2015 Retrospective, 2016 Intentions

Looking Back

'tis the end of the year, and therefore time for a little navel-gazing. It's been a year with some ups and downs in my personal hobby universe. But mostly ups.

Could have been better...

I didn't finish, really, any personal projects save one. This has more to do with continuing to pick up new figures for unfinished projects, not to mention picking up new projects.

My sportsmanship at a few events could have been better. I need to remember not to take this thing too seriously. Also, need to avoid things that make me grouchy at events: lots of ambient noise, not enough sleep, low blood sugar, arguments over trivial matters...

I started too many projects, including a few that I gave up on rather quickly - but not quickly enough to save me some cash. Examples include Star Wars Armada, Star Trek Attack Wing, and my Circle Orboros force.

Speaking of cash... I really spent too much on hobby every month.

Could go either way...

Well, I gave up on competitive Warmachine play. I still want to win, but I recognized that I don't have the time or energy to really compete with the top players in the local meta.

Likewise, I gave up on 15mm Flames of War, for a couple reasons, but chiefly out of irritation with the continuing cycle of releases from Battlefront, and the way competitive FoW play works. I can't say I've seen anything from Battlefront since that's made me regret this decision.

I discovered I don't really like list building. This is enlightening, and also a little annoying.

The monthly historical miniatures game day I've been trying to get going at Guardian Games hasn't really taken off. The days that went well - with attendees, interesting games, and so on - were much fun, but they were somewhat outnumbered by the days where no one showed up and I spent five hours by myself in the bar.

... but this was pretty good!

But on the other hand, there was more good than bad in the past year.

I really got into Saga, which I enjoy, and the sole personal project I really finished - as in I have no unpainted models and it's a complete playable force - is my Crusaders army for Crescent & Cross. And I finally won an event, the Saga tournament a couple weeks ago.

Even though I turned back to Skorne in December, I did have a good bit of fun with my Circle Orboros, especially the painting side. It was a nice palate cleanser, and I don't regret it at all. Plus I'll be able to use the furry dudes in Dragon Rampant or Song of Blades & Heroes!

Both conventions I attended - Enfilade and Lock & Load - were loads of fun. Really looking forward to Enfilade next year; not sure I can swing Lock & Load in terms of budget...

After dropping the idea of competitive play, and dabbling in Circle, I'm really enjoying playing Warmachine with my Skorne army again. Also, it's mostly painted. Just a dozen or so models to go...

I managed to get a few historical game events in - a few Waterloo battles and a few others. Each one was without exception quite a lot of fun.

I painted a lot. Even though at least half of it was commission stuff, that's plenty of practice. I'm pretty happy with my painting skills right now, but I can still see places to improve. It's a nice position to be in.

I seriously winnowed down my collection of unpainted and/or unplayed toys through some ruthless purges over the course of the year. This freed a fair bit of basement space, not to mention room on the painting queue. It also lets me focus on just a few games in terms of actually playing.

Looking Forward

If 2015 was good, I hope 2016 will be better (though I'm not counting on it). I have certain intentions, but experience has taught me not to make resolutions.

First is my Skorne army - as I said, only a dozen or so models left to paint. (Plus quite a few that are neither essential nor even competitive, but will be fun to paint when I get around to them.

After that are a number of projects that I'm defining as "playsets" - that is, two or more opposing forces plus the terrain and table for them, so I can have a complete game for demos or what have you. In likely order of completion, they are:

• 12th Century Holy Land, in 28mm - for Saga and Lion Rampant. I have the Crusaders already, the Saracens are on their way, and the terrain is in progress. I'll probably grab a desert mat from Cigar Box to complete the set.
• Europe, 1944, in 15mm - for platoon level WW2 games such as Bolt Action and Troops, Weapons & Tactics. I have all the figures I need, but not much in the way of terrain. The terrain from this will overlap quite a bit with some of the other playsets.
• The Battle of Magnesia, 190 BC - Probably for Hail Caesar, but really I just want to build something I can use to mess around with ancients rules. I have most of the Seleucids already painted, still need to pick up the Romans, and the terrain needs are few.
• Napoleonics in 6mm. After Enfilade, I said I'd decided against 6mm for horse and musket. I changed my mind after encountering a very good deal on a lot of figures, which I hope to finish buying next month and then rebase for... well. Not sure yet. But I'm going to be trying out Blucher and Black Powder for certain.
• The Neo-Spartan Revolt, 15mm - some sci-fi skirmish with a variety of figures. A militaristic state fighting a servile war on a colony world at the same time as a xeno infestation erupts. This is a long-burning project that I'd like to get done this year, but it's very low priority. I do have a good bit of terrain for it already, though.

