Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Board Game Night: Last Night on Earth!

Taking a step away from Warmachine for a bit... my wife and I hosted our first board game night of the summer tonight and had a great time playing Last Night on Earth by Flying Frog Games WEB SITE

The game was a fun shift away from wargaming for a night, especially since we played it with two couples who are not into our "normal" type of gaming. In LNoE 4 players play the heroes while one or two players control the zombies. The game board is random, as are the scenarios. Characters can move around the board to search the various buildings in the town for items, other survivors, and other things to help them survive. This is all done through a simple card drawing mechanic. The zombie player brings a swarm of flesh eating undead from various spawn points on the board to try to munch on the heroes' juicy frontal lobes. Zombie players have cards as well that can augment their zombies, deny heroes abilties, and alter the rules of movement on the board. There are a couple of laugh out loud cards in the game which keep the mood light, but overall I was really impressed with how well the game caught the hopeless suffocating atmosphere of a good zombie movie.

Can I just say I had a fricking awesome time? There were many cries of "brains" as the dice hit the table and both games we played were nail biters that came down to the last turns. It was a fun break from the norm. We've decided to throw more board game nights this summer so I'm pulling out Settlers of Catan, Killer Bunnies, Talisman, and more. I'm also hoping to be able to finally play space hulk!

Other news? I'm finally digging into the pile of novels that have languished by the wayside due to work. I'm over halfway done Graham McNeil's "A Thousand Sons" and have enjoyed it. No one will ever accuse the Horus Heresy series of being great literature, but it's a fun read. This installment has done an especially good job of portraying the frustration of the whole heresy. There's some great allegory there if you feel like picking it apart, but I'm on vacation so I'm turning the English teacher part of my brain off for a few weeks.

Next week will also mark the first session of our summer D&D campaign.We're headed back to Eberron for the summer and I'll probably put an update on two here as the campaign winds on. I figure we're all nerds here right? We've settled on playing 4e again for this one, which is not my first choice. I've recently procured the Pathfinder rules and am wondering why we ever switched...

Big WoW patch today too... it's a good week to be a geek!

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Skarre and the Girls Got Elfed!

What a rough night for the pirate forces of Skarre Ravenmane. I played two games last night (and ate some great food and drank many beers) and lost in both. The first game was an objective game and I got outmanuevered by Gareth and his magehunters. The raider captain did show off her worth, and I will definitely be using her in all my Skarre armies, sprint is a great ability! The blood witches died horribly without accomplishing anything due to some real bad judgement on my part.

The second game was a 4 on 4 big battle. This time it took two Retribution casters to do ol' Skarre in but the result was roughly the same. Biggest eye opener in that game was just how powerful Feorra can be against infantry with her feat.

May be getting some games in Wednesday night, we shall see. On the painting table right now are 10 mechanithralls to finish off pSkarre's 35 army and then it's time to take a little break from paintin Cryx. I think I'll work up my 35 point Circle army next. Of course there are so many more little undead gribblies in my army case begging to be painted... we shall see.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Bunch of New Cryx Photos



I had the rig out tonight and a bunch of newly finished models so here's some shots of my entire Cryx force for your viewing pleasure. eSkarre's 35 point army is completely done!


Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Satyxis! Part One


Cryx is  an interesting faction. On one hand you have shambling hordes of undead, liches encased in steam powered armor, and elvish vampires out to kill more gods than the old Avatar trilogy in the Forgotten Realms. On the other hand, you get the satyxis. First off, they aren't dead. This is quite a departure from all other Cryx units (with the exception of the Black Ogrun, Bloodgorgers, and Darth Rhage) and has been the focus of my painting for these lovely ladies.

For anyone who isn't familiar with the fluff on the girls, they are essentially an amazon like tribe of islanders who were always warriors, pirates, and raiders in a strongly matriarchal society. A few hundred years ago, Toruk and another dragon got into a bit of a tussle overtop of the satyxis island and gave each other a pretty good whumpin'. As the draconic blood fell on the satyxis homelands our good friend blight set in and made all the men wimpy and weak, while twisting the women in mind and body to make them into sadistic, murderous killing machines. Now the satyxis serve Toruk by raiding the shores throughout Immoren under the command of one Skarre Ravenmane.

Planning and Painting the Satyxis: I tend to plan out an army before I started painting it. I like to have a pretty solid idea how each piece is going to look prior to ever setting a brush to pewter. When I was first planning out my Cryx army, I started off by setting my two base colors, Cryx Bane base and Purple. I liked the contrast between the two and really wanted to try my hand at a purple based army. (as long as it wasn't red... after all the Khornate berserkers and Vostroyans, red is my leats favorite color to paint!) From there it was all about accents. I wanted the metals to look aged and tarnished, but any gold was going to have a red shade to it with the nercotite green used for spell effects and other interesting points.

