Any progress is still progress.

Well today I have again spent most of the day, not being the most productive person in the world. What I have done is finished the Purple plating on my Cryx Slayer, as well as painting the Necrotite. All that’s left to do is the bone tusks and the base. As for basing I have seen a nice tutorial on Lava bases, and I will give that a try for the Cryx force. However I imagine it will be a while before I get to that stage, so for the time being, it will not be based as such, and rather just be tacked on until I get around to it.

Other than that it has been a day of tv, pizza and a small amount of wallpaper pealing. This weekend is the Midlands Games Expo, which I would love to have attended. Malifaux is being played, on top of the Uk Masters at Warmahordes. Just watching and trying to see what was going on would have been great, but tomorrow evening I have a wedding reception to attend, and Sunday I have Cricket and then later a concert to see.

Monday I am penciled in against one of the younger gamers (son of the High Elf player,) in a 1500 point WFB game, against his Orcs. If I can clean the models I will try to give the Lizards a try, but I doubt it will happen. However I am struggling to find room for any toys in 1500 points with the TK, and it tends to go Archers, Catapult, Warriors, Guard and characters. Whilst the troops are cheap, the characters make them work, and anything capable of doing damage by themselves are on the pricey side. It is a head scratcher for sure.

Seem to be writing less

Well its been quite a while since I posted anything so its time for an update. Second week at the club, I faced Orcs and Goblins again, this time in a 1500 point match. My opponent was using Grimgor Ironhide, and he was a tough nut to crack. In the end I won quite convincingly, using a number of small archer units to throw away, but they got more than their points worth in doing so. It was a fairly standard army list compared to what I took in 6th and 7th editions of WFB, so no new toys.

 

The following week I again played 1500 points, and lost to High Elves. I should have won, but a tactical error on my part cost me my Tomb Guard Unit, and Tomb Prince and High Liche Priest. I took on some Sea Guard to the front, and received a rear charge from a horde of Spearmen, in his turn 5. My turn 6, I failed to charge with a block of Skeleton Archers in his spearmen’s rear (cancelling out his rank bonus, plus giving me one combat resolution for charging, and evening out the two he was on for a rear charge,) as in the past I have found archers just give away free combat kills, and ramp up the combat resolution in my opponents favour. In hind sight all of his spearmen were already attacking, so it wouldn’t have increased the number of attacks he had, and although I would have lost Bowmen easier than Tomb Guard, more guard would have been left to attack, meaning my stronger troops would have killed more. With a 4 point combat resolution swing in my favour, I would have been in a much better position going into his turn 6. What I did do was play my magic phase well, leaving my opponent out of dispel dice, and me with two power dice, for me to cast Standard of the Undying Legion and replenishing 2D6+2 Tomb Guard back. I then failed to meet the bound power level of 5. Other mistakes I made was forgetting my Hierophant grants regeneration on his unit (meaning the back rank of Tomb Guard would still have a 6+ ward save,) failing to attempt a combat reform to face the spear men (which would have meant I would have then remembered my 6+ Parry Save against them,) and when I had the chance to have taken Usirian’s Incantation of vengeance. The spell worked wonders in sowing fear into Grimgor’s Black Orcs the previous week, and a dangerous terrain test on every model in that Spearmen horde, would have been a great way to reduce their numbers. What I did leave the game with, was a harsh lesson in tactics and hopefully this defeat will make me a stronger player.

This week I had no game at the club, but I did watch some Warmachine being played and asked a few questions. I now have more of an understanding as to what is going on, which will help when I come to play.

Modeling wise, I have painted my first Malifaux models. Colette Du Bois and Cassandra are painted, and I am pleased with the results. Colette more so than Cassie, but both are higher than table top standard. The bases are not quite finished, as I want to get some flowers for Colettes, and I am planning to paint a decapitated head to sit on Cassandra’s base. Other than that I have started work on a Cryx Slayer, and my first Showgirl and Mannequin models. The Showgirl and Mannequin are being painted in conjunction, as I want the dresses to be similar or opposite (for example purple with red trim, and red with purple trim,) to show the pairings. This will be done on both my couples, aswell as replicated on the Coryphee’s I have to paint.