Outside of the playsets and the Skorne army, I'm thinking about a few other things. I'd like to stay in the black on hobby expenditures, paying for them with my commission painting. I did not do well on this in 2015; try harder next year...

I'm definitely planning on hitting Enfilade 2016. I'd like to run a game for it, but I don't think I can get enough done in five months to really pull it off and enjoy the process. I can start planning for Enfilade 2017, though. Other conventions I'd like to attend, but haven't committed to are Gamestorm (in Vancouver, WA) and Lock & Load, as well as Trumpeter Salute in BC and Fix Bayonet and Tactical Solutions in Washington. Most of that boils down to being able to swing a hotel room and the travel...

I'd like to finally get a handle on airbrushing. That might involve getting a new airbrush, and will definitely involve putting in some serious practice on models I don't care too much about, something that's eluded me so far.

I want to get in more historicals gaming in 2016 than in prior years. That might mean cutting some Warmachine from the play schedule, but that's already been happening anyway... It might also mean badgering certain interested onlookers into actually playing instead of just making noises about it. Getting some of the above playsets completed will be a great help on this score.

Finally, I really want to make the historical games days work. I'm looking at some changes to the format to help this happen, but in the end this depends on the community - I can't very well force people to attend. So, here's hoping.

Lessons Learned on Painting

A clickbait-esque meditation on the things I've learned since I started painting miniatures for tabletop games.

Most of the time, it'll be seen from at least three feet away, in poor lighting. And probably by people with less than perfect vision.

An OK paint job and a good base looks twice as good as a great paint job with a lousy base - or no basing at all.

The smaller the figure, the easier the paint job. (But the more you'll have to paint, usually.)

Also, the smaller the figure, the brighter you should make it if you want it to be seen at the usual tabletop distances. For very small figures, such as 6mm, you may want to make sure the figure contrasts with its basing. This can be tricky to pull off well for camouflaged figures...

Contrast makes for good, easy color schemes - whether it's contrast of hue, saturation, or texture.

You're not painting a single figure, you're painting a collection. Consistency in the work will look better on the table than individually beautiful models that present an incoherent whole. (Unless, of course, you are painting a single figure.)

Always work on two projects at the same time. This gives you something to work on while the first job is drying, or curing, or if you're sick to death of painting ambush camo and need to take a break, but still want to paint something.

Never work on more than three projects at the same time. That way you'll actually get stuff done and on the shelf or table, and you can feel a certain sense of accomplishment instead of being overwhelmed by all the unfinished junk staring at you from around the painting table.

It is - as a rule - more satisfying to have a complete army with an ok paint job than to have a few figures with great paint jobs and several more trays of lead waiting to be painted - or worse, fielding them unpainted.

Take breaks. Every 20-30 minutes, stand up, stretch, and look at something that's at least ten feet away for a few minutes.

If it stops being fun, stop doing it.

Saga Tournament Report: December 12, 2015

 I drove down to Salem - Haven Gaming again - this weekend for a Saga tournament. The weather's been lousy, but luckily the drive was the worst part of the experience. Haven's got a nice gaming space, and the TOs even arrange catering with some pretty good pizza. Saga's a nice change of pace from Warmachine, and I couldn't help making some comparisons throughout this report, since I was Haven last Saturday for a Warmachine tournament. Also, I won.

I brought Crusaders, a mix of Gripping Beast and Old Glory figures:

Warlord
Hearthguard 4 pts
Warriors 2 pts
Levy 1 pt

Each game is only six points, but you bring seven points worth to the tournament and then decide what's going down on the table - and how they're equipped and organized - at deployment. For example, my Hearthguard could go down as four separate units of 4 models each, or as two units of 8, or a unit of 12 and a unit of 4 (max unit size is 12, so no 16-model units); further, they could be mounted or foot, and if foot, equipped with two-handed weapons instead of shields. This gives your list selection a lot more flexibility than Warmachine grants, even if you're using Specialists. It's a nice layer of strategy - you can organize into smaller, more fragile units to ensure a game-long supply of Saga dice, or clump up into bigger, more powerful units at the cost of fewer Saga dice.