This was all great til I started to look at the satyxis models. First, these were the models that drew me to the army. I was tired of painting only male models and wanted a stab at all the awesome female sculpts PP was putting out. I knew I didn't like the studio scheme. The grey/ green/ pale look on the satyxis in the books just doesn't do it for me. They look too close to the undead prancing around the neighboring pages. I decided early on to counter this by going for a rich healthy skin tone, however I was still using purple for a base coat and a purple wash for shading to still give the illusion of coolness. The horns would be bone, but I decided that occasionally a satyxis would have different color horns to mix things up. I went with a blank pupil that I shaded with a necrotite green wash for the eyes to still give the satyxis a feeling of "unrealness" and to tie them back into some of the other units in the army. The end result is something a bit warmer and less brooding than the official scheme but I'm happy with it. 

Satyxis Raiders Skin Tones: 
 1: Prime black
2: Base coat with leviathan Purple Citadel Foundation paint
3: Light coat of midlund flesh with a drop of mixing medium
4: wash with hormugaunt purple Citadel Wash
5: Highlight with striaght midlund flesh.
6: second highlight with midlund flesh mised with Ryn Flesh
7; Final Highlight with ryn flesh
8: Trace the lower lip with Citadel Dark Flesh and the top lip with citadel Terracotta
9: The eyes get a quick hit of morrow white
10: water down necrotite green and givve the eyes a quick wash to make them "glow" \
 


Sunday, June 20, 2010

Getting the Most out the Black Ogrun Boarding Party




I think it's interesting that this is the one unit on Battle College for Cryx that hasn't been updated for MK II. Most people seem to have no clue what to do with the big guys, I include myself in that number, however I keep seeming to find myself including them in my army. Now that they are painted up, they probably will be in my lists for good.

The Harpoon: Overrated? Most of the talk on the boards is about the harpoon ability of the unit. W/ combined range attack they are still only operating at RAT 7 with one shot, so reliability is out the window on this one. When it works though... I've dragged models out of line of sight to set up assasination runs, pulled badly placed UAs to their untimely deaths, and lassoed light 'jacks into the waiting whips of my satyxis raiders. Over all, it's fun when it works, but I don't see the harpoon as the strength of these guys.

Melee Terrors! Ok, so they only have one attack, but that attack hits almost as hard as a jack and there are three of them in a min unit! The decent ARM (well for Cryx that is...) and the 8 damage boxes give them some staying power as well. Used in concert with debuffs or an army wide feat like pSkarre, these boys are now incredible in hand to hand. Causing terror is just icing on the cake!

Black Ogrun (Bokur?) With three models at min and a medium base, the ogrun can serve as a decent body guard for a small based caster. Just remember they can be knocked down...

I like the angry gorillas of the sea, if nothing else they add a cool new look to the army. For 4 points you have to weigh them against another arc node or min unit of Blood Witches. It really comes down to preference.

Oh, Wednesday night was a 2.5 hr. blood bath that ended with eDoomshaper crushing Skarre with his staff... great game though. Man trolls are .... tough.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Satyxis Blood Witches: painting 'em and using 'em


Back to painting units after some time on warjacks and big based guys. The Blood Witches are great sculpts, if a little small. Up against their raider sisters they look like the girls track team vs. the girl's volleyball team back in high school. I kept the color scheme very similar to everything else in the army. Cryx Bane Base, Blue to purple for secondary cloth and armor, black leather, gold metalwork. I mixed up some necrotite green and mixing medium to get the effect on the blade and used the same mix to give the eyes their glow. She hasn't been gloss/ dull coted yet so she's still a little shiny, but the idea is there! I have two more on the painting table with the flesh, faces, hair and cloth done, with three more to get the min. unit done. Hopefully by the end of the weekend these lovely ladies will be painted and ready to go.

Game wise, I've had four games with the witches now. They are fast, and with "gang" tend to hit often. I've only used their mini "sac strike" ability so far (after killing a model do an auto hit to a model w/in 3" = to the STR of the killed model) but it has let me pick off solos and UAs with incredible ease. I look forward to adding the Blood Hag in, not for all the Hordes shennanigans, but for her mini feat that can turn the girls incorporeal for a turn. Adding the raider captain will also give them a little more oomph by keeping them safe from knockdown. I will have them in both Skarre's lists 99% of the time.

Warmachine Night tomorrow night! Look for updates!

