Ok, these guys turn the chicken count to six. First, a third Deathripper.

And a couple of Nightwretches.

Finally, the little guy who’s been bored to death waiting for paint. In fact, I have played with him, with his armor half painted and the rest of the dog primed black. And I usually got nice comments about how not many people paint the dog black (they did not notice it was just primer). So before my last game (scroll down to see him next to Vlad vs Makeda) I decided to paint him up since he was gonna be the only half painted model in the whole army. And here he is. Khador wardog.

Catch you soon with some more painting and hopefully a couple of games.

Archdomina Makeda (*5pts)
* Cyclops Savage (5pts)
* Bronzeback Titan (10pts)
* Molik Karn (11pts)
* Titan Gladiator (8pts)
Tyrant Rhadiem (5pts)

My list was this one:

Vladimir, The Dark Prince (*5pts)
* Juggernaut (7pts)
* Juggernaut (7pts)
* Kodiak (8pts)
* War dog (1pts)
Doom Reavers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
* Greylord Escort (2pts)
Man-o-war Shocktroopers (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)

Caster kill, big forest in the middle of the board and tons of cover spread about. I deployed and took first turn, did so on my left. Everything behind a wall of Shocktroopers and the Doom Reavers flanking on the extreme left. He was basically in the middle to-his-right of the board with the exception of the dragoon (proxy) solo.

Oh by the way, I painted the War Dog last night just because it was embarrassing he was the only unpainted fig on my army. Pics soon.

So first turn we both walked/ran forward with the exception of my Reavers who went to really flank, and run till the middle of the board.

My second turn I advanced the shield wall over the cover and spread my jacks and the Reavers.

On his second turn he got a bit too close. Not a lot, but enough to let me get some charges in. Despite having Vlad’s awesome feat (making jacks charge 11″) for later, I still got to charge in which was a nice change for… well… for every single battle I play. The Shocktroopers charged the Bronzeback except for one and did more than decent damage, while only two Reavers reached the other Titan making some good damage themselves. Jacks repositioned with the Kodiak facing the forest where the dragoon hid.

On his next turn he proceeded to decimate my infantry. The Gladiator got rid of two Reavers while Molik freakin-Karn went on to kill 2 more and the Greylord. He would have killed every single one of them if they were closer together and his Titan wasn’t blocking him. The Bronzeback single-handedly destroyed 4 out of 5 Shocktroopers, and that’s only because the fifth was behind the battleline. God that bastard hits hard. The Dragoon somehow thought he would hurt the Kodiak, which he didn’t that much.

On my next turn, it was feat time. But most importantly, it was almost game over. Of the two Reavers that stayed alive, one was in charge range of Makeda. He did, and took every hit point but two of the damn warlock. The other one charged the Gladiator and killed it! Kodiak dismounted the dragoon and the remaining Manowar charged to finish him. One Juggernaut finished the Bronzeback  and the other one charged Molik goddamnyou-Karn. Critical freeze, he makes me reroll. Crit freeze, reroll. Fail the attack finally (with 4 dice… boosted + Signs and Portents). Hit with hand for an awesome 6 damage. That’s what he did on feat turn with S&P and a focus on him.

After that Makeda had to deal with the Reaver, so did the Cyclops Savage (and only because that single Reaver was still a threat to Makeda), and Molik hahaha-Karn failed his Threshold test which meant he did a bit of damage on my Juggy and nothing more. Best part is my opponent moved Makeda a bit too far from him.

Next turn the Juggy finished Molik out-of-range Karn (no rerolls biatch!). The other one Boundlessly Charged the remaining Cyclops and the Kodiak made an epic millimeter close run through the forest to engage Makeda.

Next turn she did a bit of damage to the Kodiak, but the Kodiak crushed her on the next turn.

It was a great game and I find myself so comfortable playing against an army that has a similar playstyle and characteristics as mine. I must have played against Skorne only once or twice before, but I can “see” everything almost clearly from the get-go. Something that doens’t happen to me against other trickier armies.

Anyway, here’s a couple of pics of the posing and base work before painting. There’s no plastic jack I ever posed without messing around with legs, arms and whatnot. And this was not the exception. So to match his better RAT I thought I’d make him resting on a bit of cover, supposedly surrounded by a few fellow Winter Guard Riflemen behind the sandbags.

The second piece specifically shows what’s clearly sketches for Vlad3, with his mount as shown on this preview.

Now, I know it’s a lot to hope for with all the nice plastic jacks, heavy-ish infantry, and now beasts coming out, but it seems to me that the next obvious step is to turn all those beautiful (and extremely expensive) cavalry units into full unit plastic kits.

Don’t you think?

Spent a whole hour of my life and brain power coming up with ways to kill those obnoxious druids to find he had none in his 35p list. He’s practicing for a tourney coming up which I won’t be able to attend cause I’ll be on the beach. I did bring a nice list though.

He had Kromac with Megalith, a Stalker, another big bad wolf and a unit of Tharn ladies with weapon master spears (O.o) and an attachmente. Also some “shepperd-like” solo and I think that was it.

I brought my usual eVlad with Doom Reavers + attach, full MoW Shocktroopers, Widowmakers, a Spriggan, and added a new full unit of yet unpainted MoW Demo Corps. Some lessons from the battle.

Stay out of the fucking woods!!!! I know, I know, I should know this already. But somehow I built my MoW wall with a forest to a flank, and he used it as his base of operations for the bashing.

Widowmakers kick ass. The last 3 or 4 battles I couldn’t use them properly. Meaning I wasn’t shooting at squishy infantry from 14″ away. People know them and fear them so they know how to make them useless. Except they are SO kickass they can stand their ground against anything. Killing his Tharn cavalry last game was followed by an impressive point black gun-to-the-stealth-face round of shooting against the Tharn girlies. They even survived around of melee with Prey on them and the last dude managed to kill a Tharn with his sword. Hand of Fate on them rocks.

Stalker wolf-thing is a beast!! Berserk + Prowl + Sprint or some combo like that. He took over 4 of the five MoW Demo Corps in one round of brutal attack, attack, move, attack, attack, move and whateverthefuckhewantedtodo. Bastard went back into the woods after doing all that.

Megalith is obnoxious as all hell. I’ve killed him twice already. But in a staring contest, the fucker is just such a bother. Rift making rough terrain in front of my MoW eager to charge. Rough terrain around him protecting another wolf from proper “inch-tight” charges. Defense and ARM debuffs and whatnot with Kromac nearby. Such a pain. Oh, and ARM 21 with a spell on him. FFS…

In the end I killed a lot of stuff, he did too, but It was gonna end up pretty much being Kromac and Megalith against eVlad and the Spriggan (sitting on a bad spot after rightfully killing a completely healed Stalker in one swift, 3 focus + Assail charge turn… gotta love Khador jacks, and I play an infantry caster… um…) We did play the killing turn but was more theorymachine and rolling dice than anything else.

Thoughts on the game and list: stay the fuck out of the woods goddammit!!!! Play scenarios. Even on friendly games. When an army ignores terrain completely, the board is no longer an equal playing field for caster kill games. Get some mercenaries into the list building process. I’m one of those that hardly ever plays the Wardog, because I just don’t have an extra unspent point. But getting me a Saxon Orrik to give pathfinder when needed (specially my MoW wall playstyle) will do good against many, many opponents.

Anyway, a nice afternoon of pain and obnoxious Circle play. At least he doesn’t win on turn 3 anymore. Sorry for the wall of text, no pics were taken.

Ok let’s start with a nice fact here. Still, remember I’m no expert on every Warmahordes faction so don’t know every model by heart. But I find it amazing that both Vlad profiles, the prime and the epic, are basically very similar. But also completely different.

If you play with one, you have a hang of the other one. The spells are similar, the way to play him in support till the last minute when he can take on most any other caster/lock is also the same. It does look like he is the same person even after the events that gave us his epic incarnation. You will miss his spell list on one model, and the other spell list on the other.

On the other hand, there’s a clear distinction: pVlad is a jack caster while eVlad is an infantry caster. That IS pretty hardcore as far as differences go, but you still get a sense of playing the same guy, just with a slightly different toolset.

Back on topic now, I’ll focus on eVlad cause I’ve been playing him a lot lately. Like I said he is an infantry caster. He has only one spell for jacks (Assail, and it’s pretty good, though Hand of Fate can be used on a jack if you really need to) and +5 points so you will be getting just the jack you need for his list, be it a cheap option just as bodyguard, or one of the more expensive, more specialized ones. His feat simply does nothing for jacks and only affects non-character warrior models.