Round One

For the first round, I faced off against Randy's Crusaders in Clash of the Warlords - the way to win this one is to kill your opponent's Warlord (rather like Warmachine). (Also, there were a surprising number of Crusaders at the tournament.) His force, built off of his old GW Bretonnian models, was surprisingly ranged heavy: he brought three units of bow-armed Warriors, one unit of crossbows, and two 4-man units of Knights. Usually I shy away from ranged in Saga, unless the faction battle board supports it, but I guess if you go all in it works out. In this game, I wasn't able to get enough models into melee to shut his archers down, and they slowly whittled away at my forces while his knights tied up my own on the right side of the board. I finally went for a hail Mary, and charged my Warlord across a cabbage field to attack his in single combat... and rolled one hit on ten dice. His Warlord was a bit more effective, and brought mine down with hits to spare. So, I lost, but I did get a goodly number of victory points from killing his models. More on that topic later.

Round Two

Second round was against the feared Steppe Nomads - Mongols, basically - run by Mario. This army is one of the special snowflakes in Saga. They're probably the best ranged army, and since they're all mounted, they're very mobile - they even have a trick where they can redeploy a unit on their opponent's side of the table. But they're quite fragile in melee, and any scenario where they have to hold ground is already a problem. This was one such scenario, Sacred Ground, where you score points by having models on one of the zones in the middle of the board. On the other hand, this table had no cover or rough terrain whatsoever, which did rather favor their style of play. It had me on the back foot before deployment.

Steppe Nomads making a final stand against the filthy Crusaders

However, I kicked things off by sending my eight mounted Knights across the table and murdering the Warriors on his left flank - thanks to Taking the Cross, one of the Crusader board abilities, I can push them 32" across the table with two activations, and hit a weak unit with only a single fatigue. In this game, I ended up trading them for six warriors... but also forced Mario to draw his Warlord and half his Hearthguard over to deal with it while my other units moved up toward the hills in the middle. Over the course of the game, he was able to kill off my Knights and my Warlord early, but in the end I was able to kill all of the Nomads, giving me a complete victory. (One turning point would be when his warlord attacked the single surviving Knight and barely failed to kill him, saving me a crucial Saga die.)

Round Three

Crusader knights advance on the river crossings against the Saracens

The final round was against Ollie's Saracens in Battle at the Ford - win by having more points across the river than your opponent does. Above you can see the results of my first turn. Instead of slinging my mounted Knights across the river, I decided to play a bit more defensively. Ollie peppered my mounted Knights with arrows, to no effect, and then threw his right-hand unit of mounted Ghulams into my foot Knights - with terrible results. He lost all but two of his own in exchange for two of mine, and the following turn my foot Knights finished off the unit. After that combat, Ollie was on the back foot and - though I once again lost my Warlord and mounted Knights - I was able to push across the river and kill all of his models.

Final result: With two complete victories and one not-too-terrible loss, I scored enough points to win the tourney.

Tournament Scoring

Which is another difference between Saga and Warmachine. Warmachine tournaments run according to the Steamroller packet are done Swiss style, where winners play winners and losers play losers. The winner of an event will have lost none of their games. There are tiebreakers - number of control points scored, enemy points killed, and so on - but winning each individual game is critical. The downside to this is that the number of rounds is based on the number of players, which can make for long tourneys. More than 8 players usually requires 4+ rounds.

In both of the Saga tournaments I've played in, though, the winners are decided by how much they score in each game, and the score is based on how many enemy models you kill, plus 5 points if you actually win the game. An army is worth - including the Warlord - 27 points. So winning a game, if you table your opponent, is only about 16% of your score: 27 slaughter points + 5 scenario points = 32 points. End result: players have an incentive to focus more on killing models and/or preserving their own than on winning by scenario. On the other hand, tournament organizers can limit the number of rounds and still get a result.

Now, this might be what the designers had in mind, but it seems a bit askew to me that a player can lose a game - or even all their games - and still win the tournament. The worst case for this is probably Clash of the Warlords: Able could damn near table Baker but lose only his warlord, to Baker's sole surviving Hearthguard, and the scores would be Able: 26 points, Baker: 8 points. Even though Baker's won the game, he's dramatically behind Able in tournament standings. Spencer and I talked about it on the way home, and the most elegant fix (aside from adopting a Swiss system, which has its own problems) seems to be to raise the reward for winning scenario to 15 points. Then Able would be at 26 - still, and Baker would be at 18. Still behind Able, but not nearly so badly - and in less ridiculous games, the winner would probably have enough of a points lead so that the winner of the tourney would also have won all their games.

And yes, I know about Pyrrhic victories and winning the battles but losing the war. This is a game of toy soldiers, a tournament is not - usually - a campaign, and the drive home isn't Napoleon's retreat from Moscow. I hope.

