Latest Projects

Just a quick update on my Cygnar forces. Eiryss was a side project, I'm happy with her, but man is she a small model. The stormblades are really shaping up to be one of my favorite projects in a long time. Once the banner is finished I'll be doing a stormclad and one of the gunners. On the table, Cygnar is doing pretty well. Still trying to get a handle on how to line up the assasination run with the Storm Brigade, but it's a fun army to play. The pirate ladies are clamoring for some attention soon too... ahhh the fun of having the fever.

Cygnar: The Storm Brigade

As I outlined in my last post, I'm working on my second faction. My primary list for my Cygnar army is a tier three eStryker list, The Charge of the Storm Brigade! Tonight starts a three parter looking at the list and my theory machine behind it.

Caster: Lord Commander Stryker
My affection for melee beatsticks continues. eStryker has one thing on his mind. Physical abuse. His spell list is limited consisting of only three spells I'm using regularly. The first is a ranged armor buff for all friendly models in Stryker's control area. It's not an upkeep, so 2 focus every turn to keep the buff up. The second is Positive Charge which gives yet another melee buff to a jack and warrior models within 3". Again, no upkeep so you're looking at a 3 focus expendiature every turn you want this up. I find it incredibly useful stacked on a stormclad who is being supported by the stormblades. The last of the three oft used spells for me is veolicty, which essentially gives Stryker an extra 6" of movement for three focus. All of my assasination victories have come from using this spell, charging, and laying the smack. Stryker's other two spells are a damage spell (which I have never cast) and Rebuke which can stop units from making special attacks and charging. I can see rebuke being powerful with an arcnode, but I don't run one in this list so it doesn't find a lot of use.

Stryker's other powers are even more useful. He has reach, and is able to disrupt warjacks and also has a great ranged attack. Stryker can overcharge his armor granting him up to a 3d6 bonus to strength the down side is that he has to take as many dice as he rolls for the bonus in damage. This overcharge carries a lot of risk, but if all goes well, it's a garunteed caster kill in melee. Stryker also has a warjack bond that goes to any non-character warjack letting it re-roll the first melee attack each round. It sucks that this can't sit on Ol' Rowdy, but the Stormclad sure does like it.

In my army, Stryker always takes the squire. For anyone who hasn't seen this R2 D2 wannabe on the table, he lets your warcaster extend their control area by 2" as well as pull an extra focus 3 times a game and reroll a magic attack. For two points, the extended control and the extra focus for the assasination run are well worth it. If the squire is always behind Stryker, Stryker is always behind his favorite jack, Ol' Rowdy. More about him next time when I talk about jacks.

Back from the Dead!

Wow it's been over a month since I last posted anything. Let's attempt to catch everyone up on the state of ol' D-9:
THINGS I'VE LEARNED SINCE LAST I POSTED
1: bike season and going back to work cramp hobby style: I've logged over 3000 miles on the bike this year and completed the hardest ride of my life, but I have been weary after all the training which has kept me away from my models.
2: having a fully painted Cryx army makes it hard to paint more Cryx: I'm very happy with my 2 35 point lists and even though I have plenty more Cryx models sitting in my army bag, my motivation to add painted servants of Toruk to the stable is nil.
3: World of Warcraft raiding eats into hobby time: if you have the addiction, you know what I mean. Damn Lich King...
4: Hordes is "teh sux": I own a Circle army. I read the rules, I've played a few games. I don't like it. I don't know what it is, but the Hordes mechanic is not as much fun for me as the Warmachine (fury vs. focus) so my Circle is sitting for the time being. I got a few models painted, but for the foreseeable future, the angry druids are gonna be raging on the shelf.
5: A second Warmachine army was just what the Dr. ordered: As the pics above illustrate, I started a second faction. The forces of the Swan are keeping Skarre and the girls company these days. As with my Cryx army, I'm going with two 35 points lists, one based on pStryker and one based on eStryker. More about the new armies and such this weekend.
6: Painting your buddies' models is good for the creative side of your brain: I painted Amon ad Raza for a friend as well as a Castigator. Both turned out pretty good and it was a nice break. I'm currently working on a unit of Shayeel Battlemages for Joey Baltimore in return for some of his old Cygnar models to add to my collection.

Well it's good to be "back." If anyone is still reading this, please chime in.

be well,
D9

Kromac and His Warpwolves

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. My other hobby has been eating a lot of my time. Here's my latest accomplisments on the painting table!

Hope to get some other new content up later this week.

Scenario Gaming Pt.2: an Effective Army

What a week... sorry for no updates recently, but I've been over the top busy.