Personally my Brother and Sister-in-Law have moved into their own flat. That means we are now starting the process of decorating that bedroom, which I will then move into when its complete. It will mean I have a fresh start for a nice new hobby area. Also Bank Holiday Monday saw me attending a Kings of Leon concert, with my Cousin and Friend. To put it in my Cousins words, it was amazing, and it also gave me an opportunity to see the White Lies again, who are my band of the moment. Saturday I have a wedding reception to attend, Sunday is another concert (journey, foreigner and Styx,) Monday is club night and Tuesday I see Kasabian for the second time. I may get to paint tomorrow, otherwise it will be next week, before a paint brush touches my hand.

Has it been a week?

Well it has been 7 days since my last post, and I wish I would have alot of exciting things to post. However considering it has been a week, there is not a major amount to report.

Firstly my Casket of Souls has arrived. Todays Games Workshop blog shows a Casket, mounted on an Arcane Ruins, and it looked awesome. I am very tempted to take that idea when I get around to mine.I have also received notification I have two more Sphinx kits, on top of another sepulchral Stalker set. I build the Warsphinx I received last week, and have started painting it, but that is all I have done with regards to painting.

Saturday was the big TK release day, so I popped to my GW store. It was interesting, but was not worth all the effort I made to get there for opening. The one they had for the Orcs and Goblins release was much better, and this was basically just a simple participation game.

Last night was the first time since I discovered the local gaming club, that they had a meet. I had arranged a 1200/1500 point game against High Elves, but Sunday night, people came out of the woodwork, looking for some action. One person was bringing 750 points of O&G, and needed  tutorial on WFB, so I volunteered to go through things with them. I ran a level 2 Liche Priest, a Necrotect, 20 Skeleton Warriors with Hand Weapon, Shield and Light Armour, 20 Skeleton Archers, a Warsphinx with all the upgrades, and a Screaming Skull catapult. Things went well against a fairly weak Orc and Goblin force, and I comfortably won. It was really all about teaching WFB though, so I take no major credit in victory, as that was not the goal. Things of note, the Warsphinx was very strong at this level of game. I took it for the Terror ability to attempt to teach about Terror charging, and redirecting, but it was a beast that was near untouchable for my opponent. I also learnt that a level 2 Wizard will struggle with boosted versions of my Incantations. Magic changes, which I intend to go over at some point, and only plus 2 to my spell power, meant I had to roll a few more dice than I felt comfortable with. I have the movement and smiting spells, and smiting on Skeleton Archers is evil. Plus one attack per model, and double shots, resulted in me getting 38 shots in my turn, and when they received the charge, 12 attacks against a chariot. Despite losing combat, a poor impact roll, and a lot of fluffed attacks, meant I lost the first round by 5 (leaving 8 Archers and a Liche) which became 12 Archers in my turn, I won the combat, and despite not pursuing, the Boar chariot ran off the table. I should also state that my opponent had not read the rulebook, and was using the 7th edition army book, so I was really at an advantage. I hope however that they enjoyed the game, and if they need another tutorial, I would gladly give it.

How many packets have I ordered?

Today I had a huge file of goodies delivered. Firstly I received a package containing my own copy of the new TK book, and some of the magic card decks. Then I received my Colette crew. About 10 minutes later I was handed a box, which contained one of the Sphinx kits, and the Necropolis Knights kit. It was a good job I work at the post office, as otherwise I fancy all these deliveries would have been annoying, should I have had to answer the door for each one. I am still outstanding my Casket of Souls, and one more package with two Sphinx kits, and my second Necropolis Knights box.

Other than that I have not been up to much. I have started assembling my first Warsphinx, but tomorrow my parents go on holiday, so I lost two hours through having to go out for a family meal. It is not too big a hinderance though, as that means the next ten days, I am free to set my own hours, and should be more able to fit hobby around work.

