Saturday, March 31, 2012

Gonna be quiet for a few days

I may post some things, but I'm on the road, and for various and sundry reasons, I did not even bring an army with me. I am going to use some time to plan a tourney, get familiar with the tourney software, reread the SR2012 docs, and do some theory-machining.

I am going to miss some painting time. I have to make that up next weekend - I am still falling behind, though not quite as quickly. I hope to have my 2-player starter assembled and primed before this time next weekend, which is possible (though a little tight, since I probably won't be able to work on them until Thursday or so.)

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Huzzah!

Finally picked up my 2-player starter. My FLGS had been having some problems getting PP merchandise in stock, but that's all in the past (well, aside from some of the usual PP stocking wonkiness, but that' another story.) Anyway, he still does not have much in - a few Warmachine starters, some faction books and decks, some dice, and a few copies of NQ 41 and the 2-player starter, but that's a beginning. He also got in some of the new releases. I can pick up the extra bits for Hypnos and Ghetorix, but the plastic kits for those won't be in for another week or so.

So, while I have painted 2 figs this month, I picked up 17, plus another 15. The sad thing is that means that I have still made progress on my ratio - although, at 1:25 (painted to non), and with 750 plus figs, it's hard to really move it one way or the other. April and May should have more painting time, so I hope to get more infantry done, and start chipping away, maybe even getting down to 1:20 before GenCon at the end of the summer.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

A pseduo-battle report

So, I got to play two games on Saturday, and I managed to win one of them.

The first game, I was trying out a eNemo list. I was light on jacks (only two - Thunderhead and Firefly), but has the Storm Strider, and lots of lightning goodness. My opponent was running Zherkova, some Doom Reavers, a couple warjacks and some widowmakers (and a couple other models - Greylords, maybe?)

The scenario was out of prime, and we were basically contesting the middle of the board. I made several key mistakes early on, and wound up almost losing on scenario alone - instead, I lost to a very well-done warcaster assassination, and the game was over before I took my third turn. I think, from army selection to end of game, it was less than 45 minutes - it certainly was under an hour.

Since we had time to kill, we each chose another list. He switched to eButcher, kept the Doom reavers, added Fenris, and made some other changes. I switched to Cryx, so I could try out Terminus, plus a couple slayers, a seether, some bane thralls, the revenant crew, and a bloat thrall. (Quick aside - I can usually recall my lists fairly well, but not always those of my opponents. I need to work on that, for real battle reports.)

Anyway, with both armies being comprised of incredibly aggressive casters, we met in the middle, and it was a virtual bloodbath. I drew first blood, and took out the doom reavers, and did some other damage, but it put things in grand position for eButcher's feat. He popped feat, charged up, and, by the time his turn was done, I had only a couple of the revenant crew remaining, plus two slayers (one fairly damaged), and the bloat thrall, and Terminus was down 9 points. Terminus was engaged, but only by Fenris, although he was less than 1/4" of being engaged by one of the Khador jacks. I chanced the free strike (which fortunately failed to do anything), and flew over my intervening models to get to eButcher. Terminus only got to melee with his giant sword o' death, but that was all it took (though it took multiple strikes to do so).

Both games were a lot of fun (for both of us), and I think I will use both lists again, albeit with some tweaking.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Woohoo!

My FLGS has finally started getting PP products in stock. It's been a long, hard road sometimes, but as of last week, he had in two of each of the 4 basic WM starters, a couple copies of Prime, three of the faction books (Cryx was backordered), three of the decks (missing Khador, I think), and some dice. And yes, some of it has already started selling. Got to play a couple of games this afternoon, and wound up doing an impromptu demo, which is always nice.

More stuff should be arriving Monday or Tuesday - including some stuff for me (which was also backordered, but supposedly already on its way).

He has also agreed to a tourney, so now I just need to decide the format, make up the flyers, and spread the word. Hooray!

The flipside, of course, is that I need to make sure that I have enough terrain for 8 tables, and really know the SR2012 docs. So, while I am going to keep working on painting stuff for the 2012 challenge, I might wind up just finishing two bonejacks tomorrow for the 5 point minimum, and then start working on terrain.

Friday, March 23, 2012

No painting today

Fridays are just a bad day for painting, most of the time. Between GMing, and that pesky real life stuff, I just don't generally get the time. So, today, I tried to make a dent in the pile (a small one, to be sure, but still present) of miniatures that are not yet assembled. So, I managed to get my winterguard rockets put together, as well as my stormblade WA, and got some minor assembly work done on the rest of the stormblade unitl

I think, in addition to my 2012 goal of wanting at least 50 points of every faction, contract and pact, I have a new goal - I want to stop proxying figs. I probably won't stop cold-turkey (in fact, I have a list tomorrow that requires at least one proxied solo), but I want to be done with running any proxies by GenCon. I have more than enough figs for most of my factions to run at least a 35 pt list, and several have much more - there should be no need for me to run proxies, right?

