  eHaley’s feat is absolutely brutal, especially considering her 18″ (w/ Squire, of course) control radius.  It’s like getting a free turn.

Where the fail comes in, is when I had Amon dead to rights.  A fully loaded Stormclad had him on the charge, needing average dice to hit.  Dice +1 on the charge would have probably ended it (with follow-up boosted attacks), but it couldn’t even manage that.  Haley attempted a hail-mary final charge, but died to a free strike even sitting on ARM 20.

Well, one more week (for me) until the end of this year’s league.  Maybe I’ll have better luck with Kraye.  Forum opinion seems to put him as the weakest ‘caster, but you never know until you try.

Written by kingmob | Filed under: Warmachine | Comments (0)

Epic Haley Lists

December 8, 2009

It occurs to me that I shouldn’t broadcast these lists.  Poor strategy in the theatre of make believe, leetle mens war.  Oh well.  Here’s my Epic haley lists if I feel like playing her this week:

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Written by kingmob | Filed under: Warmachine | Comments (0)

You’re My Hammerwall!

December 8, 2009

Darius, power-armored ‘jack savant that he is, has been much maligned in Warmachine MkII.  The critics say that he is a shadow of his former greatness; that in the new, ‘jack-centric scheme of things he was hit with the nerf bat a little too hard.  A “low tier” ‘caster, they say.

I say poppycock!

I think I ran Darius twice in MkI and never could get a handle on him.  This past week I ran the 35 and 50 point lists mentioned in my previous post and he performed admirably - with some caveats.

My first game at 35 points was against Rob’s Durgen Madhammer all-dwarf army.  He was even proxying the fantastic Basher to compliment his Hammerfall High Shield Gun Corps, Horgenhold Forge Guard, 3 gunbunnies, Thor, Herne and Jonne, and Rockbottom.  There wouldn’t be much rushing into the fray with these armies!

It was here that I realized that there is really only one way to play Darius: form a “brick” ‘jack wall and slowly advance towards the enemy ‘caster, hammers raised in anticipation of future face beating.

Keeping Fortify up on the ‘jack immediately in front of Darius is crucial, at least until the Full Throttle turn when your wall of metal is ready to hurtle into the enemy lines.  Advancing slowly, the Defender took pot shots at the gun corp, but quickly fell in one turn to Durgen’s case cracker shots and the gunbunnies’ direct fire.  The Basher rammed the right side of my wall but was unable to slam.  In return, the Ironclad and Rowdy beat it to death rather swiftly. Durgen’s feat sent a barrage of AOEs into my wall with very little damage to show for it.

My ‘jacks took shot after shot on their way in, damage boxes filling rapidly until within charge range.   Darius feated, all ‘jack damage disappeared, they got Full Throttled and in they went.  Luckily for the dwarves, they absorbed many of the hits, but ‘jacks were solidly in their lines now.  Rowdy and the Ironcled Tremored the lines and punched a couple of dwarves to death.

A gunbunny backed up from Rowdy, inviting a counter charge from him, which put the grumpy ‘jack in melee with Durgen.  The Horgenhold Guard threw themselves at Rowdy (who was sitting at 23 ARM due to help from Jr.) and merely dinged up his paint.  Durgen ended up with a Quake Hammer to the face on my next turn.

The second game was a 50 point match against James L’s Retribution.  Now I had truly played against every faction!  His ‘caster was Adeptis Rahn and I had no clue what anything in his army did.  I know that the elves are squishy and hard to hit, but since I wasn’t running much shooting, I just had to wade in and start hammering.  Darius and his battlegroup went in the middle and the Stormblades with marshalled Stormclad went on the left.

But it was here, in my eagerness to end the game early, that I betrayed my cardinal rule with Darius: maintain the brick.  The House Shyeel Battle Mages (Mitten squad) pushed and pulled the Stormclad all over the map, eventually destroying it in a turn with combined fire.  This pissed of the Stromblades, who assaulted his Chimera and Manticore, destroying the former and getting within charging distance of the Mages.  I broke up the brick to open LOS to Rahn using Darius’ steam cannon, allowing the Defender to get a bead on him.  A single shot brought him down to 3(!) hp.

Sadly, Darius was now out of contact with his fortified Hammersmith, and the Mages started their push/pull thing again, bringing him in range of the Manticore’s cannon.  Heavily armored Darius may be, but the sheer volume of fire put him down.  Ah, well; live and learn.

I like this list and will likely run it again in the future after my systematic run-through of all of my ‘casters.  On a side note, MkII has breathed new life into the league and every table was full last Thursday night.  I hear there’s even more people who may join up before the month is out.

Next up is Haley.  She’s the first ‘caster I won a game with back in ‘o8, and it occurs to me that I haven’t uttered the words “Haley casts Temporal Barrier” in a very long time.

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Written by kingmob | Filed under: Warmachine | Comments (0)