Finished Stryker 3

Just a few finished shots of a model I finished more than a year ago, but never posted.

Back to Cygnar: Stryker 3 and His Incredible Thunder Ponies!

So, my 6 lists for Cryx and Circle are 100% done. Joey Baltimore's first 50 point list is good, Hanan's first 50 point list is done and famous for its rapidity, and while I've got more work to do for them, I've got some time. I've decided to return to Cygnar with my painting.

My goal for Cygnar is to play Tier 4 Theme Forces. eStryker, eNemo, 3Nemo, 3Stryker, and eHaley. My first project is for the latest Stryker incarnation. 

This model is a giant PITA. It's on the smaller side of scale, and laden with detail. On top of that, the angles are crazy making it tough to get to everything. Here's what I have done:

Three Games with Nemo 3

Good evening gentle gamers!
No pretty pictures tonight, my humble apologies, just some thoughts on Cygnar's latest caster.

A beautiful night in the garage for the Carney Gaming and Drinking League. I rolled back to Cygnar tonight to give Nemo 3 a test drive and see how he performed. Some thoughts:

My List Building Plan: I wanted to take a tier list and focus on lightening damage to get the most out of the feat. At 35 points, that didnt give me a lot of wiggle room.

Nemo 3+ Finch
Thunderhead
Firefly

Min Stormguard
3x stormcallers
Stormstrider
min. Mechanics
Storm Tower

So going into the game I was happy with the zappy. Lots of extra damage on the feat turn (Nemo 3's feat gives an extra dice to all electrical damage that originates from within his control) and some shennigans with Nemo's ability to ignore his own troops for electroleaps.

The plan was good.

The outcome was not.

Game 1:  vs. Skorne. Nemo got too far up while trying to maximize his feat (which was impressive) but still got knifed in the face my Morghul.

Game 2: vs. Gators. Baranbas is still my least favorite caster to play in the game. Anyways, Nemo got to live the dream in the feat turn with a pretty impressive Thunderhead pulse, but I think I screwed up my order of activation and didn't clear as much as I should have. He failed an assasination attempt, but Barney was sitting at def. 19 and I just couldn't crack him. Scenario win for the dirty swamp suckers.

Game 3: vs. Skorne. Another great feat turn and then, damn those Skorne are fast... knife to the face... again.

0/3... not a good night for the reigning champ... not a good return to Cygnar...

Observations: Nemo 3 is fun. With some practice, he might be a good casual caster. I like my list. Nothing there that would be immediately shifted out. At 50 points I would definitely try to get a stormclad in there and some stormblades. The Strider has a home in this list, I just didn't play it too well tonight. The biggest problem is the Admiral Ackbar Conundrum...

The feat looks so good. His control area looks so big. Those damage rolls kill stuff so nicely...

IT'S A TRAP!

Every time I found myself too far forward, trying to get too tricky, then I died. Next time, a solid turn 2 feat that pumps up the strider, the storm tower and Nemo's gun is safe.

Finch is definitely equal to a squire. The free upkeep is awesome but the added focus during allocation is actually in a way slightly more valuable than a squire.

Any which way. Fun games tonight even with the losses. I am finding more and more that Circle is fitting my play style more than my other two factions, but always fun to mix it up.

Completed Stormwall

Last but not least for our marathon update tonight... the Stormwall.
He was fun to paint, but I wouldn't relish doing another one. He hasn't seen the table yet, as I just finished him tonight, but I look forward to seeing what kind of damage he can dish out. Looking forward to trying him with pHaley first and then pStryker... we shall see... now pics!

Cygnar: 3 35 Point lists Painted

well... almost painted.
I have one damn Boomhowler troll camped out, occupying my painting table.
But otherwise, look three 35 point lists + some other stuff!

Once that damn troll gets some paint on him, I'm taking a break from Cygnar for a while as 2012 is the year of the Circle. With our upcoming slow grow league I will be focusing on painting up Grayle and his merry band of forest dwelling outlaws and werewolves.