Speaking of feats. On his feat turn he will select 1D3+3 warrior models and they basically get +3 to every stat. Yes, that means you get +3 base SPD, also +3 to RAT and MAT so you can use it on different type of models, and don’t forget the +3 to STR which adds damage to all your melee attacks. And of course it lasts a whole round, so your guys will be sitting on improved DEF and ARM as well. Hell, if you want to pull a weird charge with your unit the CMD is also increased by 3 inches so spread ‘em out!

It is an AMAZING feat. Makes regular models into heavy hitters, and our usual heavy hitting infantry into freaking beasts. MOW Shocktroopers dealing POW 17 attacks and sitting on 24 ARM for the next turn? Shit yeah.

The thing to be careful though is to time your feat right. Specially if you’re running too many characters and/or jacks. You don’t want to run out of useful (and valid) warrior models before you feat. Remember: cavalry models are also warriors.  Get your heavy Uhlans to do a nice 14″ pathfinder charge with POW 19 blasting lances with reach, sitting afterwards on ARM 20 or 22 (if some end up in BTB contact with each other) and watch your opponent squeal. No wonder Vlad3 seems to be an Uhlan himself. In any case it’s always better to feat earlier than later. You will do massive damage whenever you feat. And that’s the Khador way.

eVlad’s abilities are defensive on the whole and pretty good if someone is trying a feeble assasination attempt or taking potshots at your caster (which will add focus for his Transference spell on the next turn). He will get stronger, faster, and deadlier the more they hurt him, and he also has defensive strike to deal a swift goodbye to any regular model trying to get too close.

Onto his spell list. Assail is a pretty good jack upkeep that turns your jack into a slamming machine. Still good for free charges with +2″ move. Get this on your single jack and keep it up until he’s in combat. Hand of Fate lets a unit or model roll another die on attack and damage rolls, discarding the lowest. Do not think of it as a melee support spell. I cast it on the first turn on my widowmakers, making them hit anything and then rolling damage when shooting at enemy medium or heavy infantry (or cavalry like I did recently) or light jack/beasts. You’ll be surprised how much damage you can get with the “reroll” and a bit of luck, specially if you don’t have an obvious one would infantry unit in front of your guys. After a few turns give it to your vanguard melee unit and continue dishing the pain.

Martial Paragon is a late game spell that gives Vlad an extra die on melee attacks and immunity to free strikes. Razor Wind is your usual Khador magic missile and Wind Blast is a nice big area spell that clears your path of cloud effects and grants a RAT penalty to models in it if you place it well enough.

Now Transference. Here’s the star spell. This is the one you will have upkept on him from turn one, until you need to go for the opposing caster/lock with your Martial Paragon. This spell lets your warriors in your CTRL to boost melee attack or damage rolls using Vlad’s focus. It’s simply amazing. Upkeeping Assail, HoF and Transference every turn leaves Vlad with 4 focus to spare for this. Considering you will only have one jack, you can do a lot with these boosted attacks all over the place. Hit those high DEF dudes with the unit your opponent thought wouldn’t make it. Destroy the multiwound model with a couple of little guys, with the impunity of a warjack, and without even having to decide to give the focus beforehand.

eVlad is a toolbox of pain. He can turn up the damage when and where he needs to with surgical precision. He is tough enough to not need extra special precautions when keeping him safe, and his support spells are pretty much dealt with in the first turn. Feating before the opponent is usually a good idea, specially against negating feats. With a solid list most benefits from Vlad become bonus, over the top numbers reducing the enemy’s wounds pool dramatically with a flexibility not many feats allow.

I noticed I had no resolutions for this year. I talked about how I managed to fulfill the ones from 2010 (paint lots, play lots more) and it seems I was too busy getting into Warmachine during December/January that I completely forgot about them. Most bloggers out there make loooong lists of things to accomplish during 2012, right below the loooooong list of failed resolutions from 2011. So yeah, let’s not fall for that.

I did paint lots, and I did play lots more. On last December I played my first ever game of Warmachine, and it seems like it’s been ages ago. If you’re wondering, no, my brother didn’t get into it. He has a thing with losing, and after he beat me on my first game I won the next couple, so he decided a game where you can lose was not for him. I did get my girlfriend into WM and another friend though.

That noob on last December turned into a fan. Probably owning about 100 points of Khador, maybe 50 or so of Cryx, a few Trollbloods and a lot of Mercs that will sneak their way into the site (and my army lists) soon enough. I can honestly say it has been the minis game I have played the most in my 15 years of wargaming and by far the one I’ve enjoyed the most.

I posted around 100 posts, so that’s a nice thing. Probably the busiest year since I started this in ’07. I got rid of a lot of armies, both historical and fantasy. It was time to re-focus on my collecting and spending habits, specially when considering playtime.

But the important thing my friend is that I painted around 115 figures. It is definitely not a bad number, considering I don’t play big armies games anymore and most of them are beautiful Warmahordes stuffs.

So for 2012, more games, more painting, more theorymachine while on the bus (when you know the point cost for every model in your army you know you’re in trouble) and hopefully more great fun. With any luck Dust Warfare will be a better game than I hope and I will get to use the nice collection I’ve been amassing just as I rock the Warmachine toys.

Happy new year!

But… I don’t really enjoy written battreps as much as video. And then most make the “recap” style. Play a turn, get camera rolling, say what happened, stop rolling, and so on. They are interesting, but not as much as others.

Then there’s the extremely sporadically Miniwargaming’s WM/H battreps. They are great in the way they are made, fun to watch, but as a hardcore Warmahordes player I want more than just a “friendly” game. Don’t get me wrong, I mean hardcore as someone who loves the game, who basically stopped playing anything else because WM is THAT great, and who thinks, reads, and talks (or types) about the game a good bunch of time a week. Means I want more than just a recap. I want the players’ imput on lists, and advanced tactics whenever possible.

Enter Chain Attack podcast. I have listened to Warmahordes podcasts before but I stopped a few months ago. They are too long for the most part, and they talk a ton of time about armies/models/events I don’t really have much interest (although as a hardcore player I do like to know as much as possible about all factions). But these guys have found an amazing sweet spot in the podcast/battle report mix.

Two of them play a game. They document it throughly. They start talking about the lists, describe the feats, and go on to deployment. Most of the time it’s clear they have played several games with the lists or caster/locks (against each other) before the actual battle from the report, to get a decent hang of it all.

They go on a turn per turn basis, and on the site you get a link to a forum post with the pictures. One for deployment, and one for each player’s turn. Good old bird’s eye picture with the whole table. They retell the game move by move in a conversational manner with other players, usually 4 or 5 on the chat. It’s extremely agile and entertaining and the pictures are spot on. They talk of the hows and whys and whens of everything that happens, and you get an idea of everything even if you barely know what one or both of the factions playing do.

In the end they go about ranking the caster/lock on different categories. I don’t share that and usually don’t like that. I was a Warmahordes newbie not too long ago, and finding ratings like these do nothing, specially for a game such as this where every model simply works, just with different combinations and playstyles. It probably does something for the tournament player, but for new gamers it’s not great to find a few of the options available marked with a C, a B, and so on, twisting the view of the models before even playing them.

On the other hand, the discussion while putting these scores is smart and informative, full of gamer passion as well as thought after many games.

They really hit the sweet spot for battreps, with a mix of audio and pictures, and a pace that couldn’t be accomplished on video. Go check them out and follow them weekly. You will learn a lot about your favorite game.

The greylord escort is the first of the greylords I have painted. They are a school of ice cold wizards and Khador has a few of them in different iterations to field. This one in particular is a unit attachment for the crazy dangerous doom reavers.

Just like them, he cannot be targeted by spells, friendly or enemy, so that makes them a bit safer and also quite independent right from the start of the game. In fact if you’re fielding non-fearless troops on your army make sure they’re at least 3 inches from any of the abomination psychos.

The greylord grants the unit a few nice things. First is silence, the most important, which allows the doom reavers to avoid their berserk attacks. Very useful for a crowded charge where you’re certain they will start killing each other. But don’t forget this is optional!!! So if you need a few of those attacks and get the chance, used them!!!

He also grants them though. Might look like a big deal at first, but we know you will not make the tough rolls you need when you need them. Do not take him for this ability, consider it a nice little extra bother to your opponent if he/she sets a lot of points to deal with your reavers.

Lastly he has a nice 8 inches spray attack with a POW of 12. It is a nice attack specially cause most anyone never see it coming. Other than that he has adv. deployment, magical weapon and reach like his demented buddies.

Since they cannot be targeted by spells there’s little sinergies you can pull with them (but keep in mind targeted is not the same as affected, watch those damn spell AOEs). They’re a trained, oiled, killing machine and the escort just gives them a little extra push for when things get messy. They will however be affected by any feat, so keep that in mind. Also, any benefit from spells put on others will work! So they can boost their melee rolls with eVlad’s transference focus, simply because the spell is not cast on them. That’s the kind of sinergies you will be looking forward if doom reavers and the escort are a big part of your plan.

