Mark II Trencher Rifle Grenadier field allowance, huh?

I'm making my first "real" Mark II lists for Cygnar now that I have the rules and "cards" printed, and I noticed something possibly amiss in the Grenade Porter's info (I don't know why PP decided to change the name, only making it more confusing for me to distinguish it from the light warjack; what was wrong with the name "grenade porter" anyway?).

It says the grenade porter is FA:2, but then under cost it says up to 2 additional grenadiers for 1 point apiece. Does this mean that the field allowance is actually 3? Or does this mean you can have up to 3 grenadiers per group, and the FA refers to 2 groups (i.e. you can field up to 6 total grenade porters by placing 3 in each unit of trenchers if you have two units of trenchers)? I guess now that I write it out, the latter makes more sense given the new group-FA rules, which is the case with groups of Scrap Thralls or Brute Thralls for Cryx.

Nevermind, I think I got it all figured out now! Guess I'm going to have to buy some more grenade porters, errr, rifle grenadiers that is...

Red

Talking 'Bout Some Re-tri-bu-shunnnn...

Although my plan was not to invest heavily in Retribution at Gencon this year (for that I would take my money to the FLGS that I support), I did pick up Kaelyssa and a Chimera light myrmidon. Both of them are put together and are primered now...

I wasn't sure which warcaster to go with first because each one of them looked and sounded cool (well, I'm not too keen on Vyros's look, but I love his game stats). Kaelyssa was the one that spoke to me most, and although some people have commented on those huge thigh guards, I think they're rather cool.

But what to do about a color scheme? I did NOT want to do the white with teal energy veins, so I sat on the idea for a while and thought about it. Then it came to me when I went back and looked at the cover of my Gencon book. Two tones of gray, kakhi, and some type of orangy-red (which would serve as my energy "glow" effect). I know, it's not very "camo" for woods setting, but maybe these are sun dwelling elves on the outskirts in a desert. I haven't actually started to paint them yet, but at least I have an idea now...

Then my FLGS (finally) got the heavy myrm models in. Boy are these sweet! I know I was critical of them when the images were first released, but these things are hulking beauties, and the plastic is spectacular to work with. I finished building the Phoenix in one evening. Here's a picture of the parts after pulling them out of the box. (kudos to g'daybloke at Lost Hemisphere for beating me to the punch this morning...)

The first shot here is without any glue. The pieces fit well together, but every other picture, step by step below, had to be done with glued parts. First are the two legs attached to the hip segment. Also notice the new textured base (it will someday be covered with flock of some sort, but for the time being it looks nice).

Next in the building process came the torso and ever-fashionable codpiece...

...then the knee pieces and the right arm. I had to consult the picture of the Manticore online for the knee caps, because they confused me. They look like another shin/boot, and I tested the fit several times to make sure I was positioning them right. I'm still not sure I like the aesthetics of this part of the sculpt.

Next the left arm begins to take shape, and the arc node vanes in the back. The arc node vanes are NOT glued in and are just sitting in the slots. I know a lot of people out there paint various parts of their model first and then glue everything together, but generally I like to assemble the model and then paint it. Sure, there will be tight spaces in which to get the brush in, but I figure those are places better left dark and that the casual observer won't see on the table. There have been a couple of times where I have not permanently attached parts to a model so that I could better get in and paint in between. The first was my trencher sharpshooter (I blue tacked him to the base so that I could paint under him and around the sandbags). The other was the Thunderhead, blue tacking the back coil (as suggested in No Quarter long ago) so I could better paint in and around the smaller coils.

Next is the fully assembled Pheonix, with sword arm and oh-so-tiny left hand attached...

And last, here is the start of my vengeful little battlegroup, pictured so you can see the size differences. I figured whatever caster I ended up with, a light and a heavy arc node should be the first myrmidons I should take. I can't overstate how nice the new plastic is to work with. And it actually has a heft to it that I wasn't expecting. No, nothing like metal, to be sure, but it does have a noticeable weight to it, and the level of detail it can support startled me. These are awesome models and I can't wait to see what plastics are in the pipeline for my beloved Cygnar.

Red

Schism me this...