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Addendum to yesterday

So, yesterday, I talked about how I don't subsribe to the "I won't buy more than I paint" philosophy. It came to mind again because I caught a reference to an old thread on the PP forums, where people were talking about painted collections.

On July 14 of 2011, I said:
Painted? 4 models, all beasts or jacks, for a total of 24 points. Unpainted? Another 598 models, though once B'town is up and running again, I stand a good chance to blow past the 630 mark.

Almost all of those are assembled, primed, and partially painted. I am doing that weekly challenge, but my main challenge each week has not been to finish figure X or unit Y, but to paint 7 hours per week. Unfortunately, it gets split between terrain, getting the last of the stuff assembled, color tests, and so forth.

I posted (on my blog, see shameless plug below) my Retribution and Khador color tests. I'm pretty sure that I like them well enough to keep going forward with them. If I do, it means that I will very quickly take care of a unit of Invictors and a couple of Khador jacks in the next week or so.

Leaving my failed prediction aside (about the Retribution and Khador stuff), in the last 8 months, I have gone from 4 painted figs to about 30 painted figs, and from 598 models to 745 models. So, on the plus side, instead of painting 1 figure in 150, I am up to 1 painted model in 25. On the downside, instead of having 594 models to still paint (and be caught up), I have 715 models to paint before I catch up.

I did some painting last night, and so far today, I got a Thunderhead mostly assembled (needs some greenstuffing still), and primed a Stormsmith. I have a couple of 'jacks nearing completing (which fulfills my 5 point requirement), and am working on infantry, which is the bulk of my collection.

(As a side note - the Talion stuff that I got was painted, and nicely so. I count them among my collection, but not among my painted models, so the count of what has been painted is actually low by about 20-30 figs, if I counted up all of the models I picked up second-hand.)
Link

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Paint one, buy one

There is a reason that I did not take that as a resolution at the beginning of the year. So far, I have painted a mere 4 miniatures this year (boo!), and purchased one (Kara Sloan), and traded for another 15-20 Talion figs. I also picked up a couple of Khador figs (Karchev and Behemoth) this past week, and will probably pick up a unit of winterguard rifles this weekend as well. I also have a min unit of Blackbane's Raiders on order (thanks to this pic). I also should be getting my 2-player starter soon (really, honest!), which adds another 17 figs.

So, keeping track, that's 4 figs painted, and another 51-56 figs. On the plus side, I was only about 2-3% painted before, so the ratio isn't changing much, and the Blackbanes will paint very quickly, if I steal the scheme in the pic.

I am trying not to feel too bad about it - after all, my goals were to play more (which I am generally doing), paint more (which I am definitely doing), and fill holes in my collection in a fairly non-random and targeted manner, which I also have been doing. But I will be happy when I finish 40-50 infantry models for the year, a goal which is still more than possible.

So, for now - I'm headed down to the basement to assemble some stuff, and work on painting some things.Link

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Trade post

Clearing out some old terrain projects:

Image

They are based on cork, and the cork has been sealed with glue. (Never tried it before, so I cannot vouch for it's long-term durability, but it has worked so far.) The pyramids are hollow, which helps keep them lighter, but it does mean that you can punch through the cork on the underside if you don't use some care. (Yes, the tower on the right is a little crooked - it slipped a little before the glue set.)

Anyway, they were made using the Hirst Arts mold and cast in Ultracal 30. The fig is intended for sense of scale, and not included.

I also have a Wizard Tower:

Image

I made this years ago for a game store, where it was used and abused. I eventually got it back and fixed it up. It's been reglued a couple of times, and needs a better paint job. I'll toss in some extra bricks as part of the trade on this one, just in case it needs repair in the future. It was also made with Ultracal 30, and the fig is for scale, but not included. (Both roof pieces are removable, but I do not have pics of it with those off.)

I am looking for either trade for Warmachine or Hordes figs, although I will sell them instead. My current WM/H omnibus wishlist can be viewed at:
http://armyaltaholic.blogspot.com/2012/ ... rt-ii.html

Items in red have been acquired since the list was made. If you have something not on that wishlist, LMK - I have only one of a lot of units that are FA:2 (or more), and could always use multiples of non-character jacks or beasts. Not interested in casters who are not on the list, however.

I might also accept Heavy Gear figs, or items from Spartan Games (Uncharted Seas, Firestorm Armada, Dystopian Wars).

Monday, March 19, 2012

Stalker bonejack

How do I hate thee, Stalker bonejack! Let me count the ways. . . .