Now I know what you’re thinking. Is he an auto-include? Well, I honestly don’t think so. I thought he was, and I was even scared of fielding the reavers without him. But at 2 points you really have to think about it. And if you really want to use the psychos, you might as well learn how to use them well, even without the escort to calm their bloodthirst.

The marksman is probably one of the first solos a new Khador player gets his/her eye on, being that adding widowmakers to a battlebox makes the quintessential 15 pt starter army. So you have this amazing snipers everyone knows, and they still can’t do shit about them half the time if you play them correctly. It’s no wonder you go through PP’s gallery and see this guy and think “a widowmaker on steroids!”

And he pretty much is. The first thing to remember is he is not an attachment. There is some benefit from keeping him within 9 inches from the widowmakers, but after seeing the table and the enemy army keep in mind you can deploy him anywhere far away from his fellow snipers if you need.

He has adv. deployment, pathfinder, camouflage and sniper like the widowmakers, but be mindful of the differences. I’ve seen him too many times being considered just another widowmaker, the player forgetting the small upgrades he has for which he pays the 2 points. To begin with, he has stealth. We don’t have a ton of stealth, so keep that in mind. Secondly, his rifle’s POW is 12! Remember this specially when harming a light jack/beast, even without rolling more than 2 dice due to spells and such. Then of course the swift hunter ability which he can grant to widowmakers 9 inches from him, which lets them move 2 inches after killing something. A very useful ability for when you already are in an advantageous position: in front of single wound infantry models.

I guess most common widowmakers tactics apply to him, but when he’s on his own people tend to forget about him. Use that to your advantage and snipe that unit attachment that gives so many bonuses, or even get a bit of harm on the opposing caster/lock if you have the chance. 14 inches is a long range in Warmachine. Also don’t forget he has better RAT than his fellow snipers with a whooping 8.

The crappy thing about him being a solo is that he will not benefit from spells on the widowmakers unit, like the nice Hand of Fate from eVlad. If you’re going to take him alone without the widowmakers and your caster’s feat would not greatly affect him, then you’re probably better off with Kell Bailoch for similar abilities and stats (POW 10 though) but two shots instead of one if he doesn’t move (and for the same points). In a big game, and if you’re into the subtleties of sniping then you could field them all and have your opponent think twice before he/she deploys the infantry.

First game against an Absylonia list. Beautiful models. We tied. No, really, we tied the untieable game. We tied on every damn tiebreaker, all 4 of them and also the army points (eVlad and Absylonia both had +5 jackbeast points) so a roll of some dice just put me over my opponent for next round’s matchups purposes.

Second game against freaking Miguel and his obnoxious Kaya Orboros. I should already know how to play against him right? Well, I did well in not sending important models upfront and he had to use his feat to get a few kills, but then when I was getting my payback I left Vlad too exposed for a caster kill.

Third game and matchups made me play against the same opponent as the first game. I’m still to play against any Cryx in tourneys! This time we were both as cautios as the first game but it was nicer to actually know what the beasties did this time. In the end we were running out of time and I feated to utterly destroy his Raek (on single Doom Reaver blow without feat on him) and his Typhon.

Overall a lot of fun, no 4th round again due to overwhelming victory by Orboros, and at least this time people looked at my army with a little more fear than last time. It’s a nice and fun as all hell list and I just can’t get enough of Vlad.

Now click on the picture to get to the hundred pics photobucket slideshow. Some amazing pics by my friend Gonzalo and my girlfriend Stef. The tables looked great if a bit overcrowded (specially for my infantry heavy, medium based, snail speed parade) All the snowy walls and fences are from my collection, which made a great winter board with other people’s scenery.

And if you want to check out the rest of the expo, click on the next picture for that slideshow. Some very high quality stuff, and the railroad modelers always make everything better.

I’ll upload pics of the three models I had to paint for this tourney with some thoughts on how they play during the week.

In the words of someone wise: OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG.

Anyway, unlike last tourney, I made a more balanced (I think!!!) 25 points list, or at least one with a plan. That meant I had to paint some new models, and I did. So adding to my gallery soon you will see the widowmaker marksman, the greylord escort, and epic Vladimir as my caster for this tourney.

They are all great models both visually and ingame. eVlad is probably the only Vlad model I like, and was originally going to use the prime stats, but the epic version is just too much fun. I mean, focus 7 never hurt a Khador player either.

His battlegroup is only composed by a Juggernaut who will be bodyguarding him for as long as possible, or until I find a nice path for a +2 inches movement (charge, slam or trample) plus an extra 2 inches slam move to open an assasination path if need be (all of this with one of eVlad’s upkeeps).

The rest of the army is composed of small, independent blocks, that can take care of each other if need be and can be affected by eVlad’s feat however I want as long as they’re in his quite big 14 inches control area.

First group is a full MoW shocktroopers unit. Yeah, you know I love those guys, and yes, I would probably switch them for demo corps if I had the models. But they have reach, shieldwall, an impressive 14 pow on either the melee weapons or their cannons, and they block LOS pretty well with their medium bases and 8 wounds each.

Next is widowmakers plus marksman. They will probably be very forward at the start, taking potshots. They will have a spell that lets them roll an extra die on attack and damage and discard the lower, add to that the ability to boost a roll with eVlad’s focus (due to a spell he has on himself) and suddenly if there is no squishy infantry on the board they can start putting the hurt on light jack/beasts or heavy infantry! Gotta remember the marksman is not an attachment and CAN be deployed far away if needed, and also that his rifle is strenght 12 and he has stealth.

Last but not least, the psycho doom reavers with the greylord escort attach. The have tough with him but still squishy so protecting them is a priority. Good charge range, reach, magical weapons and weapon master, again with the ability to boost any rolls (because the spell is in Vlad, not them).

The plan, because this time I do have one, is assasination. Move forward trying to neutralize some of the enemy’s attempts to reach a well defended Vlad (with the MoW and Juggy). Even then, he’s a tough as nails caster so not any assasination attempt will do. Widowmakers harassing and when the time comes, feat.

This bastard of a feat gives a minimum of 4 of my warrior models +3 on all stats for a round. That’s a fucking giant thing!!!! Let’s make it this simple. Doom reavers charging 12 inches, with reach, 4 dice on damage with +3 on the melee damage (the feat affects strenght as well). MoW charging 10 inches, with reach, POW 17 weapons. If something stands on the way of the assasination run I can send Juggy slamming 9 inches, and a minimum of 3 inches slam, that’s without even spending one focus. Remember any of the warriors on my control area can spend focus to boost. And after Vlad casts his three useful upkeeps on the first round, he has 4 focus to spare pretty much every round.

So that’s the deal. Sounds like a fun army, kind of imposing on the table which is always fun, and focusing on caster kill leaves my brain easier to think of possible wins by scenario though I honestly suck at them.

Here’s the list in resume and any thoughts are VERY welcome (though changes to the list, considering the tourney is tomorrow, are unlikely)

eVlad
-Juggernaut
Full MoW Shocktroopes
Doomreavers
-Greylord Escort
Widowmakers
Widowmaker Marksman

It was only three rounds due to time and space, and 8 players, but I won my first match against a fellow Khadoran. We were both running pButcher, and we both had different flavors of men-o-war, so it was a lot of fun. After that I lost to Retribution and then to my hated Orboros “regular” opponent.

I went with a lousy list of painted models to avoid painting anything specific. I just wanted to play! I just hate the damn mortar and I keep fielding it. It’s so useless!!

Anyway my friend Gonzalo took some pics and here they are. Click for the slideshow I completely fail to embed.

Not sure why, but I never got to paint all the weapon options… which was just stupid. With a possible two upcoming tourneys, and even though I have a painted metal Juggernaut, I decided it was finally time to paint his plastic kit open hand. And of course I sat and also painted de Marauder’s pistons and the Decimator’s gun.

So finally the heavy kit is complete for all four jacks (and the Decimator saw also works in my Torch model). Pics ahoy!

If you need some help, or inspiration, check these two blogs:

http://fantalonia.blogspot.com/

http://solonexus.blogspot.com/

And if you need a few ideas check Isildur’s Bane, my solitaire rules hack for the Lord of the Rings game, as well as this solo mechanism for the Song of Blades and Heroes which will work with any Ganesha (and other’s) games with the same core mechanic.

If you want some solo friendly skirmish games go check Two Hour Wargames and if you’re interested in a squad level game with modern warfare as its subject (but VERY easily adapted to other eras or genres) and very elegant solo friendly mechanisms, check Force on Force.