Last time we looked at scenario gaming. Tonight, I've got a few thoughts on armies that are strong for winning objective/ scenario based games. In my mind, an army based for objectives and scenarios should be balanced around three facets.
1: Mobility
2: Sustainability
3: Adaptability

Mobility: No matter the game system, an army that needs to capture objectives or hold areas of the board has to get there. In 40k, this is taken care of by mechanizing the army. Getting the army in transports not only allows them to get where they need to be, but keeps them safe along the way. In Warmachine/ Hordes mobility comes through the use of spells and the run mechanic. On the smaller board used in PP games, a unit or model with a speed of 6 or more can provide their own mobility. Many casters also bring some method of mobility with spells or feats.

Sustainability: Once the army gets where it needs to be, it needs to be able to put up a fight and stick around. In 40k and fantasy large numbers of troops are one side of this with 20-40 strong ork mobs being very sustainable while the other side are rock solid troops like assault termies with 2+/3+ saves on T4. In Warmachine, synergy between casters and units provide sustainability beyond the basic stats and abilities of the model. Models also have to be able to lay down some way of being able to keep the ground they've taken. Whether it's the supressive fire of an IG squad or the combi strike ability of a unit of mech thralls, the army must be able to fend off any risks for the objective.

Adaptability: The army has to be able to react to forces on the battlefield as well as be able to strike out when needed. This is where a well rounded army comes into play. Having components that can throw off your opponent's plans wherever they are needed can keep the enemy on their heels. The other factor here is just how many models/ units your army has. (don't forget to take into account system rules like troops only scoring) A small army, no matter how hard core its individual units are, just can't adapt well enough to win scenario games.

So... some examples:

35 Point Cryx List
eSkarre
Seether
Nightwretch
Leviathan
6 raiders + sea witch
6 blood witches + hag
necrosurgeon
warwitch siren.

The army brings the mobility with high speed across the board, especially in the Satyxis raiders with an 18" run movement. The leviathan is the only "slow" model in the army, but it's 13" range with the spiker makes up for that. Sustainability? eSkarre's feat is the "queen" of sustainability. The blood witches also can go incorporeal and make it very hard to pull them away from a target.  Adaptability? This army is a little small, but every model in the army has a threat range that allows them to strike out when and where they need to.

1500 pt Imperial Guard
Company Command Squad (med, standard, plasma gun, vox commander w/ p-fist)
   -Chimera
Infantry Platoon: Command squad w/ 3 flamers and vox.
      3 x infantry squad w/ vox, hvy bolt. grenade launcher
     Heavy wep. squad w/ 3 las cannons
Vet Squad w/ 3 meltas vox and sgt w/ p-fist
Valkyrie w/ multi rocket pods
3 armored sentinels (auto cannon x2 + 1 plasma cannon)
Leman Russ Demolisher
Hellhound

This is my normal IG rollout at 1500 points. I built it to be as well rounded as possible. The chimera and Valkyrie allow some advanced mobility with the sentinels able to keep up for fire support. Sustainability is the guard's middle name, just through strength of numbers. The list also has enough armor to make it tough to crack for melee heavy armies. Adaptability comes through the well rounded weapon distribution in the army. I'm a big fan of heavy bolters, grenade launchers, and auto cannons as some of the most dependable weapons in the guard arsenal.

So there's some more wacky ideas. Feel free to add!

Scenario Gaming vs. Scorched Earth Gaming: Part One

All wargames seem to have two sides to them. Scenario Gaming and Scorched Earth or "Wipe Out" style gaming. For today's blog-tastic bit of wargaming wit and wisdom we're going to look at scenario gaming and the types of armies that excel at this type of gaming.

Scenario gaming is exactly what it sounds like. The game's victory conditions are based around some kind of objective. Whether it's the Capture and Control style missions prevelant in 40k 5th Edition, the old school (and returned versions in battle missions) ambush and breakout missions, or the plethora of missions in the Warmachine tournament document this style of Wargaming seems to be "en vogue" right now, with even WFB changing to scenarios in 8th. The presumed theory is that this is a more realistic method of deciding the victor in our make believe wars. Is it a good indicator of battle and success? When the Allies landed at Normandy beach the battle was technically won or lost by the control of certain pieces of ground. As the landing forces were put ashore they were pushing towards the highground to secure the landing zone. Sounds like a good example of scenario gaming to me. In fact it actually sounds like a "Planetstrike" game for 40k. (complete with deep striking Airborne regiments that scattered... badly) Jumping back a little less than 100 years, look at the battle of Gettysburg. Studying the entire battle as a 4 day campaign an astute gamer can see a scenario based "game" come to light. Each portion of the battle was a series of take and hold missions with very clear attackers and defenders. From Buford's control of the high ground outside the city as Heath's divisions poured down the road to the failed attempts by the Confederacy to "take and hold" the Roundtops or to "Breakthrough" the center of the Union line in Pickett's charge.