  • One spindly little leg
  • Another spindly little leg
  • Balanced on three points, you are
  • Oddly angled hips for the aforementioned legs, managing to almost, but not quite, clear the arms

Bah. It's glued together, but not on the base. I'll tackle that tomorrow, once I clean all the dried CA glue off my hand.

How are the game stores in your area?

Over at Jestor's Mini Playhouse, there is a colorful (but PG) little rant about the various and sundry FLGS in his area. I made a comment (reposted below), but wondered what game stores are like for other people out there.

I said:
Locally, my little town has 2 game/comic stores. The first could probably get PP stuff for me, but they mainly stock Reaper stuff, and some RPGS - most of their trade is comics, and that is actually where I get my 4 color fix.

The other game store charges $5 to play. I can see why they do it, but OTOH, if I have to pay $5 to play, then I am less likely to drop another $12 or so on a warcaster or solo on impulse. (They also don't stock PP stuff - lots of board games and GW stuff.) In fact, if I started thinking about playing there on a regular basis, then the $260 per year that I would pay in table fees would almost certainly mean that on-line retailers would see most of my business, instead of the FLGS.

The nearby towns have one store that also charges a fee, and flat-out refuses to order PP stuff. (He said he might change his mind, if enough people were there playing it, on a weekly basis. Yarite.) The last one is nice, charges no fee, and until last week, could not carry any PP stuff. We played there, and continue to do so, and now that he has PP stuff in stock, we are buying from him when possible.

That is, more or less, a decent summary of gaming in this area of SW Michigan. If I am willing to drive an hour or so, I can find some nice stores, and the one where I have been hanging my dice is nice enough. I can deal with the store being less-than-clean (although dingy and filthy are bad), if the staff is pleasant and the store acts like they want my business. OTOH, it doesn't matter how nice the play area is, or how much stock there is - if the staff is rude or otherwise disagreeable, then I may do no more than walk in, buy stuff and leave. While that seems like a good deal for the store, I know that I buy more (sometimes considerably more) when I play and linger - and I run demos and the like in order to encourage more people to game. If I don't stay in the store, I'm not going to try and create more business for them, and may steer people to a friendlier store instead.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Goal accomplished!

Yesterday, I got back from the game store, and there was a package waiting for me. Inside was Shae, Bart, and Fiona. And a buccaneer, a freebooter, and a mariner. And Lord Rockbottom, Dirty Meg and McNaile. A Sea Dog riflemen (though I still need Sea Dogs to go with him). Oh, and the SD deck gun, and the Commodore.

It's not even a 25 pt force (I think it comes in to 23, using Shae and everything except the SD UA), but it's close to being a 25pt force, and not that far off from being a 35 pt one. So within a few weeks, depending on stock at the FLGS and some other things, I will definitely be able to cross off the last faction, contract and pact.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

A gaming haiku

(Because Felix @ Pokeminiatures had done a haiku for Pi day)

Dice betray my rolls.
Painted models rarely help.
Have fun anyway.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

A short reprieve

I need to post a short batrep of the weekend (short version - played two games, won both, though I did not deserve to win the first), but won't get to it until later today. In the meantime, I found out that I have a one day reprieve - some figures that I was expecting today won't be in until tomorrow, so tonight's painting will not be distracted by Shiney New Object (SNO) syndrome.

The pigs continue, and yes, I need to take pics. In the meantime, they show at least some progress from day to day, and I hope enough that it would obvious to most people at least from week to week. Still thinking that I might need to have a backup plan, in case I do not finish at least 5 pts of infantry before the 22nd or so - I have a couple of models (a solo and some lights) that I could take care of this weekend, if the slaughterhousers and bone grinders are still giving me fits.

Friday, March 9, 2012

Forward and back again

As usual, no pics tonight. I spent some time working on my pigs, but also doing repairs to stuff that had either fallen apart long ago, or assembled incorrectly/weakly and needed to be fixed. But tonight was definitely a two steps forward, one step back sort of night.

See, so far for the year, I have painted a whopping 4 models. A basher, a gunner, a feral warpwolf and a woldwyrd. And today, I ordered Amon Ad-raza, a Dervish, 2 Winterguard rocketeer, and a [REDACTED]. So, I ordered 5, and have only painted 4. And, in the next week or so, I should be getting some Talion figs in a trade, and hopefully another 10-15 figs as part of another trade. Until today, however, I think I had only gained one fig for the year (Kara Sloan).

Oh well. The slaughterhousers are coming along, and I am making some inroads on the bone grinders. I need to spend a bit more time on the brigands, which I plan on doing tomorrow or Sunday. If I do enough infantry, then I can get on the positive side of things, and get a lot of points done. Plus, painted piggies would just make me feel better about taking them to GenCon. If I am wearing the black, then I should have more stuff painted, right?