The final tourney for the year (and for Mark I) in the Fort Wayne area is a Schism event. Our two local PG's Alan and Jason managed to acquire a Schism kit recently, and the tourney is scheduled for Oct 3. Just the basic eight slots, and I believe only four or five are filled so far.

This is a new format for me, so here's the chant (in case you're curious)...

It's a defend the table type tournament. You win and you get to stay and defend the table using the same, albeit slightly depleted list against a new opponent. Lose and you rotate to another table, using another list (out of the three) you brought. Each of your three lists must have a different warcaster/warlock, and no list can repeat a character model.

This is mixed tournament, both Warmachine and Hordes, and I really, really, really want to take Circle. The problem? I've hardly had a chance to play my Circle army. Maybe five games tops. With this I have to bring three different warlocks, and I really only have experience playing with Kaya and Morvahna. My third choice will probably be Krueger.

So what do I do? I'm thinking of creating three lists that are very similar to each other, that cover a lot basics, nothing fancy, swapping out the warlock. Is it painfully obvious that I'm not expecting to win? (Which brings back memories of my first tournament last September when I had only played the game a couple of times). That tournament was a headache but it was a learning experience. This one will be too. At least this time I know the game a bit better than I did a year ago, and it comes down to my learning what the models can do.

There is an award for best painted character (non-caster/lock) miniature. I'm not sure what I can do in the next week or so, but Circle doesn't have many character models. Primal introduced Lord of the Feast (which I have) but I'm not planning on using him. Evolution had no character models for Circle, and Metamorphosis has Megalith (yes, he's in one of my lists), and Morraig (but he's not available yet). I could include Pendrake, but I don't really feel like painting him quite yet. So I guess Megalith will be my painting emphasis of the next week or so. Nothing else will be done, but c'est la vie.

Red

If Nostradamus were alive today, would anyone know who he is?

If anyone asks why I choose to maintain a blog rather than post on the PP forums, it's because of the Doomsayers. Apparently they reproduce in vast numbers like rabbits, because they're everywhere.

I'm a parent of one, and by profession a teacher to many. I hate whining. I hear it all the time, and it seems to me there's too much whining on the boards. Drives me nuts. Sometimes I wonder why I even bother to read the forums.

The latest outbreak of doomsaying, of course, is a result of the final Mark II changes. Cygnar players are crying foul again, as I'm sure is happening in other factions as well. I endured reading through the long postings of criticism because I didn't have time to read all the card info on the pdf, and I wanted to see what changes were made in a relatively quick amount of time. So I got wind of the changes but had to eat a big ole side-helping of bellyaching with it.

Perhaps this is because a lot of people out there foolishly began to play Mark II with the field test rules exclusively after the field test date was over. There were Mark II leagues, people loved the FT rules so much.

Me? I knew there would probably be changes to the FT afterwards, I just wasn't sure how many or how widespread they would be. What I did NOT want to have to do was learn Mark II and then RE-learn the game again in January after the final changes are made. I wanted to play in the final Call to Arms, as well as other events to round out the year, all of which were going to use Mark I rules.

It doesn't bother me so much that the Gun Mages' range has been shortened (or whatever else it is that they're complaining about). I can learn the Mark II rules and abilities/stats of my models feeling confident that they're not going to change (much) at least until the errata begins to roll. But that's a topic for another post.

Play the game, people. Doomsaying = whining, and whiners never win. And they certainly don't play like they got a pair.

Red

The Flames Are Hot Down Here

Lust, people. I can't think of a better way to describe it. Of course, I'm speaking of the Mark II downloads - yes, the finalized content without the fru fru and kewl artwork - that PP's made available on their website. It took forever to download, and I was keeping my fingers crossed and praying to Morrow that their site would not crash while in the middle of my downloading it. If there's any reason for my soul to inhabit the down below it's lust for this game, pure and simple. I've never said that (or thought it even) about any other game in my life. When I die, inter my remains in a warjack, please. And make sure it's got a golden swan on the shield.

So what are you waiting for? Have ya gotten yours yet? Go get some Mark II.

I only wish I didn't have a Mark I tournament and league coming up. Man is it going to be hard to focus...

Red

The Cruelest Month

I knew September was going to be busy, but wow, I never thought I'd be swept away so badly that I'd neglect my dear blog in such a fashion.