One thing seems to be missing though, in none of these examples were there "objectives" in the other armies "deployment" zone. The German officers weren't looking at each other saying "get a platoon down on that beach and take that place where the boats are landing." Nope, they were snug in their machine gun nests mowing down Americans as they ran across the beach until through superiority in numbers and heroism the American troops got through. Likewise, Buford didn't have some of his calvary mount up and try to ride around the flank of Heath's corp to take a special spot back behind the baggage line. Chamberlain stopped his men when they got too far away from his lines, didn't send some forward into A.P. Hill's lines looking for an objective. He held his position, pushed back the enemy and consolidated his forces.

It's easy to see "why" we have these objectives for game balance, but would it be more interesting to have the majority of scenarios include an attacker and defender? I really liked the old (read 3rd edition) 40k missions with attackers and defenders and before we put 40k aside to focus on Warmachine recently, I was happy with the new turn towards attacker and defender situations. Some of the intangibles of "real life" scenario battles are hard to represent in game turns as well. While every wargame has some kind of psychology mechanic, they all fail to the reality of watching your buddies die horribly while your officers seem to be unsure of what to do next. This factor, more than any other, probably is the realistic indicator of the swing of a battle. Likewise, I haven't played a game yet where the ammunition of the units was tracked. Of course this would be a nightmare logistically in the relatively abstract world of wargaming, but using my earlier example of the battles at the Roundtops, Chamberlain only ordered his famous wheel manuever down the hill because his men were out of ammo. ("Brother Sergeant, the bolter rounds are running low." "I see. Brothers? Draw your steel we take this battle to the xenos scum, for the Emperor!") The other interesting gaming condition is our concept of turns. I find limited turns to be the most unnatural thing hoisted on wargamers with regards to scenario gaming. What if the game ended when Amistead's men had reached the "High Water Mark" of Pickett's charge? Does the Confederacy then win the day three battle even though the entire Union army is standing right there? What if the Spartan player rolls to end the game after the Persians loose the Immortals in the second night of Thermopylae. Hundreds of thousands of Persian warriors waiting to see that the inevitable happens, but hey, I rolled well, so Spartans win! Just something to think about.

Ok, so I've babbled a heck of a lot about not much. But what kind of armies thrive in scenario gaming? In part two of my random thoughts we'll look at armies that thrive in this type of game.

Please add any thoughts or examples of your own on Scenario gaming in the comments section.

Feral Warpwolf and Kromac the Ravenous

I have nothing witty or pithy to say tonight. No Warmachine tonight but hopefully some this weekend. Here's some pics of my WIP Circle stuff!

Upcoming Projects or Why I Love Wargaming...

I love this hobby. That's the focus of this post tonight. We've gotten a lot of great games in recently, I've been painting up a storm, read some great fiction and am just on a real high for this insane hobby of ours. I was listening to the re-launch of 40k radio tonight while starting my new painting project and was thinking about how long I've been at this. I started back in '97 with WFB simply from a hobby perspective and had an entire painted army that never played a game. From there I launched into 40k and have stayed steadily involved there on and off with a few side steps back into WFB and now, most recently, fell into Privateer Press. The hobby gives me my fill of art, good story telling, brain exercise, and time with my friends. It's a rare hobby that offers all of those things, and the payback on time and even money spent has always been worth it. The time with friends alone, and the competitve trash talking side that comes with it, is often priceless. On the other side, we were able to host a successful benefit tournament last year to raise over $2000 for Cancer Research.

My other big hobby sink is cycling. I actually spend much more time on the bike than I do painting or playing, but something I realized the other day is that my mind often wanders back to wargaming during the merciless fifty to seventy five mile rides that mid summer brings. I was climbing some rough hills the other day and planning the color scheme on my new Circle Army. I enjoy the mental workouts that the hobby brings even when not being directly engaged in. Cycling is a solo hobby no matter how many club rides you go on. The hours on the bike often give me time to think about many things, but I do plan and contemplate my various armies while I ride and enjoy that "double diversion" both hobbies can bring. Both hobbies also give me a chance to "unwind." I have a very intensive day job and whether it's a two hour painting session after my wonderful wife goes to bed or a two hour hills workout, those two hobbies allow me to stay a little sane.