A List of Painted Stuff (if anyone cares)

Casters: eStryker, pStryker, Siege, eNemo

Jacks: Ol' Rowdy, Hammersmith, Stormclad, Cyclone, Charger, Thunderhead, Triumph

Solos: Stormsmith Stormcallerx3, Journeyman Warcaster, Squire, Capt. Arlan Strangeways, Eiryss

Units: 2 units of stormblades w/ UA and 1 WA, 6 stormguard, 6 Arcane Tempest Gun Mages +UA, Black 13th, 2 Trencher Chainguns, Boomhowler and Co. (minus one damn troll...)

Battle Engine: Storm Strider

Finished Storm Strider Pics.

It is done. I've been working on this model on and off since it was released back in July and it's finally finished. It's an incredible piece, but it was boring as all get out to paint. The repetitive nature of the circles on the legs and the ball made it very difficult to sustain interest over long painting sessions.

The blues are my normal Cygnar recipe (GW blue foundation, cygnar blue base, cygnar blue high light, then arcane blue in various levels of blend) minus the wash I normally give everything to tie the colors together. On the larger pieces the washes tend to look dirty. The silver on the ball is pig iron and mithril silver with some light arcane blue washes worked in for shadows. The golds are pretty straightforward metallic work with some brown washes for shadowing. The interior of the nodes followed the suggesstions in wrath, and I'm pretty happy with the result. The road on the base is all green stuff with a few bits added for color like the broken menoth shield. So anyway... pictures!

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!

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!

Tournament Results

After a week of prep Sunday was tournament day! 8 people showed up including three of us from the Carney Garage Warmachine League. The armies were Cygnar heavy with a Cryx army, 2 rets and minions rounding out the field. Overall everything was very well organized and laid out. The store is a great place to shop and play and if you live near Harford County, Maryland you should definitely check out Critical Hit Games.

GAME 1: eNemo vs. pCaine  WIN
My first game was against a very well played pCaine tier 4 list. Through some lucky repair rolls and Nemo's spells I was able to pop the pulse from t-head twice, frying a lot of gun mages. I eeked out a scenario win... barely. This was one of the most enjoyable games of Warmachine I've played in a long time.

GAME 2: eStryker vs. Barnabas LOSS

Meh. I lost to Hanan. I lose to Hanan in the garage all the time, why should a tournament be any different? I hate the gators. I know people complain about Legion being broken, but the damn gator list is just unfair. Barnabas pulled off a caster kill, but only because I was out there collecting victory points after I knew I was going to lose on scenario the next turn.

GAME 3: eStryker vs. pSkarre  WIN

Last game was a pSkarre/ eStryker show down. My feet turn worked very well allowing my storm guard and stormblades to roll a lot of thralls and satyxis. Skarre feated and sat on focus until her armor was 28. While her armor was 28, the path to her was clear. I over boosted, rolled an 11, rolled 7 for damage, then energized and charged smashing skarre down with my second hit. Caster kill win, turn three. The cryx player was another really nice guy. All and all, an enjoyable game.

So by my math, I came in third in the tournament. I'll warn you that my math sometimes ignores the laws of the universe so I may be off by 1 or 10 places. I had fun though and am looking forward to the next event.

Thinking of finishing off my Siege army and then taking a painting break from Cygnar (so.,.. much.... blue...) which might see the Circle coming off the shelf.

Be well!
D-9

Tournament Armies: Final Touches with 4 days to Go!

As predicted... it is raining in Baltimore. (Any other Counting Crows fans that get the reference? no? didn't think so...) I knocked out a 12 hour work day today so tonight's tourney update may be a bit abbreviated.

In getting ready for this weekend's shindig I wanted to take a look at my armies and see if there was anything they needed. I touched up a few paint chips here and there, but there was something else that I've been putting off for way too long.

Arc Markings.

Not to be confused with things measured in cubits or the autobots ship, arc marks are (for the non warmahordes crowd) simply two marks placed on a model's base to delineate front and rear arcs. They are also a fiddly little bit of painting that I have been ignoring up to now. So before Sunday I have to mark two entire 35 point armies...

I made a template to help things move a little faster.

