Got a Machine Head

When I picked up the Wold Guardian I knew I would HAVE to do something about that crazy head. I considered my options... the Wold Watcher's head and Megalith's head were both a bit big (believe it or not), but even though it was meant to go on a machine-like body, I rather liked the look of the Tomb Maiden's head from the IK miniatures line. I ordered one and when I positioned it on the Wold Guardian's body, I knew I had found my answer.

So this is clearly a work in progress, but I like the look of it thus far.

Red.

Getting Stoned: more constructs done, still more to do...

In today's painting update, I finished the unit of shifting stones, and am very close to finishing the Woldwatcher. All that's left to do is "green-ify" the runes on the Watcher (I know, silly me waits until the very end to do the things that I should have started with). Here's some more pictures...

One problem with repositioning the arms on the Watcher the way I did, is that their shoulder stones look off-kilter, as in one's higher than the other. Oh well, I can live with that. I also have Krueger fairly well along, but I won't have pictures of him until next week most likely.

Goals for this week: accomplished.

Goals for next week: finish pKrueger and the Woldwarden.

Red

Painting Circle, Construct Test Models

I had a little bit of time today to work on some test models for my Circle army. I figured I'd do the traditional "gray stone" look for the constructs, and since there are many constructs in my list, I wanted to make sure I would like not only the look of the final piece before painting the other models, but also make sure that the process would be a relatively simple one. Fortunately for me, I was pleased on both counts...

First is one of the shifting stones...

With this model I also wanted to test what sort of flock I would use, as well as what color I would paint the base. I can't remember where I heard this tip, but someone on their blog somewhere had mentioned using P3 Mixing Medium as glue for the base, and it worked marvelously! I used a mixture of different stone ballast that I've collected over time followed by some static grass over the top.

Next model I tried was the Woldwyrd. Here's the front...

...and the Woldwyrd back...

So I liked the stone look and technique (a layering of three different shades of gray and some black washing) enough to try it on something a little larger. But with the Wolds I knew I would have to come up with an effective way of doing all the bundled branches. All I can say is Rucksack Tan and Bootstrap Leather are going to become my best friends as I work on my other models. I was quite pleased with how this all turned out.

Next up, painting the Woldwatcher!

Red

One the eve-eve of a new painting challenge

Many of you out there may be aware of the Hordes Battle Challenge put out there by Tabletop Gaming News. Since I am woefully behind on playing/painting my Circle models, I felt this was an opportune time to switch my focus to fury and splash some paint on my bare metal.

I mentioned this somewhere in a previous post, but once again, you can find the rules of the challenge here, and you can find my thread here. But if you are anything like me (someone who despises forums in general because of the way they are formatted/organized), you can also check my blog as I will be posting weekly updates here as well.

Here's the 20 points I have sitting on my painting table right now for the challenge...

pKrueger

Woldwatcher

Woldwarden

Woldwyrd

Shifting Stones

Sentry Stones + mannikins

Blackclad

I can't really speak to the playability of this list. When I begin to paint models for a faction, I usually chose those that I will use the most. This is why the Journeyman Warcaster was one of the first minis I finished for Cygnar, and why the Skarlock was one of the first done for Cryx. For Circle, I knew I was going to be using Shifting Stones frequently as well as the constructs. As I expand this list to 35 and then again to 50, I'll do another warlock (Baldur most likely).

I also picked up the Wold Guardian this week and as I expand my list further, I will include and paint the WG as well.

A couple of things about the Guardian...

1.) I want to get some other head to use on him, because I'm not "wild" about his given one. Maybe a Warden's head converted a bit.

2.) I am swapping the arms on it. It's difficult to tell on the box photo, but the arms are modeled so closely to the body that I won't be able to get in with a brush very well to paint the model. Since I don't consider myself that good of a hobbyist, and I like to put my minis together completely, prime, and then paint them, I needed to figure out something different with the Guardian. As it turns out, swapping the arms makes for a very nice pose, but it means the points of the ram fists face forward and the flat sides are to the back. It looks like two light houses strapped to his torso. But you know, I'm alright with that. I guess if any of you meet me at Gencon this year, try not to laugh too much, okay?