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Painted Cryx Update

Well just a little update on my painting progress. The Black Ogrun and Nightwretch are now finished. The Ogrun were actually a fun unit to paint. I stuck to the purples and cryx bane scheme that everything else has, but applied it in some interesting places. I'll get some individual shots later this week, my first few were too dark due to some lighting issues.
Seeing the army starting to come together, I'm glad that I didn't overdo the water bases. The models who have the shoreline look break up the army as a whole, but the blue doesn't overwhelm your eye when you see them. Next on the painting block is a minimum unit of Blood Witches. Followed by a brand spanking new Satyxis Captain and hopefully a Blood Hag. Lastly, I'll hit up a unit of mechanithralls and then both Skarres will have their 35 point lists painted.
After the 35 pointers are done, I might turn to my circle for a bit and try to have 35 points painted up prior to the event we're thinking about attending down in Rockville on the 31st. Shouldn't be tough since my 35 point list is 3 giant werewolves, 3 chunks of rock, a shapeshifting caster, and seven druids. Nowhere near the time required to do the Cryxian stuff.
No huge surprises in the Cryx book. The tier lists are neat, but nothing to really write home about. The book itsself though is absolutely incredible with regards to story and art. Privateer really blows GW out of the water when it comes to publishing great books. I'm going to go and fall asleep flipping through it right now.



Sunday, June 6, 2010

Warmachine Saturday: Results

Saturday night was spent throwing dice and drinking beer. Some wives must worry when they go out of town that their husbands will be partying it up at the bar... our wives rest easy knowing that we will be playing with little pewter soldiers and drinking beer in someone's basement. Yet, I digress...

Two 35 point games for me Saturday night, and one bye which let me sit there are read the May No Quarter.

GAME 1: My opponent was a Protectorate list headed up my Admon Al Raza and his pack o' jacks. I ran pSkarre and her infantry heavy list. I followed my normal plan with a rotating refused flank, two arc nodes running the furthest east west points from Skarre and the satyxis up the middle. Two of his jacks got a little too close and the girls got in there with a well placed backlash. Amon was down to 6 health. He declared the charge with a jack, and was an inch short. Backlash, feat, satyxis and black ogrun... game over.

GAME 2: Retribution. Specifically Kaelyssa Retribution. Two jacks, sentinels, Mage Hunters, and some other stuff... I thought my ship was sunk after I got a little ahead of myself in turn 1. Turn three saw eSkarre popping her feat and throwing his plans into dissarray. From there, three more turns went down with the necrosurgeon keeping Skarre alive while my jacks slowly (very slowly) pulled his army apart until my seether put the final wounds on Kaelyssa. My skarlock actually collected a soul in this game. First time that's ever happened...

I'm happy with these two lists. I'll probably re-tune them when I get the FoW Cryx book this week, at least to get the Satyxis captain in there. The Black Ogrun did real well with pSkarre, but I think their presence in the eSkarre list is less than optimal.  Speaking of the B.O. I have one completely finished with another started. Hopefully I'll get them done this week.

Happy Gaming!

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Circle Doesn't Take the Square

Well tonight saw a less than inspiring first outing for Kromac and his cannibalistic tree huggers. Two games, first one lost in turn three, second one in turn four. Legion in game one (damn flying Legion lists are nasty!) and Menoth in game two. Game two went much better, but I still just didn't have the striking power to take out three jacks + the infantry and the darn book was keeping me shut down.

Unit by Unit:
Kromac: I like his spell list and his mobility. He doesn't hit as hard as say pSkarre when in human form, and I feel like I need to learn when to beast him out a little better. I never got to pop his feat tonight, as the time just didn't seem right.

Pureblood and Feral: Super impressed with both wolves. I put them out front a little too often tonight and may want to be a little more sneaky with them but the options these two models have are great. Might have to drop one of them at 25 points though and find a way to get in two lesser beasts just for fury production.

Druids: What a great unit. The clouds and magic denial are awesome as is the improved defense. (I was sitting on def 20 in cover tonight with magic denial up at 10 inches.) 9 points for the unit + UA is a little heavy in smaller games, but I will say they were totally worth it.

Shifting Stones: Meh... I got a cool teleport off with Kromac in game 2, but overall they seem very difficult to line up appropriately to be effective.

So looks like more WM this weekend as the wife is headed to the in laws. Probably will play Cryx... Circle might just sit out until MK II Hordes hits in July. Tomorrow back to the painting table and maybe some pics of my WIP Black Ogrun boarding party.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Breaking Out the Circle

Check me out with two posts on consectutive days! Like I said, with life finally slowing down, it's time for hobby time.

Wednesday night is Warmachine night 'round these parts, and this week I'm taking my Circle Orboros list out for a shakedown cruise. Newly painted Kromac will be leading the 25 points of angry werewolves, spell flingin' druids, and... rocks? That's right, my army list has rocks as a key part of the plan...
The List:
Kromac the Ravenous
Pureblood Warpwolf
Feral Warpwolf
Druids of Orboros
Druid Overseer
Shifting Stone

The plan? Does "win" qualify as a plan? The warpwolves are my primary assasination tools, especially with the pureblood giving them ghostly. The druids are there to shut down magic and put out some ranged firepower. The shifting stones give me an extended threat range for Kromac himself. Kromac brings more anti magic with Bestial, and warpath should make for some nice synergy with the druids. I'm interested to see if Kromac is a good front line assasination option. I'm hoping jump and his bestial form will allow him to take down any caster that evades the wolves.

I'll post Thursday on the results!