Of course this is just scratching the surface of solo wargaming and just a fun way to get playing straight away. Thousands of blog posts have been written about the subject way more comprehensively than me, though you can normally see in this place I am an avid solo gamer. Give it a try, not to replace any gaming you already do, but as another flavor on the big wargaming menu.

And also a limited reaction system which instead of limited in the things a reacting unit can do, it simply makes the player put a reaction token on the board to note the unit reacted and it cannot do so again. “We cannot let units react all the time cause… um…” Tell that to Infinity man.

Not elegant at all, but whatever works (and bear in mind it IS Andy Chambers designing the game… don’t expect anything too progressive or ground breaking).

So far it looks like taken straight out of Battlefield Evolution, but we’ll see.

Anyway, one of the requirements is to bring 3 medium based objective markers, and 1 big base one. Most won’t bring them of course, but I thought it was a good chance to make some. On hindsight though, I should have probably made 2 big base ones for when I play those scenarios here at home… oh well…

I just grabbed a bag full of bizarre bits I have. I use that bag for weird bases like the ones on my Cryx models. And here’s what I came up with. Be mindful that the medium ones are the classic “flag” objectives and the big one is usually a big rock you have to destroy. But honestly the only requirement is base size, so I just went a bit weirdo with them.

On the medium ones, the chests are not glued to their ghostly guardians, so I can use them for other games as well. The ghosts are pieces from some 40K demon or something.

The big base has some nice skeleton laying on treasure I found, a burnt bonfire from a Lord of the Rings set and some old Orc or goblin spear points.

Get a few bases and some weird bits, and make your very personal (not even you know what they’ll look like!) objective markers.

You know who you are. Keep on losing.

Back to regular programming.

I bought an Old Witch model at a store here, and it had a repeated part of the Scrapjack (meaning I was missing another). Emailed with the packer code that every blister has, was an Euro package so the rapidly contacted me with US offices missing parts service. It took a little while considering I’m way down in South America, but the part arrived perfectly safe and now I can build and paint my newest warcaster.

Great game, great models, great service.

Enough words, I guess…

In the table though, I love him.

Something very special coming up too in the next few days!

I honestly think this is the future of miniature wargames. Whether big players keep designing the same shit they did in the 80′s, or the older more “serious” players in the industry keep rolling on the old-school for old-school’s sake wave of new games with vague rules and lots of ink spent on “the spirit of the game.”

With Infinity and Force on Force (and I’m sure a few others out there I don’t know about) we get the newly paved way for dynamic gaming, a lot fancier and more elegant than THW’s tables filled reaction system. Players are engaged now the complete turn. Tactics become more realistic and less abstract, even with the normal abstractions we need to work around miniature terrain and such.

Every move now needs to be thought first on a logical level, and only then looking at model’s stats or dice probabilities. Terrain is gaining a lot more importance and games will look better because of that.

Same side gaming is becoming more and more “doable” and fun. I think it’s just what the stagnant wargame design scene needs.

On a side note, someone here decided they had too many zombies (“too many zombies”… I know, right?) so he decided to dispose of, let’s say, a couple of zombie horde boxes from Wargames Factory. Yes, the same zombies I ordered a year ago online when the company took a dive and changed my order for lots of Warmachine stuff. Well, those 60 less than stellar (but great to fill a table up) sculpts are now on my possession and yeah, I am designing a zombie game to use them with Dust Tactics figures. Because we all know the world does need another zombie game!

Pics of completely unrelated stuff coming this week.

Hope to play some more games soon, getting ready with play and paint for the first tournament held here on December. I bet it’s going to be a lot of fun.

ALLIES

Two Gunners units.

All of these figs will be at the Warmachine gallery, as usual.

Some more Dust Tactics coming up, and hopefully some more Cryx! Oh yeah, and some special Khador too…

Not that I have first hand experience with the latest omglimitededitionimusthaveitorilldieavirgin boxed toy ships game, but I can trust this man’s review. And you should too if you know about his background.

On other news I picked up/swapped for some AT-43 Therians a few more boxes of DT. Specifically the following: Allies Gunners with extra figure for Bot Hunters, Allies Grim Reapers, Axis Battle Grenadiers with extra fig for Tank Killers, and the Axis Blutkreuz Korps Untertoten Squad… also known as German Zombies

And a little extra. My first Kodiak for Khador (yeah, I’ve got more than one).

On a similar note, we had a beer & warmachine night on saturday with my gf, only this time we invited a couple of friends to teach them!! We used the Khador, Menoth and Cryx starters and made up a second Khador army with Sorscha, Destroyer and the newly painted Kodiak. It was so much fun, and killing 2 Sorschas in one turn is something I will hold in my heart

So sad we didn’t take pics of that. Maybe next time!!

Painted Cryx battlegroup

Painted Cryx bile thralls unit

Painted Khador Kodiak

Yeah, promises without pics suck, but just letting you guys know everything’s still a mess down here. Also, the blogosphere keeps fixed on the god awful little plastic ships from the upcoming game from Nottingham. They look like Kinder toys to be honest.

Also, I might have some stuff for sale in the upcoming weeks. I need to clean the cabinets!

Most, invariably, some time along the first couple of months reach to a question aimed at the readers. “What would you like to see?” Most as well get about 3 answers. All different, of course.

So next time you think about this, why don’t you simply try to think what YOU enjoy of wargames blogs? Think about that, and apply if possible. Ok, so you love watching guys put together expensive japanese resin kits but there’s no way in hell you’ll afford those. But still, what do you love the most? A ton of pictures? Detailed explanations of the building process? Description of the tools and the brands or where to get them? The way he or she organizes the info for easy access later? Think about all those things, and make a blog you would read. That’s the way to always have something interesting to do and share.

Want an example? Let’s use oMAD (of course, right?)

So I like battle reports. But I like them with a ton of pics and as little and basic text as possible. I also like when most updates have some kind of pictures. Either finished stuff or work in progress or even anything remotely related to wargaming (recent purchases, tools, the workbench, your cat stealing that figure, etc.). I also love game design rants. I don’t need pics for that. I like game design and enjoy reading about it, even when the game theme or style or even design ethos isn’t my cup of tea. I love small, focused general (wargaming related) rants as well… scroll down one post and see!!

So it’s no wonder I try to update this little thing with that kind of stuff. Lots of pics whenever possible, few pics when randomly updating, game design talk, easy access to all the galleries, articles, and battreps, you get the point.

There are millions of reasons to start a gaming blog. But once you’re down the only way to keep it interesting is making it interesting for you first and foremost. This isn’t your job after all.

GW makes sure every nerd in the internet hears about the cute, overpriced, limited edition, omgimusthaveitorillbescrewed little game. No need for you guys to post the exact same announcement on every one of your blogs!!!

Interesting to see regular “GW bashers” drool all over the stupid little pieces of plastic though.

Most of these rules are variations to the regular Dust Tactics rules. You need to know the basic game, and most of those rules apply normally. The rules noted as “(extra)” are my own creation for different aspects of the game. More on them on the Designer’s notes at the end.

Remember this is a living document. I will update this post, and let you know via blog post when I do.

Latest version: September 2011

Distances: 1 square = 6 inches

Squad formation
Models in a squad must remain within 2 inches of a leader model. There must always be a leader model in the unit. If the leader model is removed as a casualty, immediately choose another model. When a hero starts the game inside a squad, he/she is the leader.

Line of sight and shooting
Every weapon line can shoot at a different target. Only the models with LOS (line of sight) to the target can shoot though. Distance is measured from the base of the nearest model with the weapon to the base of the nearest model in the target unit. Always measure from the models’ base edges. Every model shooting must have LOS to the target, but distance is only measured from and to the closest models.

Limited-ammo weapons can be fired by any model (as normal), but those shooting must have LOS to the target.

A player can remove any figure from his/her target unit taking casualties, even those out of LOS from the firing models (exception: Sniper special rule).

The models from an active squad do not block LOS to other squad members. Nor do they block movement (they can move through models in their own squad).

Squads block LOS to other squads (as in the normal rules). Consider the space between models of a single squad as a solid screen. For robots, consider their bases as blocking LOS.

Firing flame weapons
Make a template 2 inches wide by the needed length (6, or 12 inches, depending on the weapon). Place it against the nearest base edge of the firing figure, towards the closest model in the target unit. Any unit the template touches (except the one from the firing model) is affected, whether friend or foe.

Close combat
Close combat weapons have a range of 2 inches. If at least one figure from the active unit is within that distance from an enemy, they can fight using CC weapons. When a unit attacks with CC weapons, the whole unit fights (not only the ones 2 inches from an enemy). Also, every model from the target unit gets to fight back.