And then started the process of putting base markings on the models. I went for a gradient of blue with a pattern to make them a little more unique. Here's the rough take:

It looks pretty good on all the models I've finished, and goes a long way towards tying the lists together. Tomorrow night should see all the infantry finally finished and then the armies will be ready to go. Here's a shot of everything I'm taking in both lists:

So that's it for tonight. I hope to give one last update pre-tournament and then check back Sunday night for all the various sundry details from a day of Warma-fun.

Oh... while I had the camera out, I took a few shots of some of the things both done and in progress on my painting table:



Warmachine Tourney Prep. 5 days out

Greetings from B-More where we had a beautiful day. After work I jumped on the bicycle and pulled a quick 27 miles of hills and soaked up some fall sunshine.

Tomorrow. It will rain. It's been like freaking Seattle here lately...

Anyways, you; my fellow nerds, care not for my weather commentary or how insane my bike ride was today, so let's talk little toy soldiers!

Tournament draws closer. 5 days out. My wife and I have tickets for Macbeth on Friday night and we're playing D&D on Saturday night, so that timeline is even more abbreviated!

So today's blog entry, eNemo. yesterday I blogged about the eStryker list I plan on using. I definitely think Stryks is the more powerful list (at least in my unskilled hands) but my second list is going to be eNemo. Take a look at yesterday's blog for what's in the list.

I don't know this list as well as the Stryker list, and that's got me worried. This list is my counter to a stealth incorporeal threat, as the Black 13th make an appearance along with the Storm Callers.

A pulsing thunderhead can help clear pesky infantry and the Stormguard are great for holding an objective or chunking medium toughness enemies. Stormcallers are fun, I don't usually go for the crazy triangulations of doom as eNemo's bonus for the 'callers makes them great at simply sniping enemy models. The infantry though is not very important.

This list is all about the 'jacks. Thunderhead is my distractor. He's a big point sink and people seem to respond to him proportionately. While everyone is focusing on the Head (who is much more survivable with Polarity Shield or Fail Safe), my Hammersmith is loaded up on focus, upkept with lightening shroud and moving faster than expected under energizer to bash up what ever target is most juicy. The charger hangs back with Nemo giving him a LOS block and taking pot shots when possible until feat turn when it is loaded with focus and hopefully dropping a light jack or beast or at least a solo.

This list will have trouble winning scenario based games, but can do ok as long as it doesn't have to spread out too much. I'll have to be heads up if my opponent brings any warjack shut down lists (Skarre with Satyxis or any Ret list bringing Mage Hunters) and just use eStryker if possible.

 tomorrow's entry: Getting the models ready for play.

Heading to a Warmachine Tourney! Six Days Out!

So yesterday I laid out my considerations when choosing two armies for a tournament situation. I've come to my conclusion for the tournament. eStryker and eNemo.

Now if you don't play these casters (or if you don't enjoy a sneaky glimpse into the vast primordial chaos that is my mind) you might want to go read some Necron rumors or something, because I'm gonna get a little specific here.
You have been warned.
Wait a minute... I haven't read Necron rumors yet today.... brb...


The C'tan are gone? Really? Dag... anyways... back to our regularly scheduled series of rambling thoughts and half formed ideas already in progress.

So the lists.
LIST ONE:
eStryker
Squire
Ol' Rowdy
Stormclad
6x stormblades + UA+ 1 WA
6x stormblades + UA+ 1 WA
6x stormguard

LIST TWO:
eNemo
Squire
Charger
Hammersmith
Thunderhead
3x storm callers
Black 13th
Arlan Strangeways
6x stormguard

 Under my own criteria, the first thing about the list is Do I Know the List? I have played the eStryker list more than any other list I have owned so it's a big yes. I've won with eStryker, I've lost with eStryker, I've won on assasination, I've won on scenario (lost on both of them a lot too...) but I do feel comfortable with the list. eNemo is a little more of a wildcard, since I've only had about 10-12 games with the angry old man and his giant electro jack of doom, but I have at least played him a little bit.