Update time.

Saturday I was working indoors, so I decided to take the five scenic bases I have to paint in. every time I picked up a brush, I had to put it down again, so after 15 minutes, I packed my paints away. My Father was celebrating his 60th Birthday, so we headed out for a family meal, and when I got back, hobby stuff just did not interest me.

Sunday was the first home game for Warks. Cricket Club. A Pro 40 game, against Leicester Foxes. The game got very close at the tail, but eventually the Bears ran out victors, having scored 294/5 versus 285/7. Both teams had a Century batsman, and nearly 600 runs in total made a good day out. A friends nephew had his Junior Membership training session in the morning, so I headed out at 9.30 am and returned just before 9pm. Also having been in the sun long enough to get burnt, meant another day with no hobby, other than reading a small section of the Cryx force book.

Monday rolls around and I have the Mini 600 pint tournament to attend. Game one, and I draw an Ogre player. This is the first time I have faced Ogres, and it is one of the two army books I do not own. So I have no idea what they do. I had changed my force, from my posted list. The Archers were made smaller, the Liche was running naked, and the Chariots were dropped. What I fitted in was 10 Tomb Guard, with the Banner of the Undying Legion, and a Tomb Scorpion. The Ogres slaughtered my Tomb Guard in combat, ran into my Archers, and eventually my force was decimated. I lost the encounter 700 points to zero, having not cast one spell, and watched an utter failure in the first turn. I dropped a SSC centred on his general first shot. He failed his Look out sir roll, and I scored a 1 to wound. Strength 9, D6 wounds, and I rolled a one. The rest of the 5 hits scored one wound, but he passed his panic test.

Due to late comers, I had to fit in a quick game, against the eventual winner. His Vampire Counts (VC) army was two big blocks of Zombies, and Grave Guard with his Vampire. Turn one his Zombies just go out of hand due to magic spam. I had nothing riding on it, and I was again tabled, but not before I managed to wipe out one of the Zombie units. I scored a meagre 70 points against 700, but I did better than I expected, it was a shame I never got those 70 points on my tally.

My second official game, was against a player, whose force was his Island of Blood Skaven. Diagonal deployment, I sat my SSC in a building on the back of my table edge, for some reason. My Archers held back, and my TG and Scorpion sat ready to attack. MY TG and Scorpion charged one Clan Rat unit, taking a couple of turns to wipe them out, the Scorpion adding a flank bonus. His Rat Ogres, were always ready to charge “next turn,” but in mine I kept causing panic tests on them which the failed. Eventually I shot them. A SSC hit killed a Rat Ogre out right, wiped out a near by weapons team, and hit a rat in combat, in one hit, doing a lot of damage. The second Clanrat block, took a good while to whittle down, and at the end of turn 5 I had lost my TG to high initiative attacks. In the very final turn, my Tomb Scorpion is on two wounds, his Clan Rats are 4 strong, with his chieftainmaking them 5 wide. His chieftain scores two wounds, and I save one on a 6. Then the three Rats with Spears go, scoring one hit, then it wounds, and I need a 5 up to save. I roll a three, meaning my Scorpion dies. If I passed, I will probably score one or two wounds through attacks and Stomp, he has a Ld6 unit, that has lost steadfast, and is probably fleeing with a scorpion chasing them down. As it was I won 424 to 242, and had a much more enjoyable game. The combats lasted, and were not one-sided affairs.

As it was I finished 5th out of 10, which was a little worse than I expected. Given one or two of the armies, I could have faced first off, and some of the winners field was quite week for round two, I could have attained third, but it was not to be. At least I saw out 6th edition TK, with a win.

Royal Wedding Day.

Today was a Public Holiday, to celebrate the Wedding of Catherine Middleton to Prince William Windsor. To be honest I was, more glad of the day off work, than interested in watching the ceremony. However what bits I did see, and they were mainly highlights, made me glow inside. I felt more for them than I thought I would, and I hope they have a wonderful life together.