Tournament Report: Ticket Takedown, December 5 2015

Yesterday was the annual Ticket Takedown at Haven Gaming, the first prize being a ticket to Lock & Load 2016. I forsook Circle for this event and went back to Skorne; just can't stay away from the elephants. I'm just more excited about the Skorne lately than I have been about the Circle stuff, even if Circle is seen as a more powerful faction. The tournament was Master's format, so I was able to take advantage of ADR. Here's what I brought:

Master Tormentor Morghoul

* Aptimus Marketh

* Mammoth

* Titan Gladiator

* Titan Sentry

* Cyclops Brute

Agonizer

Mortitheurge Willbreaker

Extoller Soulward

Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor

Paingiver Beast Handlers (min)

Paingiver Beast Handlers (min)

VANGUARD

Aradus Sentinel

Basilisk Krea

Cyclops Raider

Mortitheurge Willbreaker

Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew

Objective: Effigy of Valor

Zaal, the Ancestral Advocate

* Tiberion

* Basilisk Krea

* Cyclops Shaman

Hakaar the Destroyer

Ancestral Guardian

Ancestral Guardian

Cataphract Arcuarii (min)

Cataphract Incindiarii (min)

Nihilators (max)

VANGUARD

Basilisk Drake

Nihilators (max)

Immortals (max)

Objective: Arcane Wonder

Morghoul is one of my favorite casters, and I'm pretty happy with the Mammoth attached to him. Of course, for this event, I forgot the Mammoth at home as it's too big to fit in the bag and usually has to sit in the passenger's seat. Luckily, another player was kind enough to lend me his model...

Zaal 2 is the new hotness, or he would be if he hadn't gotten such a lukewarm reception from the Skorne community. Most people who haven't played him think he's crap; those who have played him think he's not that bad. I'm still on the fence, but he's definitely got some interesting facets. Most of the community, myself included, is disappointed that his playstyle is more of the same "ax to face" that Skorne has had throughout Mark II. We were hoping for a bit more variety.

Round 1

Scenario: Recon

Kommander Zoktavir, the Butcher Unleashed

* War Argus

* War Argus

* War Dog

* Ruin

Madelyn Corbeau, Ordic Courtesan

Saxon Orrik

Iron Fang Kovnik

Kovnik Andrei Malakov

* Spriggan

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios

Ogrun Bokur

Iron Fang Pikemen (max)

* Black Dragon Officer and Standard

Widowmakers

Greylord Ternion

Game End: Ruin has just finished squishing a prone Morghoul. The big white disk is the Mammoth, model removed for ease of play.

I took advantage of ADR and swapped the list around so that I had the ranged battlegroup instead of the melee-focused one, planning on trimming down his infantry and support with boosted blast damage from the Mammoth and the Sentinel before sending in the Mammoth to clean up and either dominating the zone or trying to kill Butcher with whatever was left - probably Morghoul, the Brute, and the Krea. In retrospect, the Zaal list might have been a better choice.

I won the roll and went first, and advanced about as aggressively as I could. Under Abuse and Rush, the Mammoth moved up quite far to set up for some round 2 shooting, while the rest of the army clustered around him. Doug advanced pretty far, but a little more cautiously.

Second round, I got very aggressive and was able to pick off some of his infantry with the Mammoth and the Sentinel - critically, a lucky shot managed to take Madelyn Corbeau off the table. I then ended the turn by pushing Morghoul up into the center of the zone under feat and Admonition, and camping three transfers. I figured he was pretty safe; without the ability to spend Focus and unable to target him with Combined Melee Attacks, the Khadoran forces were extremely unlikely to be able to kill him.

Unfortunately, I neglected to have the Brute put Safeguard on Morghoul, so he could be knocked down. And both Malakov's Spriggan and the Ogrun Bokur can Slam without needing Focus. So he was able to position a War Argus, lower its defense with the Greylord Ternion, and then use the Ogrun Bokur to slam it over Morghoul, knocking him down. After that, it was just a question of putting enough attacks into him, and that was game.

Aside from that mistake, I was pretty happy with how this game went; I felt like it was at least a 50/50 matchup, and if I'd played a bit more carefully, I could have won.

Round 2

Scenario: Destruction

Captain Victoria Haley

* Squire
* Stormwall

Stormsmith Stormcaller

Journeyman Warcaster

The Black 13th

Tempest Blazers

Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Pistoleers

* Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer

Lady Aiyanna and Master Holt

Tactical Arcanist Corps

End game: Mammoth in mid-swing on the Stormwall, Morghoul lurking at the bottom of the photo, and Haley hiding behind the wall in the upper left.

With a Stormwall in one of my opponent's lists, I felt like I had to drop the Morghoul list. When James did, indeed drop the Stormwall list, I chose to do the same swap I did last round, mostly to pull the Krea in. Under the Krea bubble, the Mammoth and Sentinel are extremely resistant to shooting, and most of the shooting in his list was POW 10 - practically worthless in this matchup.

