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.

40k?

So I’ve had a solid afternoon with my couch, my dog, and the new Blood Angels codex to devour the latest offering into the grim dark future we all know and… up until recently… have loved.

This may be one of the best codecies GW has produced in the 4th-5th edition era.

Options abound. Those options are seemingly priced fairly, and make an army, that while still a meq, should play very differently from anything else we’ve ever seen wearing power armor. I particularly like the nod the designers gave to the “close combat” themes of the army. The different units that can be taken all seem to have a roll both fluff wise and game play wise. The special characters are awesome, but very expensive. My verdict is still out on the Saguinor, but I think its inclusion can be taken as a nod to the fact that the end times are coming for the Imperium. I like the whole “we’re pretty much ‘effed, so lets make sure we go out as heroes” vibe that the Blood Angels, and even more so the Flesh Tearers, seem to carry. The flying thingy (stormraven, mini thudnerhawk, bloodplane, whatever the hell it’s called) is a cool addition. I also think we’ll start to see each army having something like this as an answer to the prevalence of valkyries post IG. A few noticeable things that are NOT in the codex: A) land speeder storms. These fit the fluff behind the chapter and have a fancy new model, yet are not there… curious. B) Land Raiders as heavy support. The only way to get a land raider is to buy it as a dedicated transport.

In reading it though, it does strike me that GW’s target demographic has dropped either in age or intelligence. The writing of the book was tough for the English teacher in me to read. Maybe it’s just that I’ve been getting used to Privateer Press’ style of writing, but I found the fluff sections to be a little hackneyed even for GW.

So where does this put 40k? I’ve been taking a break from 40k recently to pursue Warmachine. This book has at least re-lit my 40k fire a little bit. Not that I want to make a Blood Angels army, but simply in interest to the fluff again. Looking at the books right now here’s my “State of the Imperium.”

TOP NOTCH CODECIES: Imperial Guard, Blood Angels, Orks, Vanilla Marines

These four books really hit the nail on the head for 40k right now. They seem balanced, and give many choices for making an interesting army. I think my favorite of the four is still the Imperial Guard followed closely by the new BA.

SECOND TIER CODECIES: Space Wolves, Chaos Marines, Tau

These three books really work well. They seem to have fun army builds in them. I think the Wolves are the top of this tier, but are just a little too silly for my tastes. Giant rideable space wolves? C’mon… I really look forward to the Chaos Legions getting a taste of Blood Angel codex style writing.

THIRD TIER CODECIES: Chaos Daemons, Eldar, Tyranids, Dark Angels, Black Templars

These are the faulted books. Chaos Daemons is a glorious mess that has no idea what it’s trying to do. In my opinion, the daemons need to go back to the Chaos Marines book, and their release schedule given to a “Hordes of Chaos” style book that brings back the Lost and the Damned. The Eldar are just showing their age. Everything is too weak in the new edition or too expensive. I hope to see the Eldar updated soon and given something truly scary in the newly emerging “super psychic phase of doom.” My Dark Angels are crap. Utter and total crap. The Black Templars suffer from the same problems. Which brings me to the Tyranids, or “The Army that Almost Ruined 40k.” The book is crap. I’m not a bug player, so my judgment comes from a fanboy perspective. The book just doesn’t feel right. It doesn’t capture the nids, it doesn’t even seem to fit into the whole 40k universe. Of all the current books, this is the one that I find the least enjoyable to read or even play against. It’s not overpowered, maybe far from it, but it’s just not a “fun” book.

I leave the other armies off my list. GW better get its act together and update the DE, Inquisition, and Necrons soon. It’s a real shame to have such great ideas just sitting in game design limbo for the better part of a decade.

So the State of the Imperium? Stronger than it was before I read the BA book. I actually have an itch to play 40k again. Still, my horny pirate ladies will be getting most of my attention for the forseeable future… maybe it’s the great rack?