Now some theory on the Stryker. eStryker is a very different game than eNemo, hence why I'm pairing them together. eStryks can handle a heavy infantry army with things like man o' wars and bastions or a jack heavy or beast heavy army. The stormblades hit hard with assault and a well placed feat turn can turn a battle line to pulp. Both heavy jacks are the best beat sticks that Cygnar can bring, and are relatively efficient focus wise leaving Stryker with enough focus to beat some things down, or take well aimed hand cannon shots. Rebuke is a powerful spell if I have to play stryker up.
 Stryker has enough infantry to try for a scenario win if the assasination isn't favorable, but it certainly isn't my first choice. Weaknesses are stealth and incorporeal models, in fact if I see an opponent carrying undead models with green glowy bits I might just park Stryks and take Nemo. Huge horde armies are also troublesome. The ideal win vector with this army is a path being cleared by stormblades and jacks so eStryker can blast through the hole, supercharge, and chop the enemy caster neatly in half with his ever so big sword.

The army is totally painted too, which is a big thumbs up.

Tomorrow: eNemo

More Finished Cygnar and Stormstrider WIP shots

Not a lot to say, just some pics of the latest finished models.

and... my latest WIP for the Storm Strider... it's is a huge model and is taking longer than I originally figured to get painted.

Constance Blaize: Theory and 35 Points

Wednesday night is Warmahordes night! This week is going to see my first foray with Cygnar's new caster from Wrath, Constance Blaize.

First Choice? FACTION: Connie is an ally caster, so she can function as a Cygnar caster OR as a Highborn merc caster. For fun, I'm going to run her as merc this week to use some models I haven't used before.

Connie as a Caster: In my mind, she's definitely built to take a front line role in her army. Her spell list is designed around supporting infantry, but as soon as she can she needs to break loose and put a hurting on your opponent. Strangely enough, I don't see her as an assasination tool. I think with flashing blade she can clear a path for Gallant or any of her infantry to deal the final blow. This is the main weakness I see in her stats and spells, the kill condition is not as clear as I would like it. Still, with flank, reach, Crusader's Call, and the fact that her sword ignores bonuses from spells, she can make a go at a kill shot against mid level casters.

Transferrence: This spell allows infantry in Connie's control to spend her focus to boost. I see this spell going up mod 1 and never coming down. The various infantry models in the list will be able to pretty reliably clear paths, boosting when they need it. Seeing the Forgeguard boost weapon master hits will be impressive.

The Feat: Timing is going to be an issue. I see the feat more as a defensive measure than an offensive. For those who don't have the rules handy, every time a model in Connie's control dies she gets a soul, soul becomes focus next turn, etc. etc. That's not the cool part. For every soul on Connie, warrior models get +1 arm. If timed right, the feat should allow a few models to die, give Connie the focus for next turn, but make the rest of the army very survivable. With this in mind, I see the army hitting in one big wave, as opposed to being broke up.

The Army: Here's my first stab at a 35 point list.
                - Constance
                -Gallant
               -10 Forgeguard
               -10 Precursor Knights +UA
               -6 Boomhowler Trolls
               -Harlan Versh
              - pEirys
              -Ogrun Bokur

Probably should drop some of the solos for a little more infantry spam, but I like the utility this list gives me. I might drop Eirys for Wishnayylr if I can figure out where to put the extra point. I like the bokur just because he's a secondary beatstick that will help keep Connie alive as she play so close up front. Versh is Morrowan, and he's bad ass. The precursors and the forgeguard are the big muscle in the list, especially with Transferrence up and the Precursor's mini feat.
So we shall see!

On the painting front, all my Stormsmiths are finished and being sealed as you read this. Arlan is the last model before my eNemo 35 list is complete.

Thunderhead!

Here he is! In all his finished glory. I'm very happy with the finished product, especially the whites. I really worked on getting them smooth through several layers of very thinned down highlights and I think it paid off.