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Stormwall Colossal

The current PP insider shows an exploded view of the Cygnar Stormwall colossal. I had two thoughts on seeing it:

First, it's darned kewl. Lots of nifty little bits, and 3 separate little markers, which I think are for one of its special abilities or an attack. It also does not look to be any more complicated to assemble than a thunderhead.

Second - 'jacks leave wrecks, warbeasts wander off. Fair enough. Battle engines do not leave wreck markers. (Huh?) Colossals apparently do - there is mention of a 120mm card wreck marker.

ETA - it's up on the gallery page as well.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Painting piggies

I really need to take the camera with me when I head down to the basement. It's not that it is this huge distance, I mean, from the computer I am using now to my painting desk is only 30 feet or so, but it's just enough that I am not really willing to head down there again, turn on the lights, and take some bad pics.

Anyway, though there is no proof of it, you can take my word that the piggies are coming along, albeit slowly. This week has had a lot of real-life distractions, and the week isn't done yet, so they'll just keep coming along. But, the Slaughterhousers and the Bone Grinders have been the primary beneficiaries so far, but the smaller units are letting me test skin tones, armor schemes, etc without much worry. (And, since the Bone Grinders are single-piece figs, I can strip them a lot easier than other stuff, since I won't have to worry about reassembly afterward.)

One slaughterhouser and two bone grinders are actually approaching the point (and may pass it by Sunday) where they might be mistaken for fully painted models. Once I know how I like the armor on one slaughterhouser, I then repeat the process (much more quickly, since I am not deliberating on colors or anything) on the rest of the unit.

The brigands are still stuck mainly on skin tones. Not because I do not know where I am going with them, but simply because there are 20 brigands, and that's a lot of models to paint. One war hog is undergoing repairs and a slight modification to make it fit on the base better, and one gun boar is more than half done, I think.

My other project is basically done, but I need to take pics of it. And, I need to plan an event or four between now and GenCon, because I have the feeling that I am going to want a lot of PG points in the next few months. So, it means I need more terrain, and I need to reread the SR 2012 rules.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

The pigs go marching in

March-ing, right? So yeah, I am working on Minions this month. I think it was the Road Hog preview, but it may also have been because I have some low-hanging fruit that I want to keep around until later in the year, when time is short, and I need an easy 5 points for the month.

So, this month, I am trying to get as much of the following done as possible:

2 max units of brigands
max unit of bone grinders
unit of slaughterhousers
2 war hogs
2 gun boars
1 razorback
and all 3 warlocks.

Now, how much of that will get done? I don't know. It may well be that, come the 23rd or so, I will look at all the unfinished stuff, curse, and grab one of the low-hanging fruit and finish off a blackhide wrastler. But I really want to get some infantry done, too.

In the meantime, I will be playing my pigs this month. It's a pretty limited army list, but since I will probably be taking Minions to GenCon (mostly Iron Arena, since I am not yet up to tournament standards), I want to start getting some practice in. Next month might be gators, although I will chose a non-minions faction for my painting

Friday, March 2, 2012

Better than yesterday

I haven't bothered trying to put S&D back together again, but I did spend some quality time at the painting table tonight, listening to a podcast and working on some piggy goodness. I wasn't originally planning on working on my pigs this month, but since doing a couple of warbeasts (or jacks) per month will let me achieve the 5 pts/month for 2012, but make no dent whatsoever in my unpainted collection, I needed to do some infantry.

And seeing the Road Hog made me thinking about my pigs again. Over on Steam-Powered Gamer, there is a post about the Road Hog. I can't disagree too much with his conclusion - basically, that the Road Hog is really only going to see play in a Carver list. Of course, since the consensus is mainly that the only Farrow caster worth taking is Carver, that kind of went without saying.

I like the good doctor, but I have to admit that he is not a terribly effective warlock. S&D can be fun, and sure, Arkadius' feat turn can be a blast, but right now, Carver is pretty much the way to any sort of victory.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Doh!

Some nights it's not even worth sitting down at the painting table. Finished gluing Sturm & Drang, and dropped him. Guess I should have pinned him first, but it looked like I could get away without doing that. Meh. Now I have to dump him in the goop to get the superglue off him before I can fix him.

Did get some colors put on the brigands before that happened, so the evening won't be a total write-off, but right now, I don't feel like working on anything. Maybe I'll head down and paint again later tonight, but it just doesn't feel like fun tonight.

Road hog

Privateer put up a preview of the Road Hog today, and I have to say that I like it. Now, I already have some bacon goodness, and they are fun to play, but a spray-template, assaulting, crit knockdown piggie? That's just fun right there.

My wishlist needs to be changed - I had only 1 road hog on it. I think I want 2, plus another war hog - Dr. Arkadius has a fun tier list that uses lots of big pigs. The list already had plenty of brigands and razorback crew on it, of course.