Red

Feeling Cryxie, the "token" review

Since I've been playing Cryx lately, I decided to pick up the token set for the undead first. No offense to the other factions I play, as I will be picking up tokens for these too, but I wanted to try these out and see how they do. First, I should mention that I love shiny new accessories for my games, so even if I'm not entirely thrilled about these, I'll be picking some up for the other factions that I play anyway.

But for some of the rest of you out there who are skeptical (and let's face it, after the old Hordes tokens, who wouldn't be?) here are some pictures of the new Cryx tokens. I should also mention that in person these tokens look more neon green than they do in these shots. I don't know why this darker color of green came out. Looks more appropriate for Circle...

The focus tokens (below) have the faction symbol on them, and the best thing about these tokens are that they stack neatly. You get ten of them, which is fine unless you like to play Terminus, but then if you're looking for enough to fulfill his requirement, then no one else will want a token set with that much focus. Although it would be a major headache for a company, it would be very cool for consumers if we could purchase these tokens piecemeal.

The next tokens are the generic tokens, which have a white sticker on the back of them so that anything you write on them with a dry erase marker will show up better (I'm presuming). These are good to have because as I'll mention in a moment, you might need them when your other tokens run out. You get five of these generic tokens. Also pictured are the three Knockdown tokens you get.

The next photo below shows the spell tokens. You get four of the single circle tokens and four of the double circle, or "peanut" tokens as I have already begun to call them, that are for upkeep spells (these also have the white sticker on the back). These are meant for you to write the appropriate spell name on the token. Personally, I would have liked to see a few more non-upkeep spell tokens, but really, when are you going to have that many spell effects out on the table that require a token?

The next tokens shown below are the corpse tokens (depicted appropriately by tombstone shaped markers) and soul tokens. Again, I could question the quantity, but I won't waste too many words on that. Overall these look pretty good.

Next, the stand up tokens, Corrosion. At first thought I wished PP had done all of them this way, the tokens standing up, because it emphasizes them better on the table. These were my favorite when I opened the package. But then thinking on it a while longer, I began to change my opinion on that. These tokens take up a lot of room in my organizer box, and I'm not sure I want to see that many tokens all standing up, clogging up the table while I play. We'll see if that opinion changes once I've actually had a chance to play with them.

A couple more observations about these tokens... the base of them is a broken gear, but instead of looking characteristic for the game, they just look, I don't know, broken, as if they were damaged in shipping. So I give a thumbs down on the broken gear look. A second, albeit minor complaint, is that half of them don't stick well into their bases, as in they are too loose, and I will be gluing those together at some point. I don't know how many of these I will actually use in a given turn, but six of them came in the package.

My only major complaint about the tokens overall is that they look used. There are lots of little scratches all over the surface of them (these do not show up in the pictures I took). I would have expected them to be nice, bright, and shiny, the way my GF9 tokens STILL do. But oh well.

What it all boils down to, is that you need to have fun with your tokens. Below are the skull beads I thought looked cool and I purchased them to use as focus or corpse or soul tokens for my Cryxies. I like them so much I will most certainly continue to use them even though I have the new set. I also have tons of the old GF9 tokens that I will continue to use because they are simply some of the nicest tokens ever made by a company, and I like the soft, fuzzy backing on them.

The next few posts will most likely concern my painting challenge with my Circle models. More on that to come...

Red

I dub thee... Circle of Recryxnar

In the spirit of Menoth John (I'm loving Lost Hemisphere Radio!), since over the past year and half I too have picked up some new factions, I now join forces with all my Circle, Retribution, Cryx and Cygnar brothers in the Circle of Recryxnar! Or something like that.

In other (more important) news...