I'm trying to get my forest sections of terrain ready to paint this week so they will be ready for our first league week coming up. The first week of Call to Arms #3 has happened (we're not starting ours until week 4). I had a devil of a time finding the dispatch! It wasn't on the previous bookmark I had, and it wasn't under the URL given in the most recent issue of No Quarter. It wasn't linked on Privateer's front page (although it might be now, but it wasn't earlier this week when I looked). Here's the link if you're curious...

http://sites.privateerpress.com/dispatch/2009/

And I am happy to say that I'll be able to re-use the sandbag walls I made earlier this year, plus my efforts of making forests will not go to waste either (according to the terrain list posted).

I've been priming a lot of my Circle models so that I can use them and play them in the upcoming Schism tourney on Oct 3, plus in the league as well. No big plans there in the painting department, just trying to get my two warp wolves done. Maybe Kaya as well.

Much of my other free time will be spent pouring over my copy of the Pathfinder Core Rulebook. I know it's not PP related, but Paizo has been one of my favorite game publishers for quite a while. I have almost every issue of Dragon and Dungeon magazines printed during their tenure, and I've followed their endeavors with Pathfinder very closely ever since they lost the rights to produce the magazines. I hope I can get a Pathfinder RPG campaign going sometime this fall, but the Call to Arms league comes first.

Oh, and I'm also bummed that the new Retribution stuff hasn't made it to my FLGS yet. Drat!

More on these things later.

Red

Weekend Edition #1

Occasionally in some of the old blogs I used to maintain I would offer a smattering of different things all under the label of “weekend edition,” and since we’ve got the long holiday weekend, and since I haven’t posted in several days, and since I have a whole bunch of little things to talk about, I figured it was time to bring back the "Edition" and put everything in one big posting. So here goes…

Not enough gaming going on…
It’s been a good start to the school year for me (at work) but my schedule, now that summer vacation is done, has been a mess. I never know when or if I can make it over to the LGS, and several plans that I’ve had with friends to play Warmachine have fallen through because of last minute familial chaos (my apologies to those of you out there that I’ve had to ditch at the last minute). The final league of 2009 will bring some stability (because saying “it’s league night” seems to have more gravity at home than “hey, it’s game night") and I’m very much looking forward to the start of it all again.

Can’t see the forest for the…
I’ve been obsessing lately on Orboros, studying what my models can (or can’t) do, which brings me to the topic of forests. My goal before we enter the next round of the CtA League is to have a number of pieces of forest terrain done (keeping my fingers crossed that we will need forests!). I’m using balsa planks for the base, and I have some tree kits that I’ve picked up, so we’ll have to see how it all comes together (six trees that I have to put together myself for the same price as one pre-made tree is a deal I’m willing to make). I’ll be reporting here more about how that little project comes together in the next couple of weeks.

500 vs. 750…

My gaming bud Airport had an idea for a mixed Warmachine vs Hordes match. He’s been very frustrated as of late playing his Khador against any Hordes army, and he wants to try a 750 point Khador list against a 500 point Circle list. I don’t mind an experimental handicap in a casual game, so that’s fine with me, though I should point out that if I lose no one could blame me for it, but if I should win then I'll look like a strategic genius (and Airport will never play against Hordes ever again, I fear). There's something tactically that the both of us are missing when battling against Hordes armies. If Hordes was really as off-balance as he and I feel, then why aren't they more present in the National tourneys?

Needless to say I’ve been doing some heavy list theorizing for this upcoming match. I had a really dominant showing with Morvahna last time out, but I’m not sure I want to play her again so soon. Although I really love Kaya as a warlock (she’s one of the reasons I got into Circle), she’s tricksy to use and I haven’t had a great deal of luck with her. I don’t yet own Kromac (I think he would be great fun to take against Khador), and although I do have Mohsar, he’s more of a Hordes vs. Hordes warlock (the “no channeling spells” part of his feat is the only part usuable against WM forces and that’s pretty limiting IMO). A warbeast heavy force with Mohsar in the lead casting his pillar of salt is very tempting though! Then there’s Baldur, but one of our local PGs likes to use him quite a bit, so I'm hesistant to make a go with him. Then there’s always…

Come the Stormwrath...

