Storm Strider: Almost Done!

Tonight brought a present surprise as I actually got a big chunk of prime time painting in. My wonderful wife was working on sewing Christmas gifts while I got a great two hours of uninterupted time. I finished one of the last two boomy trolls and then turned all my attention on the Storm Strider.

First, some information for anyone thinking of painting one of these.
Don't.
This has to be one of the most boring models I've ever painted. Don't get me wrong, I think it is incredibly cool looking, but man do those glowy circles get repetitive. This is coming from the guy that painted a forgeworld Brass Scorpion... without an airbrush! I lost my motivation to actually finish this model over the summer, but tonight saw me actually complete the bulk of the battle engine. All that is left to finish is the arch assembly with the tesla coils and the two crewmen.

Pictures!

Tharn Wolf Rider: 1 Down, 2 to Go!

Nothing much to report tonight. Had a great Thanksgiving with friends, family, football and food. Got some nice bike rides in due to the mild weather we've been having. Ordered some stuff from the various webstores' BF deals. The Circle Battle Engine is probably the high point of those orders. Played some D&D last night, but no miniatures gaming action to report. Wednesday night will get our weekly matches back on schedule though. In the meantime, here's some shots of the Circle stuff I'm working on.

When I get to the Bloodtrackers I'll do a step by step how to for painting these girls. I did the wolf riders on a black undercoat, which I probably won't use for the 'trackers. I'm still fairly happy with the final product with this model. I decided that all the Tharn in the army will be relatively healthy looking with skin tones built up from browns and tans to flesh colors. The women will favor red and blond hair. I'll probably work in some celtic tatoo motifs on the trackers when they aren't so bunched up.

Domination Thoughts

Finally finished a full read of Domination this afternoon and thought I'd throw up some initial impressions. For anyone who doesn't read my words of self adoration in blog form often, let me preface this pointless pontification with the fact that I'm a Circle player. (not in the dirty hippy druid way either, but in the eat your face, grr I'm a werewolf, way... but I digress....) Be aware: spoilers abound.

FLUFF: Wow, wow and wow again. I really enjoyed the story woven through the book. Circle seemed to get more than enough face time and Grayle came off as a very likeable and interesting character. I wanted more of the Kromac vs. Skorne subplot, but now Kromac will definitely want some revenge on Jarl, no good troll git... the last portion of the storyline puts the Skorne on the doorstep of Ios and sets up some very interesting plot twists in the ol' Iron Kingdoms. I wonder how close to the Warmahordes storyline the new IK RPG will be?

CIRCLE ADDITIONS: In my order from best to meh...
1: Gallows Grove: truly a game changer. At 1 point, these little arc nodes are going to be a lot of fun to experiment with.
2: Grayle: I like him, enough that he is going to be my caster in our club's slow grow league this winter. I think there's a lot going on with him, and he's different from everyone else Circle has to bring to the field.
3: Ghettorix: The fluff, the art, the abilities... this guy is pure win. He's a little pricy at 11 points, but should prove to be a very hard to kill beatstick for Kromac.
4: Scarsfell Griffon: Coming in at 5 pts, this guy has a lot of competition. Either way, his extended control and two handed throws could be a lot of fun, especially in a Kaya list.
5: Celestial Fulcrum: I think I might get one of these to try out. If nothing else the model is awesome. I don't know how survivable it will be though.
6: Winter Argus: again, 5 point bracket. Nice animus, cool sprays, doubt I'll ever get one.
7: eBaldur: just meh for me. No need for another new caster.

Overall, I really liked the book. I think PP continues to put awesome stuff together on all fronts and two years into their game, I'm still really enjoying it. Next on my reading list is the new Necron book, expect more there soon. Have some Tharn on my painting table right now and two more boomy trolls to finish before my Siege 35 pt list is done. Some pics later this week.

Circle Oroboros Weekend Results

First off, the beautiful above picture was taken on my bike ride yesterday. We are in prime time autumn weather in old Maryland right now, the rain has taken a break, and it is beautiful.

So I've had a chance to get quite a few games in with my Circle armies over the last few weeks. My Circle record since I started playing them again sits at 5-3 between the two casters.

Kromac had great success at 50 points against Ozzy last week, hitting and running with the Tharn and Lord of the Feast to win by objective. At smaller points he has struggled getting dropped by Garreth and the stupid Gators. Kaya split two games of battle box with Morghul, and I can see why she's not one of the more widely played casters. Her well of tricks is pretty damn shallow compared to the other warlocks in the faction. Krueger tore apart the Skorne twice in a row, once by assasination and once my objective and then went off and had a great, drawn out, game against the pirates of the Talion Charter finally giving Shae a wallopin personally for the win.

Our group is getting ready to start a slow grow shortly where I'll be playing Grayle. It will be interesting to see how he works.

My current 35 point lists that I've been playing

KROMAC

   - feral warpwolf

   - pureblood warpwolf

-6 bloodtrackers +Nuala

-3 wolf riders

-4 ravagers + chieftan

pKRUEGER

     -woldwarden

     -woldwyrd

     -feral warpwolf

-6 bloodweavers

-6 druids + overseer

-shifting stones + stonekeeper

Til next time!

Triumph and Siege

My Siege army is almost done. Reinholdt is being dullcoated and I have two Boomhowler trolls to finish. Here's the bad mamajama himself and his 'jack, Triumph.

Triumph has gotten a pretty rotten rap in the forums since his release, but I've enjoyed playing him. The extra point of RAT makes him pretty accurate even without boosting and arcane precision just goes another step towards making my Siege list my premier anti stealth foil. On top of all that, the model is one of my favorite jack sculpts.

In other Warmahordes news, my 50 pt. Circle game ended with a win over Joey Baltimore's angry elves. Kromac ran way back as a support lock while his army hit, ran, and claimed objectives. Looking forward for more circle fun this Wednesday!

Kromac is watching!