Warmachine Painting Update and Tournament Report

Painting!

Been doing a bit of Circle Orboros lately:

L-R: Woldwyrd, Megalith, Woldwatcher

Pureblood Warpwolf. Not terribly happy with the paint job.

Wrong Eye (L) and Snapjaw (R)

Una the Skyhunter

Tournament - Nexus Games, Gresham, January 22

A little casual tournament with twelve players; I went 2-1, which isn't terrible for playing two new lists and a lot of new models. They are:

Wurmwood, Tree of Fate & Cassius the Oathkeeper
* Ghetorix
* Pureblood Warpwolf
* Feral Warpwolf
* Argus Moonhound
Gallows Grove
Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress
Efaarit Scouts
Efaarit Scouts
Swamp Gobber Chef
Shifting Stones
Sentry Stone & Mannikins
Sentry Stone & Mannikins
Tharn Bloodweavers

Baldur the Stonesoul (Baldur 2)
* Pureblood Warpwolf
* Feral Warpwolf
* Megalith
* Woldwyrd
* Woldwyrd
Wrong Eye & Snapjaw
Sentry Stone & Mannikins
Sentry Stone & Mannikins
Shifting Stones
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

Round 1

Versus Jacob's Convergence of Cyriss. He had Father Lucant and Mother Directrix, and dropped Lucant into Wurmwood.

I went second and picked the side of the table with all the forests. As the game developed, the rough terrain in the center of the table proved much to my advantage. I still managed to run out of time on the clock despite pretty well jamming him out of scenario.

Round 2

Versus Josh's Protectorate of Menoth; Amon ad Raza or the Testament of Menoth, of which he chose Testament. This was a pretty rough matchup, since Testament has a completely overpowered feat. I clocked myself again, since I played Baldur 2, a completely new list, and spent way too much time looking things up mid-activation.

Even with the clock problems, I was still running behind on attrition; his feat brought back nearly all of his infantry, despite my best efforts to remove them from play or eliminate entire units.

Round 3

Versus Quinn's Protectorate of Menoth: Feora 3 or Tristan 2. He ran Tristan 2 into Baldur 2.

This one I managed to play rather well, I think. Quinn didn't push hard enough in the first two turns, so I was able to score three points on my third turn and feat to keep him from pushing me off the flags.

2016 Catchup and 2017 Anticipation

On a personal level, 2016 was not great. But for wargaming, it was rather good! I've been neglecting this blog, so here are some pictures of the games I got in since September. Details have been lost in a haze of holiday memories, though.

American Revolution with Guns of Liberty, 10mm

Check Your Six Jet Age

Over Egypt? Don't recall.

CY6 is quickly becoming one of my favorites in our play group, not out of any particular love of air combat but because it plays quick and fun, and the guy who usually runs it is a pretty entertaining host.

Seven Years War with Shako 2, 20mm

Austrians assaulting a Bavarian-held town.

Ambuscade!

A little one-day gaming get together at Guardian Games put on by Spencer, this attracted a good number of folks and had some really nice games going on.

Saga - battles in the snow between Vikings and Danes

Check Your Six - war over the Pacific

Flames of War, Russians vs. Germans in 1945. I got trounced in two games, first as Germans and then as Russians.

Ruined temples on the lost continent of Lemuria, about to be explored by doughty adventurers In Her Majesty's Name

Colonial Wars - British defending an outpost from natives. Done in proper toy soldier style with glossy 54mm figures.

What next?

Plans for 2017 are a bit hazy; 2016 saw a lot of personal upheaval, and I'm hoping things settle down into new patterns this year. Still, I plan on putting on the Battle of Magnesia at Enfilade this year, and on attending Lock & Load in July. Past that, no real plans; the Magnesia project eats up all my painting time for the next five months.

Saga and Swedes

I had the pleasure of playing some historicals this past Saturday at Guardian Games, though not as many as I'd have liked.

First off was the monthly historical games day, which has rather developed into "28mm medieval skirmish" due to the interests of the regular attendees. I threw down my Crusaders in a Saga game against some Anglo-Saxons in a battle for the ford.

The Anglo-Saxon Warlord considers his options

The Crusader band is decimated, but the Anglo-Saxon warlord is dead and his warband on the back foot.