Gamewise, the T-Head is an infantry killer supreme. The Energy Pulse ability hits (automatically) all models within 6", doing enough damage to wipe out most one wound infantry models, and put a hurting on even big stuff like man o' wars and ogrun. After the pulse, T-Head can use focus to buy shots with the lightening coil which automatically hit due to sustained assault. Great for finishing off those tough multi wound models. I run T-Head with eNemo, and with lightening shroud on him he can do a tremendous ammount of damage in melee as well. Energizer can get him where he needs to be to pop his bug zapper ability or just to line up the charge if needed.

In other Warma-Hordes news, the Carny Gamers Society is having an interesting event this week. We're running a Prime/ Primal only 25 pt. tournament. More about this later.

Storm Strider Assembly

My Cygnar Battle Engine arrived in the mail from the fine gents at Miniature Market today! I spent about two hours tonight doing the initial cleaning and pre-assembly. The model is impressive, both in appearence and in heft. The middle section is metal, as are the upper portions of the legs. The only resin piece that reallt was a mess was the arc that has the tesla coils on it. Lots of flash and mold lines as well as some pour tags that had to be removed. I drilled a hole for the foot peg of the second crew man on the main deck, while the first storm smith has a small platform that he stands on (and that the levers connect to.)
As for the base, I put a little detail on that giant pie plate, but didn't go too over the top. Some green stuff worked into a ruined road with a resin terrrain piece and a bit of rock and sand make up the base. Hopefully this beauty will be on the painting table soon!

I'm still slowly plugging away at thunderhead. Hope to have him done sometime this weekend. He seriously might be my new favorite warmachine model.

Finished Cygnar Charger and Thunderhead WIP

Well my summer painting projects are rolling a long. By the end of the summer I wanted three fully painted 35 pt. armies for both my Cryx and Cygnar. eSkarre and pSkarre were 100% done months ago, now eStryker is finished. eNemo is coming close to completion, and pDenny is at least started!

I finished off the Charger last night for eNemo's army. I shied away from this jack for a while, but Nemo loves it. It's perfect long range fire support for the Hammersmith and Thunderhead as they move across the field. I usually load it up with the full 3 focus and then matrix back anything I didn't need when Nemo gets his turn.

Thunderhead is next on the list. I've been slowly working on him between other paints right now. This jack is an incredible sculpt and all of the large empty spaces really need a little TLC to get the highlights right. I threw in an extra stage to my normal painting of whites, two extra stages to my normal painting of blues, and three extra stages for my golds on this guy. I'm proud of the progress thus far.

I've also wrapped up the alt. pDenny sculpt and Nightmare. I'll get some pics snapped of them later on this week. I've had a pretty solid run of games with my pDenny list over the last month. Needed to take a break from the boy's in blue and get back to my Cryx-y roots...

Stay cool!

Other Finished Cygnar Models

Good morning! Sitting here watching the Tour de France and updating the blog!

My secondary Cygnar army has bounced between pStryker, Siege, eHaley, and currently is eNemo. I'm playing him a bit jack heavy with a charger, thunderhead, and a hammersmith. The storm guard add some infantry tarpiting, with the Black 13th giving fire support. Three stormsmiths and Arlan round out this list. I still have some painting to finish off the list, but here's what I have done.

Back with a Finished Cygnar Army!

Holy crap it's been a while since I've posted! Life has been a bit crazy in Baltimore, new jobs for both the wife and I, lots of work with the secondary job, WoW committments ( hee hee) and the start of cycling season. Add in some great TV, good books, and actually playing nerd games and painting models thus my posting time has been a bit lean... anyways enough for the excuses, D-9 minis proudly presents, a finished eStryker 35 point army!
Caster: eStryker

Stryker is joined by the squire and two heavy jacks. Ol' Rowdy is Stryker's permenant companion and often is my "second wave" hard hitter. The storm clad is my main beatstick in the army, and he doesn't dissapoint.

And finally the infantry contingent. The StormGuard are great anti infantry and a hard hitting first wave. The two units of Stormblades are the core of the army. One is in traditional blue colors while the others are wearing white and the Black Swan, the symbol of Stryker's personal cadre from the storm brigade.

Tune in tomorrow for the rest of the stuff I've gotten painted in my absence!  

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages

Just some pics this evening!