So enough waxing on the fun of this hobby of ours... some new painting project updates.
-pSkarre 35 pt Army: Done!
-eSkarre 35 pt Army: Done!
Next on the table is my Circle Orboros 35 point Army. I entered the Hordes Painting Challenge over at http://www.tabletopgamingnews.com/ and will be working on a Kromac army for the challenge. I don't know how much I want to play the army right now, as I really enjoy my Cryx armies, but I enjoy the change up for the painting table. The army looks like this right now:
Kromac
Pureblood Warpwolf
Feral Warpwolf
Warpwolf Stalker
Druids + UA
Shifting Stones
This should be a pretty quick paint project, as I already have Kromac's human form and the feral warpwolf totally finished as of tonight. After that I think I'll be adding to my Cryx armies or maybe finally paint up my Space Hulk set for a change of pace.

Warmachine Tournament Report with Pics.

Well our first WM tourney was today. I went down with Joe and Brandon fully expecting to just have some fun. This was my first time to Games and Stuff in Glen Burnie, and I have to say it is an impressive store with an awesome gaming space. Only problem was the air conditioner wasn't working in the gaming area. It crested at 98 degrees outside today, so it was a little warm in there. The heat didn't get to me til game three, but by then my brain was fried.

Game one. I played a really nice guy who ended up winning the whole tournament. He brought Khador and had pIrusk against me. I was rattled for some reason and made mistake after mistake while my dice seemingly had joined the motherland as I was steady dropping ones and twos on three even four dice. I got ganked by battle lusted Kayazy assassins who were able to leave combat and beat Skarre down. It was a frustrating, but educational game.

Game two was against a beautifully painted Circle army headed up by Baldur. The scenario was kill box. All the luck I didn't have in game one came in this game. I was able to really rip up his army using Blackspot and the leviathan while the Satyxis captain was leaping in, offing a model and jumping back. In the end however, my opponnent moved Baldur with a teleport to get him away from certain death via charging eSkarre, Seether and Blood Witches only to find he was an inch out of the kill box after the 'port! Victory to the pirate Queen!

Game Three was against Joe. We travel for an hour to play warmachine, and end up playing a rematch of last week's garage game. The game was gauntlet and we went back and forth, but in the end ran out of time with Joe having one control point. I could talk about how I could of won it, but he played a much better game than I did, and deserved the win. He went on to get 'jack slapped by a Khador list so I felt better...

Game Four. At this point it was a million degrees, and already 6pm. I hadn't eaten anything and was developing a raging headache. My opponnent was a legion player with a pThag list with plenty of beasts in a close quarters scenario. We smashed into each other, killed a few models, healed our casters. But as 7pm rolled around and realizing we were not in any place to claim a prize, we decided to call it a draw. He was a good guy, with a vicious list. I'd like to play it again, in the air conditioning, and as my first game of the day.

So... in the end? More practice needed. Hordes is tough and I think I'm still hitting too piecemeal. eSkarre felt much more prepared to deal with the scenarios and the tougher lists. pSkarre seemed to rely on getting lucky. Still plan on sticking to the lists, but definitely need to play them some more.

Mechanithralls and Final Tournament Prep

First, here's my finished max unit of Mechanithralls in all their shambling, rotten, steam punk glory. I had fun painting these guys, and tried to keep them simple so I could turn over the whole unit quickly. The skin is a base coat of hormagaunt purple, then thrall flesh washed with the flesh tone citadel wash and then highlighted again with thrall flesh. All the gore, muscles, etc. is citadel dark flesh, highlighted with red gore and washed in old school chestnut ink. I stuck with the dark flesh for the highlights on all the hoses and such and gave them a few different ink washes to make them look suitably grimy. The armor is tin bitz highlighted with pig iron and then liberally washed with Devlan Mud. The skulls were Jack Bone, highlighted with Menoth White Highlight and then washed with sepia citadel wash. Finally I picked out the eyes and vents with necrotite green and then one last highlight with the green mixed with white. I painted these guys in groups of three (except for the color test model) which seemed to make them go down much easier.

In my pSkarre army I'm taking for the tourney tomorrow the Mechanithralls exist to tarpit away objectives. The necrosurgeon will keep a stitch thrall and herself close to the unit to make sure she can replenish any unfortuante casualties and that alone should make these power fisted skeletons a thorn in anyone's side. If my opponent wants them gone, he will have to focus more than just a few shots or a wayward solo on them. The mechanithralls also pose a serious threat under Dark Guidance and Skarre's feat turn, so I'm going to keep an eye for any opening when they can make a quick move on a jack and tear it apart.

Tournament Tomorrow!

So we will be making the trek down to Games and Stuff tomorrow to see how we fare against other Warmachine players. My lists are set, pSkarre and eSkarre, and since the variant being used requires both lists see equal play, I'm glad I got some play testing in last Wednesday night. I'm going in expecting to lose so any victory will be huge. Look back tomorrow night for a full report, hopefully with some pictures!