It went well enough, though my opponent conceded after my fourth turn. He felt that he was in an irreversible position, though I disagreed. Still, it was nice to break out the crusaders again after a few months. I'm not terribly happy with some of the paint jobs, and I think they might get repainted sooner than later - and I really would like to replace my mounted knights with some Perry or Gripping Beast models.

After, I took command of the Imperial army to put paid to Gustavus Adolphus' attempt to turn the tide of the Thirty Years War (as commanded by Andy and Victor, and put on by Kevin). This was something of a test game for the Pike and Shotte rules from Warlord.

Closing lines, from the Imperial point of view.

Swedish maneuvering

Imperial left flank and center getting it rather rough

Our verdict was that it's a decent rules set, and worth playing again. One house rule we'll probably be using is to grant a commander a single activation if they fail their first command roll in their turn - something both the Saxons and the Imperials needed to take advantage of several turns in a row.

Napoleonic Shako game and Khurasan Fantasy figures

A belated quicky:

I played the French right flank in a Peninsular game versus the perfidious Spaniards the other day, using the classic Shako rules and 1/72 (or 20mm) figures. Good fun, though my flank was rather badly used by the Spanish - the French dragoons were run off by their counterparts, which seems terribly unfair to the victors of Austerlitz.

Most of my time recently has been spent painting up some Khurasan 15mm fantasy figures for a friend. I'm quite happy with the results:

Coming soonish: A Republican Roman legion I've been working on, more Napoleonics, and perhaps some Saga or Warmachine stuff.

Warmachine Tourney Report

After last week's unpleasant tournament, I stewed for a bit and then decided to stick with it, and signed up for a tourney this Sunday at the Portland Game Store. I took the same two warlocks, Wurmwood and Tanith, but tweaked the lists significantly. (It didn't hurt that the Leyline Podcast from Hand Cannon Online put out a Tanith list I could crib. Like I've said, I dislike list building. )

This was a much nicer experience. The location was a bit nicer - PGS is on a walkable street with some nice restaurants nearby, and only twenty minutes from my house. It was considerably cooler weather. OTOH, I'm fighting a cold, so that's a minus. But mostly, I played better. I still only went 1-2, but I'm much happier with how I played. If I hadn't clocked myself on the second game, I might have gone 2-1.

So. Glad I went.

Circle Orboros Update

Well, I'm making progress with Circle Orboros, sort of. I still haven't won any games with the faction, but I'm selling on my warlocks to focus on: Wurmwood, Krueger 1 and Krueger 2, and Tanith. That's two for Champions format and they should all work reasonably well for standard Steamroller formats. Unfortunately, much as I love the game play of Warmachine, this whole experience is reminding me how much I don't care for the list building part of... well, any game. It's one thing I much prefer about historicals. Ah well... give it a few more months and the community will have come up with some decent lists I can copy, and then I can just focus on table time.

Painting - and Gaming - Update, July 2016

I've been rather terrible at updating the blog, but I've been keeping busy regardless.

On the painting front, I've finished some Perry Brothers samurai, and some Hordes models.

Perry Brothers spear and bow ashigaru, and one errant samurai.

Back row: two Efaarit Scouts. Front row: Lanyssa Ryssyl (L) and Alten Ashley (R)

Painting the Efaarit Scouts was a real pleasure. They're very well done models.

L to R: Wold Wyrd, Tanith the Feral Song, Baldur the Stonecleaver, Wild Argus

Gaming wise, I've been playing in the local Journeyman League for Warmachine & Hordes, and enjoying it a fair bit. I'm very much enjoying the Circle Orboros playstyle, and so far I'm having a good experience with the Mark III rules. Sadly, no pics of this...

But I am getting some more historical stuff in. I did a demo of Blucher at the last Portland Historical Wargames day, which was nice and portable using cards and flat terrain. Someday, I'll get on with rebasing and painting all my 6mm figures for it...

Technically in June, I played a biggish Gaugamela refight as seen below, using the Armati system. (At least, I think it was Gaugamela.)

Deployment

Lines advancing

Elephant-eye view!

Oooh, that's a lot of casualties. (That's Darius on the chariot in the back.)

This one went contrary to history, with a Persian victory - and most notably, Alexander's capture by Persian horsemen midway through the fight! No "the Great" in this battle's timeline...