Other than that it has been another of my lazy days. I spent a fair amount of it playing World of Warcraft, which from my history with the game, is not a very good thing. It did however make a change, and that is all I intend it to be. Other than that I created some bases for my Showgirls Malifaux crew. I built 6 30mm inserts, and painted one as a test. I am pleased with the results, and given that it was a five-minute job, the other five will take no time tomorrow.

Painting was Undercoat Black. Scorched Brown dry brush, then Dark Flesh dry brush, followed by Bestial Brown dry brush. Then a quick was with Badab Black, which was then wiped off with a tissue, so it just sat in the gaps between floor boards. Then one final dry brush with Bestial Brown, before tidying the edges up with black.

The Reaper of Souls.

Today has been a bit of a funny one. I had a funeral to attend, and having to fit work around it, I had a rather lot to take into work. Work bag, cup of tea, shoe box, trousers, shirt and jacket. God knows what I looked like leaving the house, and thankfully I left at 4.45 am. Everything worked out well though. I finished a section of my delivery, got changed in the van, and arrived at the church in time for the service start. I then had to change back into my uniform, and complete the rest of my delivery, and at this has put me in a lazy mood today.

Yesterday after I posted, I painted 9 Cryx soul tokens. After a white undercoat, I painted three very thinned coats of Orkhide Shade Foundation. These were really thin, to the extent it was more of a wash than paint. After the first three coats, I lightly drybrushed them with Bleached Bone. Then came some more coats of the green, before just tinting anything felt to light with Thrakka Green wash. Finally eye and mouths were filled with Leviathan Purple wash. Today I am just brush varnishing these tokens, before I move onto bulk spray varnishing several groups of models in one batch. Brush varnish I am doing three thinned coats of Vallejo Gloss, before three thinned Vallejo Matt. I don’t know if this will be the standard of varnishing, that I normally adhere to, as it is proving very time-consuming. However on a day that I do not feel up to much in the way of painting, its something easy, and most of the time is taken up with waiting for coats to finish, meaning I have plenty of opportunity to do other things.

edit – Here is one of the tokens I just think they will need some small bases, to set them off, as well as protecting them more.

Feeling some love for Cryx

Today I received a package that contained a lot of Varnish, both spray and brush on, some Malifaux scenic bases, Cryx tokens and more importantly the Cryx Warmachine book. Having looked through the army book quickly, I really like the look of the army, and I am really looking forward to collecting this army. Some of the tokens I acquired are metal soul tokens, which need painting up. Firstly for metal items, the mould lines are well placed and there was a distinct lack of flash. Just a little piece of tag on the bottom, and a quick file left these ready for undercoat. I undercoated them with a white dust, largely as my spray can is running low. I have spoken to a WFB Vampire Counts player (VC,) who has a very etherial looking force, on how he achieved the result, and is something I am going to try to replicate on these tokens over the coming week.

On my TK front the bone on the Chariot crew has been completed. I have also finished my 600 point army list. It’s fairly similar to my initial thoughts, but I replaced the Tomb Guard with Chariots. Hopefully I will be able o field this army fully based and painted, provided I finish these chariots over the weekend. The list is as follows.

• Liche Priest – Collar of Shapesh and Iron Curse Icon
• 23 Skeleton Warriors – Bows and a Standard
• 3 Chariots – Standard running the Banner of the Eternal Flame (BotEF)
• Screaming Skull Catapult (SSC) – Skulls of the Foe (SotF)

The Liche will bunker up with the Archer unit. The collar allows him an effective 4+ ward, and the Iron Curse Icon will protect the unit from any warmachines I may face. The Chariots will be fast-moving and the BotEF will help on any regeneration units I may face. The big troublesome ones are pointed out at 600 points, but it still allows me an option. I would have prefered it on the Archers, as they can affect buildings, but without a Tomb King the unit cannot take the upgrade. The SSC gives magical attacks dealing with etherial units as well as flaming again helping with building clearing. The SoF upgrade is taken as I do not expect to see a lot of BSB use, and even if there is, chances of a Ld 9 or 10 general is quite slim. Ld 8 at a negative one, with or without a re-roll is fairly likely to flee, and can buy my army time. Tactic wise, I have to take out Warmachines with the SSC as fast as possible, maybe depending on table size, also sending the Chariots. I have to eradicate as much of my advancing opponents as quickly as possible with missile fire, whilst using the bowmen, to hopefully tie up units, and smash them in the flanks with my chariots.