Cover and scenery
Area terrain: It’s represented by a small area (the size of a CD is perfect) where you place cover elements (tank traps, ammo crates, etc.). If half or more of the squad is completely inside an area terrain they gain the corresponding cover save.

Ruined buildings (extra): They block LOS to everyone like obstacles do. Walkers and vehicles cannot enter this terrain. They provide hard cover to squads inside. If there are several levels of height, it takes one action to move up or down a level. Squads in higher levels can trace LOS over squads, tank traps, ammo crates, but not over walkers, other buildings or obstacles.

Changes to skills
Agile: The unit moves 10 inches per move point instead of 6.

Activation roll (extra)
Every unit must roll 3d before activating. Heroes, or units with heroes attached to them roll 4d. Check the result on the table below.

0 hits: The unit doesn’t do anything this turn. Counts as activated.
1-2 hits: The unit activates normally.
3+ hits: The unit activates and has an extra action.

If the unit activates using Reactive Fire (or fails to do so) it doesn’t need to make an activation roll.

Armor saves (extra)
Only infantry squads get armor saves. The roll is made every time a squad takes casualties from a weapon line shot at them, as many times per turn as needed. This means that a unit targeted by another one, shot with 3 different weapon lines, will roll armor saves 3 times, and not just one after all the casualties have been added.

If the save succeeds, the unit doesn’t receive casualties. If it fails, the unit can still make any relevant cover save (if available).

Armor saves are made with 4d. The armor of the squad determines the result needed for a successful save.

Inf1: 4 hits to save.
Inf2: 3 hits to save.
Inf3: 2 hits to save.
Inf4: 1 hit to save.

Armor saves cannot be made in close combat.

Designer’s notes
So, I craved for two aspects of the rules that were very important when creating rules changes. First, to use only the numbers on the cards. No extra attributes or anything. Second, to use the DT dice. No need to get or roll other type of dice.

Now, the most obvious changes are the activation roll and the armor saves. Let’s talk a second about them.

The activation roll is mainly my first try to make it more enjoyable to solitaire play. When I play solo, I apply the activation roll to either both armies or just one, and add a bit of uncertainty to the battle. Other mechanisms would be needed to make it more enjoyable, and I’m working on that.

The armor save seems a bit strange. But already the game design has included the different infantry armor to its ethos, so I might as well use it. If you see clearly, the chances of making a save are very low considering most troops right now are Inf2. But still, they do add a tiny bit more survivability to the whole game. Why is this necessary though? Well, I believe that the board game is quick and deadly, and I love it. But when setting up a tabletop game, we usually go a bit larger. The play area is bigger, there is more scenery, if only because the movement and shooting distances are a bit larger. However, I still enjoy playing with few units, and this gives me a slightly longer game, and also another bit of unpredictability. I am developing a simple system for the walkers, not in the form of saves but in the different ways that they can be affected beyond the simple “alive” and “dead” states.

Hope you can try them out and enjoy them.

And pssst. I’m developing it to be solo friendly as well.

This is from long ago. One “Small Table Game Day” when my gf and I played a couple of Warmachine games (already somewhere in the blog) and in between those we played a quick LotR game. The scenario is one from the Khazad-dum book and has dwarves protecting the giant mountainside door mechanism so goblins cannot enter from the other side. I ran the goblins trying to open the gates while she ran the dwarves.

I had 10 turs to do it, and every goblin dead had a chance to enter back into the game on the next turn. I actually won on the 10th turn, which was the most exciting part of the game. Not a lot happened otherwise as it’s usual on LotR published scenarios. Not a lot of tactical depth either. I find I enjoy this game more with my Isildur’s Bane solitaire hack which adds a lot of uncertainty to an otherwise dull gameplay. Most of the pics were taken by her, therefore they don’t suck. Also, that good camera (my brother’s) got recently stolen, so I’m sharing this mainly cause of the great pics. Enjoy!

I painted my model with chainmail from Citadel Colour. You can see the little guy down here, but of course I needed to experiment somewhere else, so he was not the test subject after all. I decided to try this on a piece of plastic scenery I had lying around.

1- Paint your metal on your figure. Easy, done. Now, the next steps are done with a wash and some Tamiya weathering powder. I swear, I never learned to use that bastard, but I thought it would be useful. I scratch some powder on a palette and mix it up with some Devlan Mud wash.

2- Once the metal is dry, I apply this orange wash all over. I wait for it to dry, and apply a second wash of similar color and texture. Down here you can see both of them. The second one takes the metal to a quite bright tone. Metallic paint still coming through the wash, which is great.

3- After the second wash is dry, I do a simple wash of Devlan Mud to mess it up and darken the recesses. After that is dry, I make another wash like before, only this time making it very orange, and thick as normal paint. I apply that to raised areas and exposed metal, anywhere you want your rust to be more obvious. Below you can see both of these steps.

4- Light a cig and continue to paint the figure. Yeah! That’s it! And the results are way more than satisfactory. At least for me. The bare plastic around the painted example gives me a comparison to check how real the effect looks. I think it will do great.

Recap:
1. Paint your metal
2. Wash with mix of Devlan Mud (or any other oily, dark wash) and Tamiya weathering powder (or any other brand you like).
3. Wash again with the above mix.
4. Wash with Devlan Mud.
5. Detail with a thicker, more orange version of the first wash.

Here’s some detail pics.

I’ve already applied this technique to the test model, and it’s great. You will see the little guy painted here in a couple of days. Hope you can use this technique!!

Yes, as well as the Undead starter set (unassembled and unpainted) I will send you the starter Elf army that I laboriously painted. Want to see it? Here it is!!

So yeah, two complete OOP Warmaster starters, one new, one painted to high standards, for the following stuff:

Incursion boardgame + Bazooka APE + Zip Kelly + Gracie from the Allies + Sturmzombies II pack + Blitzhund II + Drohne + Panzeraffe from the Germans.

If you’re interested get in touch with me at doguipreacher (at) gmail (dot) com

The trade is simple, and relies on trust… so I’m going on a limb here.

I want the Incursion boardgame + Bazooka APE + Zip Kelly + Gracie from their Allies section (they’re basically the latest Allies releases). I don’t care if you have them, order them and send them to me, or simply make an order with my home address.

Once I get some kind of confirmation, I will ship to you, anywhere in the world, a long out of print Warmaster Undead Starter set. It’s a big army, complete to the last piece, unassembled, unpainted, in blisters and box.

Any takers?

EDIT: sorry, maybe comments aren’t the greatest. So here: doguipreacher (at) gmail (dot) com

Also, some extremely amazing decal sheets from Dust models in China. If you’re curious, the packs are: Axis Decals for 1/35+1/48 Scale Models, Allies Decals for 1/35+1/48 Scale Models, and Axis/Allies Decals for 1/48 Scale Models. They all go great with the models you get from Tactics sets.

Cryx’s battlebox figs are based. The theme is basically “invasion” so I’ll try and make most figures’ bases reseble some of this. In this case I added some bits of furniture and stuff to them, taking advantage of the light plastic figs for repositioning and stuff. I might add some little “sprue bricks” to the bases, but right now I’m trying to come up with a decent color scheme. Oh yeah, that’s a poor wrecked mechanithrall on the Slayer’s base. Plenty more where that one came from as they say.

So for next time I hope I’ll be able to show the painted epic Irusk model that’s already seen some table time. Also finishing a Kodiak which would be cool to have by next week. Also on the workbench is Karchev and a unit of Daughters of the Flame already assembled.

Going for a theme list can be a nice way to get into a faction. There are crazy exceptions and there’s one in this post to be sure, but yeah. I have some loose models here and there from Cryx and Menoth. For Cryx I decided to make an honest jump into them as my second faction. They will get prime treatment, but always after Khador in all respects. I got me a starter set, some random jacks and a couple of units.

Recently I found online a nice 35pts theme list for Deneghra, the cast from the starter box and the one I’m going to focus on (heh…). Unlike with Khador whom I love all the way, I want to specialize in a single caster for Cryx for as long as I can. So with that, here’s the list (stolen from the interwebz, leave a comment if it’s your creation for proper credit)

Deneghra (+5)
-Nightwretch (4)
-Nightwretch (4)
-Deathripper (4)
-Deathripper (4)
-Deathripper/Ripjaw (free at tier 3)
-Seether (9)
-Skarlock(2)
Min Bile Thralls (5)
Pistol Wraith (3)
Pistol Wraith (3)
Warwitch Siren (2)

From those models I’m only missing the Pistol Wraiths, the Siren, and the Skarlock. Yep, I’ve got all the damn bonejacks and the Seether. So on this list, on Wednesday’s update I’ll show you the starter set built and ready for paint (with an extra Defiler that won’t make it to this list).