Warmachine Tournament Lists + "The Kill Mechanic"

So Sunday is the Warmachine Tournament... after tonight I think I've cemented my two lists. I want to predict that I will lose every game on Sunday, but it'll still be fun. I won three in a row tonight, but two of them I really had no right to win. In one my opponent's dice just didn't like him, and the other I won through my opponent forgetting to do something before moving on in his activation. We did play with timed turns which was strangely intense.

So the lists:

LIST ONE:
pSkarre
Skarlock
Seether
Deathripper
minSatyxis Raiders + UA
min Satyxis Blood Witches +UA
Max Mech Thralls
Necro Surgeon
3 Black Ogrun
Satyxis Raider Captain

LIST TWO:
eSkarre
Leviathan
Nightwretch
Seether
Warwitch Siren
min Raiders + UA
min Bloodwitches +UA
Satyxis Raider Captain

The second list seems to be a little more cagey and built for scenario play, while the first is my run forward, punch enemy in face and hope for the best.

So our discussion tonight, post games, was "the kill mechanic" of a Warmmachine list. How does your list get the job done. In our group we have a great Retribution army based on Garryth which can shoot through things with mage hunters, move all over the place and generally set up a ranged assassination run pretty quickly. We also have a Khador list that is a huge swarm of Winterguard which are there to clear out the rest of the army leaving things open to a Sorscha feat turn that spells death and destruction. Our Legion player uses the speed of his beasts to set up eLyl for a ranged hit and our troll player has Mulg. Just Mulg. Throughout all of these, we've noticed ourselves developing a definite series of events that are our "kill mechanic." In looking at my tourney lists, I see two kill mechanics for each list. The first for both lists is the raider + backlash = dead caster, Against Warmachine armies, this will probably be my main plan for putting the hurt on my opponent. In the pSkarre list, the kill mechanic is definitely her feat turn. Get a charge lane for Skarre or the Seether, or even any of the units, pop feat and hope for the best. The e Skarre kill mechanic is a little more vague. In that list, I think the KM is also based around her feat, but this time it's all about putting the opponent in a position where he's over extended, and now can't do anything for a turn. I think that this gets inside an army and puts them in a spot where there are several ways to do the deed... a "black spot" if you will...

So that's my two cents after an evening of drinking and Warmachine. I'd like to see some actual comments on this post. What's the kill mechanic in your army? Is it usually the same? What's the "perfect set up" that gets you the win?

Also... anyone interested in my earlier mentioned D&D campaign being run this summer check out http://www.whispersofeberron.blogspot.com/. We'll be keeping a running log there of everything that happens in game. We had an awesome lead off 7 hour session last weekend. Board game night last week entailed two great rounds of Killer Bunnies and the Search for the Magic Carrot. Some night when I'm not so tired, I'll put a review of that awesome game on the blog.

Getting Ready For My First Warmachine Tourney

Before I start with tonight's engrossing blog topic, I just want to relate to everyone how fricking hot it is in Baltimore right now. 105 degrees yesterday and 101 today. I was on the road on the bike for a 25 mile ride this morning before 7am and it was still 90+ degrees by the time I got done... I love summer, but this is a wee bit ridiculous... especially considering that five months ago we were buried under almost five feet of snow... but I digress...

So on to things Warmachine related. Severl of the members of our gaming group have decided to attend our first ever Warmachine Steamroller Tournament on July 18th. We're going to travel the grueling 45 minutes down I-95, through the Harbor Tunnel to a land of grim darkness, spoken of only in hushed whispers by those too foolish to know better... Glen Burnie.

We're not newbies to wargame tournaments, having played in quite a few 40k events over the years, but this should be interesting. Warmachine seems to be a little more intense in the tournament circles, so who knows how this will shake out. Combined with the fact that we are still a little new to the rules, and I'm just a little nervous about the whole deal.

So, what does one do when going to a tournament? (well after securing the freedom for the day from the wife that is...) Probably a good idea to start by reading the rules. Privateer makes it easy with their steamroller rules all in one place. http://privateerpress.com/files/Revised_SR2010(2).pdf Here they are if you'd like to read along.

So going through the rules, the first two sections aren't anything new. Bring your own stuff and have printed army lists. Nothing different for a 40k tourney scene vet. The next section is about painting and modeling. Again a moot point as I try to only bring painted armies to events. For anyone who's interested though, Privateer events do not require painted models, which is nice for some of the guys in our group who are... slow.. when it comes to painting. From there it's sportsmanship and pairing information, again nothing out of the ord. Be nice, play fair, good people play good people, we will end up in the bottom teir.