Just learned that the Collector's Box, a game store a few miles down the road from us in Huntington, IN, is running a Hordes: Genesis event! Although the deadline for painted 15-20 points in the Hordes Painting Challenge is August 15, I'm going to try my best to have my list painted by July 24 for Genesis. They are doing the smaller alternative list builds (for which I am thankful) 25, 35, 50 point rounds. Maybe not all, but at least some of my models will be painted!

Red

Blasted Heath recap, some thoughts on Venethrax, and other Summer stuff

Summer leagues are tough for us. I don't know if it's the "I'm off on vacation" syndrome or what exactly happens. All things considered, the fact that we had 8 people participate in Blasted Heath is pretty good for this time of the year. We had a couple of Mark I veterans return for the first time in a long while, and a few of us who have been constant throughout the past year and a half also participated.

We lost one player, who surprisingly sold all of his army since the Nightfall league finished, and that was a very sad tale for me because I always enjoyed playing against this person. But I won't dwell on the negatives of that right now.

Once again I played with Cryx for Blasted Heath, but I was no where near as successful as I was in Nightfall. Venethrax, I've found, is not as easy as some other casters, although he is very fun to play. I've yet to win a game with him, although I've had several close calls. One game (against Darius) even came down to one wound on Venethrax and one wound on Darius. Problem was I was parked a little too close to an Ironclad. Can you say, "Good night Venny?"

Venethrax tastes a little too much like Protectorate, a bit crispy around the edges. His feat, Charnel Flames, can really block up the middle of the table, but I never seemed to get the timing of it down, either feating too early, or forgetting about it all together.

He also feels like Protectorate a bit because of the Lamentation spell. Transitioning from his Lamentation to Dragon Slayer is tricky, because they're both upkeep spells with the range of "Self." The first couple of games I didn't even cast Lamentation, and indeed, against some casters I didn't need it. But in one game, when I decided to use it against McBain, he simply stepped back out of Venny's control to cast his spells, putting him further back on the table and making it harder for me to get him.

One other thing I've learned in building lists for Venethrax is to always take the Withershadow Combine to upkeep one of his spells (because Venny likes his focus!) and also to take a Skarlock to cast either Blood Rain or Hellfire (for additional spell damage to a target), or Soul Harvester.

Finding a target for Soul Harvester can be tricky. I've tried it on Blackbane's Ghost Raiders, but they don't cull souls if you're using their reanimation shtick. I've tried Bane Thralls, and whereas the Banes hit hard when they get to the enemy, they don't always hit their target very well. I had a game against Khador where my Banes got tied up with a unit of Kayazy assassins, and the Banes couldn't hit one to save their life, or UNlife. The following turn the Kayazy mini-feated and rushed Venethrax to deal the killing blow. Ugly.

Bile thralls might be a good target for Soul Harvester. To be honest, I never tried Biles with Venny after the first game of the league, because although Venny has Caustic Presence, models that do continuous corrosion damage are not necessarily an auto-include in Venny's lists, in my opinion. Now, if Venny could do corrosion like Feora does Fire, then I'd have a whole different position on that.

All of that doesn't matter much. In the end, I got a new caster painted, coordinated another league tour, and had a helluva lot of fun. I wasn't worried about getting a stamp for using three different casters. I always stuck with Venethrax, even though there were some ugly games with him. I was more worried about putting the new undead leader through his paces, and now I have a much better grasp of using him than when I started out.

Now, if only I could perfect my list with him to use the models I own. I know there are units out there that would better maximize Soul Harvester, but I don't currently have them.

Since Blasted Heath finished, I have completed putting together Mortenebra and Deryliss (which was no easy feat, let me tell you; and I get the feeling I'm going to be repairing that spidery wench more than I'd like). I played a couple of games with her, and she is a lot of fun, I must say!

Next project though, is my Circle army. With Hordes Primal Mark II on its way, I'm getting psyched for some Hordes action. And since I have none of my Circle painted, I thought getting involved with Tabletop Gaming News' painting challenge (you can find it here) would be a good motivator to getting more of my minis done. You can find my thread here.

So for the foreseeable future, perhaps no posts on Cygnar or Cryx, but more news on how my outings go with the Orboros clan.

Red