On the other end of sanity there’s the Menoth theme list. It includes an insane amount of models, the new warcaster from Wrath and even a model that isn’t out yet. Thyra is probably my favorite character from Wrath (yeah, I know, from the army I like the least) but it just happens I have a few of their models too. I have a starter, a few heavy jacks laying here and there and somehow I got a bucket of Daughters of the Flame to use in other games. Her theme list includes, amongst the unreleased solo (Nicia, my SECOND favorite character from Wrath… damn) and the new character warjack, the list embraces a fuckload of Daughters. So here, straight from the PP Forums, Tier 4 Black Widows.

Thyra (+6)
-Dervish (4)
-Blood of Martyrs (9)
Min Daughters of the flame (5)
Min Daughters of the flame (5)
Min Daughters of the flame (5)
Min Daughters of the flame (5)
Min Daughters of the flame (5)
Nicia (3)

Yes, that’s 30 Daughters. Now I can make a few changes on that to make use of some of the stuff I’ve got. I only own about 3 units of Daughters from that list.

I could take off a unit of Daughters, and switch the Dervish for a Redeemer and Max Choir. Or simply switch the Dervish for a Repenter (both the switch jacks are on the starter). This last path seems the more sane for starters, but who would want to collect Menoth without a Choir unit? Except, I don’t plan on collecting this faction… right?

First up Mr. Butcher. He likes to hurt stuff.

Next the amazing winter guard mortar crew. I’ve set the scheme for my future winter guard units with these guys, which not strangely resemble a bit of the Butcher’s attire. I think I’ll paint another mortar before getting a full WG unit.

Last but not least, Torch. Character jack, 3 initial attacks, gunfighter, virtuoso, smoke bombs, pathfinder on charges, flamethrower, sustained attack… 10 points. And some people still have doubts about him.

Anyway, I built him outta the juggernaut from the battlebox, with the saw magnetized from the heavy kit’s decimator.

Not painted, but just arrived. Four lovely Dust Tactics units. The command units for both factions, and the spotter + sniper boxes also for the Allies and Axis. Now I just need some nice medium walker kits with the artillery weapons.

Down in the pipeline I’ve got to assemble an already painted eIrusk and finish my faithful Kodiak before starting any other jack.

I’ve got a few items coming, so thought I’d give a heads up.

If you’re even mildly interested in the Dust universe you might want to go grab the bigass starter box while you still can. The thing is being updated with a revised box set with completely new and different figures, maps and scenarios for the veteran players but still newbie friendly. But, the thing comes with a lot less stuff. I’m guessing it’s in the expansion sets format, which is less than half the size of the original box. The other reason to grab it it’s because it is a pretty amazing deal. Check the price of it and consider it has 32 figures and 4 (yes, four) of the most amazing walkers in the market today. It beats the other bigass AT-43 box by a mile. (People usually compare them, I’ve got them both)

In fact, the deal is so good I had to go grab a second set. It’s a LOT cheaper than buying duplicate unit boxes. I don’t have great expectations for Dust Warfare though. I think Rick Prestley isn’t even in the universe of progressive wargame designers. In fact I believe he’s in the “new wave of old school” design, for the “beer and pretzels game” crowd but with the glossy full color rulebook taste. That’s not bad, but also not what I’m looking for. I’m still developing my own board-less Dust and that’s probably what I’ll be using the figs on.

Oh yeah, I got the Operation Cyclone expansion as well.

On the gaming front, my gf and I played a couple of killbox games during the weekend. We are slowly starting to play scenarios, something I think takes Warmachine to the next level once you’re leaving the shallow waters of newness.

I played Butcher, Spriggan, Juggernaut and Kodiak. She played Sorscha, two Destroyers and Juggernaut. On the first game I charged Sorscha with the Spriggan on the second turn, feat and Full Throttle on it, game over.

On the second game, she made some nice move tricks. I was in a bad position so had to do something brutal, which I did, killing two of her three warjacks in a turn with feat and Full Throttle. But I was left in a less than great position still. Now she had to do or die, so used Wind Rush, feat, and then charged the Butcher who had no focus on. Still, ARM 18 is a freaking beast, so the bastard survived to kill her the following turn.

I realized how scared I am of Destroyers, and I’m a Khador player. Can only imagine what other players feel when you deploy them or Behemoth (or mortar crew, or Black Ivan!!)

Check the article, which is hilarious by itself (here) but also this informative comment (my source). God, I feel for the girlfriends of people who play these tournaments (and their families, and even their non-gamer friends).

Secondly, everyone’s favorite psychos the Doom Reavers. Am I tempted to paint three units of these guys for eButcher’s theme list? Oh yes…

Lastly, a WIP shot of the Spriggan. He’s owning a bonejack which is always a good sign.

Let’s see if I can keep this Wednesday thingy, even if it’s just workbench update or games played. Coming up a finished Torch, Butcher and eIrusk.

On a side note, fucking wordpress still won’t let me resize pics on Chrome so every time I update the blog with pics they force me to use Firefox. Not cool wordpress, and there’s no telling how much I’ll take this crap. All my pics are hosted on photobucket anyway…

There’s been quite an invasion of skirmish fantasy/sci-fi mostly character driven miniature games for the last 3 or 4 years. They have a lot in common like faction starter sets, most replacing the classic army roster for cards with model information and bookkeeping, some of them with free online rules, most tackle some kind of metagame resource management, most are aimed at painters as well as gamers.

There is little doubt Warmachine/Hordes will remain king in this niche of miniature gaming for a few years to come. I am one to think it has absolutely nothing to do with GW’s style of games, therefore no point in thinking PP will “replace” them whatsoever. But still the question lingers: how many of these games and miniature lines will survive the next 3 or 4 years?

P.S.: I understand some of these games have been around for a while, like Infinity or the original Dark Age. But it seems the fight is on right now in the overpriced skirmish miniature market.

First, during the weekend, a couple of Dread Zone battles with my girlfriend, Khador vs. Khador, violent random scenario madness. I’m trying to play a lot of that to create a modified version with less bookkeeping and more violence (if that’s even possible) to play a mini-league or something at the friendly game store.

And yesterday afternoon I took some of my unfinished and now finished figures I were painting for the tourney to play at the store. A friend playing obnoxious Circle Orboros was there and he handed my ass in a plate twice. First game at the snow board was 25 pts. and caster kill. I conceded after realizing he would keep killing my heavy stuff however he wanted and running back without me able to do anything but chase him but lose my army in the process.

The second game we changed table, turned it up to 35 pts. and tried one of the regular scenarios the guys play there at tourneys. That was my first time playing a scenario that was not basically pure violence, so I lost in 3 turns O.o

Fun was had, a lot of Warmachine chat with a friendly and curious Warhammer Fantasy player watching the games, and a bit of knowledge in my head about damn Circle and scenario play.

Good news is I will be showing off some finished Khador models during this week as I wrap them up.

Oh, and right after that I have a feeling some Cryx is coming. Yeah, you heard right.

Thursday morning.

Yeah, I’m painting really fast, and staying within my standard quality (I forbid myself rushing it to the point of substandard paintjobs). I have done fast jobs before. But the truth is I had only 10 points of my army painted beforehand. I am doing basically a 25 point Warmachine army in 2 weeks. Not sure I’ll make it. Keep you posted.

This week’s painting plan is:

Epic Irusk done by Tuesday morning.
Two man-o-war shocktroopers by Thursday morning.
Torch by Saturday morning.

I’m left with a kodiak, winter guard mortar and six doomreavers for next week. Let’s see if I can make it.

I recently found this blog, I think due to a comment made by the author.

It’s just GREAT solitaire material. He plays a ton of solo games, tries too many games and rulesets to even try and name them, and has an amazing “do it yourself” vibe to every project.

RSS it and go back to read past posts. Really worth it.

Page 6, cover section. Is it really that hard to devise simple, solid, clear rules for models behind cover without convoluted text, stupid suppositions and counting of models on both units, and finally a die roll to decide when people can’t work it out?

Some Italian designers go forward (hey Andrea!). Others are just stuck in the past.

First, the book must teach the game. And by that I don’t mean it should have all the rules inside. I mean the text should guide the reader through the information in a way that gameplay is clear from the first page. You cannot find out, for example, there’s no spellcasting on the game by page 60. You cannot find out the size of the table required on page 30. Every game needs a solid, easy to understand organization so when the rules are explained the player has a crystal clear picture this is the game he wants to get into.

Second, it must be a good, clear, and useful reference tome. Once the players know the game rules, they should have easy access to the more complex, obscure, or less used mechanics. Rolling a die to see who’s right and then discuss it? That’s bullshit. A good rulebook has a comprehensive index in the back to find rules in a matter of seconds, read them out loud, and carry on with the fun.