Next we hit turn length. This IS something a little new. 10 minutes per turn is going to feel rushed for me since I really tend to pay a lot of attention to things and think things through before moving my models. Add in the fact that my A list will be infantry heavy, and I'm a little concerned.

Then the rules get into scenarios. We haven't played many scenarios as we've learned the game, so this will be interesting. The change in deployment zones makes sense, no big deal. Then the scenarios... Most scenerios seem to revolve around controling zones. A little close reading also shows that assasination will always win. The flag missions seem a little more complicated, and will probably just lead to assasination attempts. I definitely think we will need to practice the scenarios over the next two weeks.

What to bring? My next step is going to be to start to build some lists. I'll post them as I iron out what I'm taking this week, but I think the best bet will be to stick to what I've been playing.

Tomorrow night is board game night, so not much WM to address, but I hope to get some pics of my Mech Thralls up.

Have a great one!

A Thousand Sons: Quick Review

Ahh summer, the time of year when I get caught up on my reading.

As I mentioned a post or two ago, the first fiction of the summer was Graham McNeil's A Thousand Sons (ATS.) As Horus Heresy books go, this one was decent. I put it just below the excellent Flight of the Eisenstein and above Legion. Nothing still touches the original trilogy or the gem that was Fulgrim in my mind. Hand's down though, the best Horus Heresy story is the World Eaters short story with Kharn playing therapist to Angron, but I digress.

Anyway, ATS is part one of a two part look at the Thousand Sons and their role in the Heresy. Without spoiling too much, there really isn't any great reveal in this novel, as the plot sticks pretty close to the cannon as it has been developed over the years, with the addition of Magnus' motivations as revealed in Horus Rising.

The Good: Magnus and Arihman are characters. Not just Black Library characters, but actually have a little bit of development to them. Everyone else was a name and stereotype, but these two actually shined. We also get another glimpse at the Big E himself in this book and he is treated much more heroically than what we saw in Legion and the short story anthology. The action is hot and heavy, with a real focus on the fact that Magnus and his legion were full fledged sorcerers. We've seen nothing like this in 40k fiction and some of the battle scenes were very cool. The theme of hubris was well developed for the first 3/4 of the novel, but became a little heavy handed towards the end. Magnus screwed up. We got it. He thought he could do anything. Yep, you made it clear. The twenty or so monologues and expositions about how blind and stupid Magnus thought he was just really felt like repeated kicks to the teeth.

The Bad: Remembrancers... ugh. Can someone writing for BL please figure out how to include them in the story so they don't all seem exactly the same? Is there a Horus Heresy plot guide that says, "all Remembrancers will consist of a wise old man, a physically attractive woman with strange powers and a male figure with a heart of gold who is taken in by the Astartes and ends up feeling betrayed. Oh, by the way, make sure at least one Remembrancer dies in some really over the top manner to try to elicit an emotional response." Beyond that, it felt like this novel suffered from trying to stuff too much into its pages. The descriptions of Prospero were really flat, because McNeil was trying to tell us too much about its history and have a subplot going on. The Space Wolves were also written in such a way that they seemed like a legion of goons. It will be interesting to read Abnett's take to see if this was simply due to point of view, or if the BL cannon is set on the Wolves now.

Overall, not a bad read for proprietary fiction. I still hold that the whole series should of been written as one long series in chronological order with viewpoint chapters a la George Martin or Michael Sharra. The next book in the series is released this month and focuses on assasins!?!

So that's your lit review for the night. Speaking of George Martin, is that guy ever gonna write his next book? Man, it's been like five years!

BTW, don't forget the Tour de France started yesterday. This year's tour is shaping up to be one for the history books, so even if you're not a cycling fan, try to catch some of it. It's much more exciting than World Cup soccer....  kidding... some what....
  Go team Radio Shack! Go Lance!

Satyxis! Part 2

So last time I took a look at painting the flesh tones on the lovely ladies of Cryx. Tonight I'll hit some of the other painting pieces but also give my spin on how the three Satyxis choices work out in an army.

Painting The Horns: The white horns on my Satyxis are a four part process. Over black primer, I give a base coat of jack bone. This is highlighted with Menoth White highlight on the ridges of the horns with special attention given to the point of the horn, while leaving more of the base at the bottom. After letting this dry completely, I was the horns with Citadel Gryphonne Sepia. The wash finishes off the shade and helps blend the base and the highlight together. The final stage is simply putting the model under my shop light and hitting the final highlights with some Menoth White Highlight. Skarre's horns were done in a much more elaborate method, but that's why she's a warcaster!