I finally picked up Krueger. I haven’t put him together yet, although that’s on the agenda for things to get done this weekend. I’m going to try and make some storm ravager templates for his feat in the coming days. Obviously his whole “lightning” and “storm” theme appeals to this Cygnar player (especially considering the name of my blog). I know several people have cried “broken” in the same sentence that the name “Krueger” is uttered, but he might just do the trick against an overwhelming number of Khador. Not sure yet. Too many decisions to think about. Anyway, that game will be played either this week or next. I’ll try to get pictures and post a report of it afterwards.

Do you like it standing up or lying down?

Keep in mind that I’ve only been modeling and painting WM for a year, so when I say that “I broke my first miniature,” many might say “Really? Just your first?” There was no good excuse for it really. I was moving my Cygnar trays out and putting my Circle trays in (to my Army Transport case), and seeing my Warcaster tray, I grabbed my dear fully-painted Haley to better slobber all over her and SNAP, off came her arm and spear. I’m still a bit in shock over it. She’s standing on my hobby table with these bright metallic nubs (elbows, people, elbows!) where her arms used to be connected.

This got me thinking about a question that has plagued me in the past concerning miniature trays… is there any difference having your miniatures lying down or standing up? My ‘casters are all lying down flat, pretty snug in the tray. I think the snugness might have been one of the reasons Haley’s arm broke off. I also have some trays with miniatures standing up (my Sword Knights and my Bloodtrackers for instance), and they tend to bounce around a little bit more. Standing up I can get a few more miniatures in per tray, but the tray needs to be deeper to accommodate the height, so I’m not sure I’m saving room (in total volume) inside my Army Transport case by doing it that way. So what do you do? Lay them down or stand them up? Which do you like better and why?

Aura vs Pulse.

I was reading the forums the other day and noticed something about the Druids of Orboros Counter Magic spell being a pulse. My irritation is not because I don’t understand the concepts of these two things. If you tell me that Haley’s TB is a pulse (which it is, I know), I understand the game implications of that compared to what it would be if it were (hypothetically) an aura. The thing is, I can’t find anything about it in the rules. Can someone please tell me what page this is on in any of the rule books? I know every game has errata that needs to be fixed, but this seems to be an important game concept, and for it not to have appeared in the rules somewhere seems like an important oversight. I don’t care what’s online or on the forums. Get it in print, i.e. hard copy. (And if it is in print, and I missed it, sorry for the rant; please direct me to the correct page and I will be happy). There’s been too many different rules books published for this not to have appeared somewhere, and I hope Mk II fixes it (I can’t find it in a glossary anywhere either).

Casting the Pod.

My oh my! The Fell Callers hung up their mics and a slew of other podcasts have hit the scene. I don’t mean to make any enemies here - because Fell Calls was the first Warmachine related podcast I ever listened to – but the boys peaked some time ago and I’ve felt they’ve been drifting ever since. I will miss them, surely, but I think it was time for the show to take a bow. In every endeavor there comes a time to make a graceful exit before things get ugly, and I’m happy for the years they gave us and that they were able to go out in somewhat the same style they emerged. Good on ya for that boys!

In listening to the other new podcasts though, there seems to be a habit in the first episode or so of trying to legitimize the effort, to say “here’s why we’re doing this,” and “here’s what’s new and different about our show.” Let me tell you something, if you put together a thought-provoking product with good model/list analysis and strategies, a show that’s fun to listen to, and in which I can tell you’re just as zealous about WM/H as I am, I will be back week after week. Don’t waste your time telling me “why” I should listen to it, just do it and I will be there. Promise.

With that said, I think the guys at Focus and Fury are off to a good start. The overseas podcasts, like Boosted Damage, need to work on their volume levels. One of the fellows sounds like he’s mumbling into the mic and the other one’s voice comes blasting through the speakers. Find an even volume, please. This was one of the reasons why I quit listening to This Week in Wargaming (maybe they have fixed all that now, I can’t say).

I do wish more of you podcasters would mind the coarse language. I like to listen to podcasts in my car, and much of the time I have my son riding with me, which means I can’t listen to some of your shows. Take a note from the D6Generation podcast and get rid of the bad language. The “explicit” tag is NOT a badge of honor, gents.

Everyone have a great weekend!

Red