I lost this game on clock. Had I moved quicker on my second and third turns, I'd probably have won. The picture above, at game end, shows the Mammoth tearing into the Stormwall; I'm up two control points, and if I'd had time to clear the zone, all that he'd have had left would have been Haley herself. In return, he only killed four models - two Beast Handlers, a Willbreaker, and the Extoller, and that on his last turn of the game. He did manage to set Morghoul on fire with the Tactical Arcanist Corps on round three, though. That was a little exciting.

Aside from time management, this is the game I where I felt I played my best. But that's a pretty big caveat.

Round 3

Scenario: Close Quarters

Kromac, Champion of the Wurm

* Druid Wilder

* Warpwolf Stalker

* Ghetorix

* Riphorn Satyr

* Pureblood Warpwolf

* Gorax

* Winter Argus

Gallows Grove

Shifting Stones

* Stone Keeper

End game: Kromac, sans all his heavies, base to base with the Skorne flag. Morghoul has just used Admonition to back out of range of Kromac's ax.

I dropped Morghoul again, but this time I stuck with the melee loadout. Becky's a newer player, and she lost on clock in this game. I made some rather bad mistakes, though; forgot to feat on the turn where it would have made the biggest difference, forgot to take the Agonizer's Gnawing Pain aura into account while she was killing the Mammoth, and should have boosted to hit rolls when I sent the Mammoth after Ghetorix and the Stalker. Dice didn't love me either; to get around Cricle's high DEF, I tried to head butt most of the beasts before buying attacks on them, and failed every attempt but one. Had Becky played a bit more aggressively, she could have taken the Mammoth off the table in exchange for Ghetorix or the Stalker, and used Kromac and the surviving beasts to assassinate Morghoul. So... not my greatest game.

Round 4

Scenario: Fire Support

Saeryn, Omen of Everblight

* Succubus

* Zuriel, Champion of Everblight

* Angelius

* Angelius

* Harrier

* Harrier

* Shredder

* Nephilim Bloodseer

Blighted Nyss Sorceress & Hellion

Blighted Nyss Sorceress & Hellion

Strider Deathstalker

Strider Deathstalker

Blighted Nyss Shepherd

Blighted Nyss Shepherd

End game: Saeryn dominating her friendly flag, with most of the Skorne army jammed out by the winged beasts. The lone Arcuarius in the upper center has run over to contest in order to deny one last control point before time.

This was my last game, and I was getting pretty tired by this point. Since I was 1-2, I figured I might as well drop Zaal, regardless of what Scott was putting down. This resulted in a bad matchup; once again, the Morghoul list, with ranged battlegroup, would have been a better choice. Also, Scott's a pretty solid player. His list relies on a combination of Saeryn's feat preventing melee attacks against her battlegroup, and the Nyss Sorceresses preventing ranged attacks to jam out the scenario and dominate toward a victory. If I hadn't run out of time, this probably would have worked, too.

This was my first time to put Zaal 2 or the Arcuarii on the table. I chose not to swap anything in the list. It was a learning experience more than a serious game from my perspective, so here's a quick list of lessons:

• Nihilators should have been deployed close to the center instead of on the flank, so they could run up, jam, and get killed early for those sweet, sweet souls.
• Zaal 2 is shockingly durable, even at DEF 10. I don't think Scott made any serious attempts to assassinate him.
• The list really does depend on melee + Transference, so Saeryn's feat was a real problem. I also did not boost via Transference when I should have - mostly on to-hit 
• Zaal himself is no great shakes in melee. He made a fair number of attacks this game out of necessity, but I probably should have kept him back and tried to do more work through Transference/Sunder Spirit.
• The Big One: For years I've been playing Ancestral Guardians as if they had Ghost Shield. They don't. Oops. Lesson: read the entire card...

Anyway, a good game in the sense of learning stuff, not so much in the sense of playing well. About what I expected. Scott's battle plan worked very well, though I did throw him off his stride a little by threatening with Tiberion and a Guardian on turn 2 and forcing him to turn back to deal with them. Wasn't enough to get me up on the attrition game.

Final Thoughts

Pretty good experience, though I do wish the local meta started events a little earlier. I dropped before round five as I had no desire to get home at midnight. Thanks to Lucas for running it and to Haven for hosting it, and to all my opponents for a set of fun games. As for the pairing... well, I'm actually happy with it. Morghoul's an old favorite, and Zaal 2 looks to be interesting to mess around with. They'll be seeing more table time together.