Metal: The satyxis in my army have two different metal tones. Their silver and their gold. All of my metal is given a base of Citadel Tin Bitz. For the silver, I lightly overbrush Beaten Iron leaving just a hint of the Bitz showing at the bottom of things to make the metal look a little more worn. I highlight with mithril silver and usually wash with Devlan mud to dull everything out a bit. The golds are also based on tin bits, but use a Vallejo Gold paint instead of P3 or Citadel. I highlight with a hint of Mithril Silver and usually do a watered down Chestnut Ink wash to give my golds a red hue.

The Girls In My Army: As of right now, my satyxis raiders have more caster kills under their belts than any other unit I've run. The raiders are my shock troops, but I still play a little cautious when it comes to sticking them out there. Even with the Seawitch's incredible boost to their survivability, they can't stand concentrated efforts to bring them down. I tend to make use of their speed and pathfinder to have them work the flanks to look for a nice juicy warjack to go after. With the release of the captain, this strategy is working even better as she makes them faster than ever and immune to knockdown effects. Coupled with pSkarre, I've found this unit to be absolutely awesome. Double feedback kills casters if you can get it off. Dark Guidance and the Sea Witch's powerswell kill anything you need dead. Don't forget to keep an eye out for crits on the lacerators for the knockdown effect and don't forget to attack with the girls' horns!

The Blood Witches are much more of a speedbump unit in my mind. Run them up. Mix 'em in. Kill off some infantry. Use the Hag's mini feat to stay alive for another turn, and really throw a wrench in your opponent's plans. The Blood Witches shouldn't be taking on anything other than infantry. First they don't seem to be able to do much against jacks, but secondly the effects on their weapons are made to kill lots of one wounds guys. With gang putting them at a respectable MAT 8, odds are they are going to hit. If you get a kill against regular infantry, you are almost garunteed a second with the mini sac strike ability granted to the unit. Alternatively, start creating clouds and shield the bulk of your army that is coming up the middle.

So there's my two cents. All opinions are based only on my experiences, so please point out any holes in my reasoning! I hope to have some Mechanithrall pics up for everyone soon. Happy Fourth of July!

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!

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.

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!

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" \

 

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.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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!

Helljacks! Cryxian Heavy Metal

Light the necrotite fires and kick the Cryxian tires! (come to think of it... does anything in Immoren have tires? ) Today's entry is all about HELL JACKS! I've had a great long weekend and am coherent enough to actually type some thoughts, so here goes...

The Cryxian Heavy Jack: Everyone has read the facts about Cryxian heavy jacks before, high defense, low armor, high hitting power, small damage grid. Our jacks are fast though... incredibly fast, and often allow us to bring the pain where we want it. My personal experiences with helljacks are confined to the Slayer, the Leviathan, the Reaper, and the Seether. The Deathjack also has found its way to my table, but we'll save him for another blog entry.

Slayer

The slayer is a heavy jack costed like most faction's light jacks. When I first started WM a few months ago, the slayer found its way into all of my lists. Skarre can load a slayer with focus and it can tear apart anything short of a Khadoran heavy jack with ease. The two open fists are tons of fun enabling all the throw shenanigans you can think of. Recently, the slayer has been more of a body guard for my casters. Kept close to intercept anything nasty that comes their way. The 6" move gives him plenty of threat range.

Leviathan

I'm still not so sure how to use this bad boy. I started a thread on the PP forums that went on for a week as people argued for and against this jack. In my eyes, the no knockdown and rather impressive ranged attack make it a good choice if you have a caster who can fuel its focus habit. This thing is the crack head of focus. It needs all three focus to be efficient, one or two focus just won't cut it. My favorite trick of late has been to couple this with eSkarre so procing Black Spot can lead to 6 shots, great for thinning infantry or for putting a whumping on a heavy jack. Worth mentioning is also the fact that this thing is amphibious (see my base!) which may seem kind of pointless, but we have a few water features in our terrain respository which allows my some interesting options. I love the look of this jack, and thematically he fits with my "Black Ship" army, so he figures into my lists quite often.

Reaper

Other than my propensity for the Mortal Kombat line, the Reaper is just not my favorite jack. The harpoon is cool, but I can't seem to ever get it to land, even boosted. I'd rather save the point and take the Slayer. I have run the Reaper with my Black Ogrun in a crazy "let's move everything around" list, but in the end it just seemed rather silly.

Seether

Best. Jack. Ever. Period. Free focus every turn, free runs and charges, hits like a tank, chain attack for free power attack... the Seether has become my favorite jack and my main assasination tool. The Seether is so focus efficient, it's feasible to have a turn when you don't allocate him any focus, and he still can go to town. Coupled with a Siren, the Seether really rarely needs his warcaster to give him any help short of buffs. The Seether is in pretty much every one of my lists these days.