I just hate these Skeletons.

Last Friday when I was in GW browsing the new TK book, someone came in picking up the Ogre Battalion box. He was starting a new TK army, but fancied a change as the Skeletons were starting to annoy him. Well after starting to paint my charioteer’s, I am at that stage again. The Torso and Legs come in two parts, with about 2mm of plastic to hold them. The arms attach via a week joint. On the whole they are just bad. In fact they are worse than the one part bodies they replaced. A lot of internet chatter was complaints about the lack of a new TK Skeleton kit. The complaints revolve around scale issues, but I just hate how week they are on the whole. Just working on the bone on 8 charioteer’s, I have lost over an hour pinning arms and bodies.

I have had a few emails today telling me that some of my items have shipped, so the next two days should be rather fun, with a lot of new toys to play with. I have also decided not to push the painting as much, if I can assemble my armies, then just pick something to paint in whatever order I feel, that should make it more fresh. Also Battlefoam are soon to open a production facility in Britain. Their cases are the most interesting, and are something I am looking at acquiring, but with having to order from the US, delivery time and charges, on top of the potential for a nasty customs charge, has put me off until now. I sent them an email, explaining how pleased I was at the news, and I received a reply yesterday, thanking me for their support. Once they are up and running, they will be my number one choice for army cases.

The only other news, is that I have applied for over £700 worth of Olympic games tickets. That doesn’t mean I will be successful, but unless you apply then you will never get any. With the deadline being the end of today, it was something that needed to be done, and I am glad I have.

Today I will mostly be spending.

This morning, I jumped online and booked a ticket to see Thor at the cinema. I have to admit to being a little disappointed with the movie. It started with a fair bit of action, then got slow, and then when you are working towards the exciting climax, it just fizzled without much of a whimper. I was desperate to empty my bladder at the closing credits, and a friend I saw in the screen, later told me I missed the ending bit. Oh well.

Whilst booking my ticket, I visited two online retailers for some hobby purchases. From one I have ordered quite a bit of varnish, both brush on and spray, tokens and the Cryx army book for Warmachine, and the Showgirls crew, aswell as some scenic bases for Malifaux. The other supplier I had a failed order from in the past, due to Games Workshop holding back metal models from them, and when offered a refund, I told them I would prefer store credit. Today I ordered two of the Sphinx kits, some Necropolis Knights, and magnets and steel sheets, for movement trays. The suppliers in question were Maelstrom Games and OG Games respectively.

After the cinema, I drove to GW and had a quick flick through the TK book again. I also reserved a space in the 600 point tournament, being held next monday. TK in their current form technically cannot be played between 501 and 679 points, but I have been given an extension to the 500 point and below rule that the FAQ / Errata fixed. Currently they require a Tomb King or Prince to be the General, and any form of Liche Priest to keep the army “alive.” Split across Lords and Heroes, the Royalty and Magus, cost 170 and 245 in Lords, and 100 and 115 in Heroes, respectively. That means by taking a Tomb King and a Liche Priest you spend 170 and 115 in Lords Heroes, with a 25% cap per section you need a 680 point army minimum. The errata / FAQ removes the need for a Tomb King / Prince in the force at 500 point games or under, but at 600 officially you need both, despite not being able to take them. I just had to check that I would be allowed, and now need to work out a killer force to take on my enemies.

Hobby wise I have started work on some hedges, cutting out some rough plywood bases, and gluing some scouring pads together. I intend to work some more on these in the coming week. I also intend to work on these Chariot crew, but knowing me that will be unlikely.