I’ve been reading Malifaux. Beyond the obvious contacts with the Warmachine generation of games, it struck me that by page 50 I barely had a clue what was going on. Oh yes, I knew how to Place, Switch, Discard (discard what? the card rules aren’t even glimpsed before this), and all kinds of technical stuff extremely useful for experienced players to have clearly explained. But I was through my first read through.

Malifaux seems like an exceptional reference to experienced players. Everything is explained clearly without room for wacky interpretations. But fuck it is boring!!! I wanted to get into the world of Malifaux and all I got was how modifiers work, and not even knowing modifiers to what. It makes such a bad work teaching the game that at one point you accept the fact anything will only make sense through the second read, or even after being taught the game by someone else. And you start reading paying less and less attention when that happens. And suddenly you stop coming back to the book because it’s a job to read it through the first time to start understanding what the hell is going on the second time.

If you’re in the position to write a rules manual, not only worry about the rules and how clearly you write them. Think about the organization of your book. It doesn’t matter if the rules for shooting come before the rules for close combat for the referencing player. They are, however, important for the person reading it for the first time. Do you teach concepts in the shooting section that will be useful for later sections? Then put that before the rest, and go the extra mile to give more detail about your game. When you reach the point where you detail the rules for, let’s say, flammable terrain features, you will probably get away with simple, solid rules text, if the player is already engaged and knows what the hell you’re talking about.

Go check Warmachine Mk.2. Don’t just clone the mechanics. Take a look at the organization. It is a game about warcasters, correct? But their rules are almost the last section on the manual. Because you cannot start pushing all the warcaster’s abilities down the player’s throat if he/she doesn’t even know what a boosted roll is, what’s running and charging, or how the hell to cast spells.

[rant]And Malifaux, if you’re releasing your game freely online, protect your art all you want, but don’t be an asshole and strike down the examples. That’s just plain stupid.[/rant]

Hope this made some sense to anyone.

The first one was a big battle using roughly the example forces from the basic rules, but in a two player game. Taught my girlfriend the rules and we just bashed it. The second one was inspired by some stuff I’ve seen online, and was a solo game with the exact same armies, but instead of using regiments, every playing piece was a single figure. Amazing how this game adapts.

Onto the details.

First game: big battles on Middle-earth.

In case you wonder, the bases I use are the same I made for War of the Ring. They measure 11x6cm, and fit 8 figures in 25mm round bases. Since I made those myself and are not the GW’s ones with the slots I also placed cavalry models there. Three 40mm round based models fit on those if you snuggle them (you’ll notice they’re all in a somewhat triangular formation). In retrospective, I think the WotR cavalry bases (which are smaller and carry 2 models) would work just as well as long as both armies are based the same. I just liked the look of this basing.

I was playing the Light side while she was playing the Dark side, 50 pts, example army lists with some changes specially on the Light side. Here you can see some useful accessories for this game. Tape measure in cms, the dice used for the game, some business cards where I put the stats for each regiment, a Dystopian Wars 45 degrees turning template useful for pivots and LOS, red turn marker die and some chips to remember which regiments need to check Morale at the end of the turn.

The terrain had two hills and a woods (yeah, too lazy to put the trees on, sorry). They were all rough terrain for movement, the hills provided unobstructed LOS if you were on top and of course blocked it, and the woods gave +1 Armor cover if completely inside against Archery.

Just a good old deploy and scrum in the centre. I deployed some archers on a flank and my girlfriend bunched up in the middle. There were no heroes since I was just teaching the basics. Armies advanced almost as they deployed for the first turn. My archers started firing from the beginning.

After a few charges, it was amazing how fast the Dark side was getting wiped. The Demons (represented by Uruk-hai in this game) failed their first Morale roll and they were gone. But otherwise, every time I got to hit, I hit high enough to wipe units out, something that doesn’t happen that often.

The little cards behind the units are how my gf identified her troops. Such an easy time with those business cards.

Her right flank was pretty much wiped out by my dwarves and cavalry, the elves holding in the centre and puny humans giving the Death Knights a run for their money. At this point I noticed we were not rolling for random events, which would have been a lot of fun.

It was pretty much a one-sided battle. You can see the end of the battle below as well as the casualties for both sides. I only lost a couple of regiments. Fun game, and taught the system in probably just one turn. She never played “massed” battles before so she was getting her own units in the way most of the time. Nothing that practice can’t help.

Second game: skimish on the field.

Next battle had the same exact forces. It was a solo game, but this time I deployed one figure for each regiment, turning it into a skirmish game. The only change I did was to remove most movement limitations and giving every figure 360 degree LOS. This time I also put a river on the table which didn’t do much but basically shrank the playing surface a bit.

I deployed and the evil side got first turn since they were the ones ran by the game system. One great aspect of this game is the fact that allowing premeasuring all the time lets you take complete advantage of all the special rules, specially the Charge!, forcing good tactical decisions. One good charge in the right moment can decimate a figure, even from low Fight troops like the skeleton riders.

Right at about the second light turn, a random event comes up, and one of my Gondor warriors loses nerve and runs the hell away from the battlefield. This was to set the tone of the battle. The skeleton riders decide to use their better move to go hunt the elf archers on the hill, while orcs and goblins protected their flank from the light cavalry and dwarf.

Of course they get to wipe the elves after a few charges.

The goblins get a rush of courage and just keep winning fights against elves and dwarves, even doing damage to them. The warg rider with the uruk just cannot subdue the lonely man of Gondor.

Casualties were piling up for the light side, fifth and last turn coming up for them, and of course a 1 is rolled on the d4 for random events. Traitor!

Only the dwarf warrior and the man of Gondor remained, but the random event determined the man was, after all, won over by the dark powers. He turns into a traitor leaving the dwarf alone against pretty much the whole dark force.

The battle was stopped there. Nobody knows whether the son of Durin fled, or died fighting. An appropriately mysterious finale to a great battle.

As usual, an amazing game that just screams ideas into my brain for new rules and experiments. I’ll have to try the few scenarios presented in the new expansion now.

Good bye Infinity, God knows I tried.

Added a new special rule called Pathfinders, and new profiles for Elves and Gondor.

I try to avoid repeated profiles from the rules but in fact you will notice some similarities. However, even though the original Knights of the Realm and the Gondor Knights have the same profiles, mine cost a point more. I consider the Charge! special rule for cavalry to be 2 points instead of just one, specially since the small tweak to the rule in the 1.1 version of the rules.

Anyway, I’ve been playing the game quite a bit, and decided to add a few clearer rules for my games regarding some stuff. The game is vague in some aspects, and I enjoy that, but since I love dwelling in game design I thought I’d make the hacks available to anyone interested. These are not clarifications to the rules. More like tweaks I enjoy to make it a bit more solid, and maybe even limited. Always a good thing when playing a solitaire game.

I will be updating this article, mainly with new profiles as I need them, so be sure the check back whenever I post an update on a regular post.

Remember, these are not clarifications to the rules nor official words from the publisher, just fan work.

Rules

Line of sight

LOS determines what a regiment can see. LOS extends to the sides of the regiment from the front side in a 45 degree angle. If you use any kind of template for pivoting the regiments you can use the same one to determine the LOS angle.

A regiment can only charge an enemy that was in LOS at the start of its activation. A regiment can only shoot using Archery if the target is within its LOS and it is not completely obstructed. Other regiments and terrain such as woods and hills block LOS, while shallow terrain like rivers do not.

A regiment completely on top of a hill can trace its LOS over other regiments, but not over other hills or woods. A regiment inside woods or ruins can see outside and be seen in return.

Movement

Straight & sweep
A regiment can move up to its Speed in a straight line or a sweep. This is basically a diagonal move without changing the regiment’s facing. However, a regiment can only end its sweep move with its front side completely within its original position’s LOS. Any sharper sweep and the regiment would require a change of formation or risk disruption. This simply means regiments can move diagonally, but in an angle not greater than 45 degrees.

Side step
A regiment can make a side step move during its activation. It moves up to 10cm to either side (just one, not both in the same move) maintaining the same facing. The regiment cannot pivot during a side step move.

Reform
A regiment can make a reform action during its activation. The regiment can change its facing freely staying in place, and no further movement is allowed.

Charges
Any regiment ending its move in contact with an enemy regiment is by definition charging. Regiments can only charge enemies that are in its LOS at the start of their activation. Charge contact can only be made with the front side of the charging regiment’s base, against one of the target’s sides (any side, just not a corner). Neither the rear, nor sides, nor any corner of the charger can be used to contact an enemy regiment. A regiment must stop at least 1cm away from an enemy if it cannot charge it. It is perfectly normal to pivot after moving in contact with an enemy using a corner, if the regiment has enough Speed left (“closing the door” move in other wargames rules).