Painting wise... here's the three Helljacks I have finished. I've continued my beach bases on these, including the leviathan who is still in the water. The seether is the only one to pick up the purple that is the unifying color of my army. Any comments on the other Helljacks would be very appreciated!

Kromac the Ravenous: Painting

Here's a few rough shots of Kromac (who is 95% done) Even though I'm not going to paint my circle army anytime soon, Kromac really had to be painted in parts, and I wanted to get him together so I could get him on the table.

The skin is a different mix than I normally use. I worked up from a brown base, with no washes or glazes. I'm quite happy with the finished product. As anyone who has painted this model can tell you, the sheer ammount of brown doodads hanging off this guy can be maddening. I used three shades of brown and my trusty pot of devlan mud to get it done relatively quickly.

When it comes time for the entire Circle army to get some paint, I'll be sticking to the dark nuetreal tones for all of the Tharn units and switching to a dark green theme for the Reeves and Druids of Orboros. But... there's a lot of horny pirate ladies and undead pirates who need paint first!

My Hobby Workspace

When I moved into my current house almost 9 years ago, one of the selling points was a great little room in the basement with built in shelving that just screamed "hobby room!" While that room holds all of my various hobby stuff, armies, books, terrain, etc. my painting area has invaded the main downstairs family room and is pictured above. The table is an old wooden table that I saved from an untimely end at a yard sale. Makes it a lot easier to ignore all of the paint stains and occasional knife marks in it... I have two paintere 80 paint organizers. The first has my citadel colors and washes while the second holds all my P3 and Valejo paints. The white metal rack on the cart has all my "craft paint" which is mostly used for terrain and such. The wooden cart holds my airbrush and all the supplies that go with it as well as my foundation paints and all the misc. wierd stuff like water effects, foam snow, etc. My water cups have been the same plastic cups for the last five years and my pallet cost somewhere around .50 at the local craft store.

I have two gooseneck lamps set up, one with a daylight bulb the other with an old fashined 75 watt bulb. The light is vital.

Just a quick shot of the inner nerd sanctum.

Well that's all for tonight's re-boot entry. Next time, look for some updates on my Cryx army, a WIP of my first Hordes warlock and maybe more...

REBOOT

So I've been thinking about this blog a bit, and would like to give it a bit of a revamp as the summer months come rolling in. I've been very hobby oriented lately, and as I'll have some free time on my hands, I want to add a little to the hobby community in the shape of this endless ramble known as my blog. So... look for some rapid fire new posts talking about various hobby topics, starting this week with a quick series on the Workspace I've built for myself.
Until next time
-D-9

CryxTier anticipation and Some Reflections

So after my thumping last night I think the leviathan may be a bad idea... In the first game I played he shot well and then got torn apart by angry elves. In game 2 he missed... and lost me the game. In other game revelations, aggressive play is definitely the way to win at Warmachine. Looking at my list from last night (pSkarre, 3 black ogrun, 6 satyxis raiders, sea witch, 6 mcthralls, necrosurgeon, skarlock, leviathan, and deathripper) I feel like I need to use the speed of the army more effectively. The win seems to hinge upon something being in melee in turn 2. If that doesn't happen, I tend to lose. The min raiders and sea witch almost dropped Typhon last night (3 bubbles) and the mech thralls almost dropped a carniveran, a few more lucky dice rolls and they would of demolished two of the tougher beasts in the Legion list.

So the question I've been pondering is, what will Skarre's tiers look like? I'm assuming she'll have satyxis in both her prime and epic incarnations. I'm concerned that the necrosurgeon and skarlock won't be in the running, especially after seeing the squire not show up in a lot of the Cygnar lists and now the choir lacking in many of the Menoth tiers. I'm hoping that the ogrun will show up since they certainly fit the pirate-y theme, and then? Revenant crew? Blackbanes? Mech thralls? It's probably safe to assume that she won't have access to the Deathjack or Sirens, so some of the jack management tools that eSkarre likes will be gone as well. C'mon may 19th...

So another week of work, but with my schedule starting to clear a little bit (there's light at the end of the tunnel!) I hope to be updating this site a little more often. Keep an eye out!

Go O's!

Cyrx Update

Well I think it's safe to say that Warmachine is the official game of our group these days. I'm steadily getting my Cryx painted up. With tonight's latest batch of models I've finished

pSkarre

eSkarre

pDenny

Deathripper

Slayer

5 Satyxis+ Succubus

Necrosurgeon + 3 stitch thralls

Skarlock

Sea Witch

I have a leviathan sitting on my painting table right now and after him I think the next order of business is a unit of mech thralls. Oh well, pics for your enjoyment.