Cover

A regiment completely inside terrain that provides cover, like woods or ruins, gains +1 Armor while in the terrain against Archery.

LOS and Cover

Multiple combat

If a regiment’s move ends with its front side in contact with two or more enemies after charging then you’ve got yourself a multime combat. Remember only the sides of enemies’ bases can be charged (any side) and corner contact doesn’t count.

When there is more than one regiment fighting on one side simply roll both Fight dice, add modifiers separately and choose the higher number. If this is enough to beat the opponent’s roll then each regiment rolls its own Damage die and Wounds separately. If the side with multiple regiments loses the combat both are moved back 2cm and the lone regiment chooses which regiment to wound. If a tie, then every regiment in the combat takes one wound.

Lone monsters

Monsters are big and scary creatures. Monster regiments use the regular basing (and movement rules) for the armies. However, some of the biggest monsters come with their own bases. These are lone monsters not limited by the drills of military movement. They can move freely without the need to pivot, retreat, or side step. They have 360 degree LOS.

Army banner bearer hero

The army banner bearer carries the army or alliance colors and represents the rally point for the whole army.

A regiment that has an army banner bearer benefits from an increase in their Morale battle stat like a regular banner (see Heroes of the Battlefield p. 1). Additionally, it allows any friendly regiment within 15cm, including itself, to reroll a failed Morale roll once per turn.

An army banner bearer increases the points value of a regiment by 4 points. A regiment can have either a regular banner or an army banner, not both, and of course not more than one. Only one regiment per army can have an army banner.

Special rules

Huge
A regiment can be so big it can be seen from all over the battlefield. Some monsters and war machines are the most common examples.

A huge regiment can see and be seen over other regiments and scenery. It does not half its Speed while moving through terrain, but it also doesn’t gain the cover Armor bonus while on terrain that provides it.

Rock Lobber
Some machines or monsters can throw massive rocks at the enemy creating all sorts of chaos. Rock Lobber is a variation of the Archery special rule.

A regiment with this rule may shoot at an enemy regiment within the distance listed in brackets with the Rock Lobber special rule (eg, 40cm, 50cm, etc). The shooting regiment must have LOS to the target. If the target is in range and can be seen, roll the shooting regiment’s Fight die. If the result is 4+ the shot hits. Otherwise it’s a miss.

Roll a d6 for damage and deduct the target’s Armour stat for the target regiment and every regiment within 5cm of the target (both enemy and friendly). Roll different dice for each.

If the shot was over half of the Rock Lobber range away deduct a further -1 from the damage. The remaining total is the number of Wounds the regiments lose.

Pathfinders
Some troops spend most of their time hiding from the enemy, using terrain to their advantage to strike at the right moment. They know the lays of the battlefield and move fast where they are needed.

Pathfinders do not half their Speed stat while moving through rough terrain.

Profiles

These are a few profiles I did for my games based on the existing ones. The formula is pretty easy to work out and they have worked well in play too. Take into account I play Middle-earth games with these rules.

Dark

Stone Giant. Lone Monster – S 15cm – F d10 – D d8 – A 4 – M d6 – W 8 – P 14 – Special: Huge.

Cave Trolls. Monsters – S 15cm – F d8 - D d6 – A 3 – M d4 – W 6 – P 8 – Special: Rock Lobber (30cm)

Goblin Spearmen. Goblin Infantry - S 15cm – F d4 – D d6 – A 1 – M d4 – W 5 – P 3 – Special: Spears

Uruk-hai Warrior.  Uruk-hai Infantry - S 15cm – F d8 – D d6 – A 3 – M d6 – W 6 – P 8

Uruk-hai Pikemen. Uruk-hai Infantry - S 15cm – F d8 – D d6 – A 2 – M d6 – W 6 – P 8 – Special: Spears

Uruk-hai Scouts. Uruk-hai Infantry - S 15cm – F d8 – D d6 – A 1 – M d6 – W 6 – P 8 – Special: Archery (50cm), Scout

Wild Wargs. Warg Cavalry - S 25cm – F d8 – D d6 – A 1 – M d4 – W 6 – P 8 – Special: Scout, Charge!

Warg Riders. Warg Cavalry - S 25cm – F d8 – D d6 – A 2 – M d4 – W 6 – P 8 – Special: Charge!

Light

High Elf Spearmen. Elf Infantry – S 15cm – F d8 – D d6 – A 2 – M d8 – W 5 – P 8 – Special: Spears

High Elf Archers. Elf Infantry – S 15cm – F d8 – D d6 – A 1 – M d8 – W 5 – P 7 – Special: Archery (60cm)

Gondor Spearmen. Human Infantry – S 15cm – F d6 – D d6 – A 2 – M d6 – W 5 – P 6 – Special: Spears

Gondor Warriors. Human Infantry – S 15cm – F d6 – D d6 – A 2 – M d6 – W 5 – P 5

Gondor Archers. Human Infantry – S 15cm – F d6 – D d6 – A 1 – M d6 – W 5 – P 5 – Special: Archery (50cm)

Gondor Scouts. Human Infantry – S 15cm – F d6 – D d6 – A 0 – M d6 – W 5 – P 5 – Special: Skirmishers, Archery (50cm)

Gondor Knights. Human Cavalry – S 25cm – F d8 – D d6 – A 3 – M d6 – W 5 – P 9 – Special: Charge!

Vault Wardens. Dwarf Infantry - S 15cm – F d8 – D d6 – A 4 – M d8 – W 6 – P 11 – Special: Spears

Stone Thrower. Dwarf Infantry – S 15cm – F d8 – D d6 – A 1 – M d8 – W5 – P 8 – Special: Archery (90cm)*

*Note: The dwarf stone thrower is more akin a ballista than a catapult, therefore it has Archery rather than Rock Lobber.

Playing this game on such a small table represents different challenges so it’s always fun to come up with very small army lists to try and fool around with.

My girlfriend was stuck on her trusty battlebox army, 11 points consisting of Sorscha, Destroyer and Juggernaut. I went a little crazier with new models painted so I deployed Butcher, Destroyer, a min. unit of Man-o-War and the Widowmaker Marksman.

The game went as simple as advancing, some shooting here and there, and then the smashing, however untimely, charge of the Man-o-War + Butcher to decimate the enemy Destroyer without even popping the feat. Of course too much trust in the wreck marker and the Butcher himself let my gf charge him with the Jug who completely wasted him. Oh yes, the man is not immortal after all.

We played another game, because we had played a similar game before which I won so this one was to determine best of three. Army lists are the same even though I set up my plastic jack as a Jug. He is actually a Destroyer (too late and too lazy to change it back).

My deployment was pretty similar, however she changed a bit of her strategy. Her Juggernaut was on the far right completely out of the fight. She wasn’t able to give him focus to run trying to stay in cover so I knew that jack was a waste of points. But she doesn’t like me pointing that stuff out till the end of the game.

Things got heavy in the middle of the hill, taking down the Destroyer with my Man-o-War unit and my own jack, the Marksman doing nothing but some pop shots at Sorscha. After that, with her Jug on range of the fight, I simply sent my Destroyer to kill her which he did in one swift stroke aided by the Butcher’s spell but still not popping the feat. She’s squishy like that.

Another fast and brutal game with warcasters being smashed to pulp by heavy warjacks. What more could you ask for?

Do you guys know any big Dust Tactics online community where I could post the rules when they’re finished?

I’ve been meaning to do this for a while. In fact, the subject has been built, painted, and operational for a while now with quite a few battles under its belt.

Privateer Press’ lovely heavy ‘jack kits are screaming for magnets. In Warmachine it’s not a matter of switching a bolter for a plasma gun. You can get away with that. Magnetizing these kits gives you four completely different playing pieces, and it’s well worth the effort.

So after unboxing your kit you’re left with a torso, legs, a couple of shoulder pieces, and a host of heads and arms to personalize your warjack. The first thing I did, and having had the experience of building and painting the metal starter box, was to pose the model in a way only the plastic kit would. I decided to make him stepping over a big rock, therefore I cut part of the left foot to make it bent. Placed the rock, dryfitted my legs to make sure everything was in place, and cut and glued the foot piece in place. After that I glued the legs to the base.

Now comes the easy part before the hard work.

First I drilled both firing weapons for a better look. The Decimator’s gun can be drilled completely while the Destroyer’s cannon it’s up to you how deep you go. I made it just enough to look good when painted. The original piece is way too shallow.

Then, I realized the heads and right-hands-with-huge-axes options were not going to be that heavy. It’s a light resin, so I punched some circles with some office circle-cutting thing (you probably know the name of the tool in English… I do not) from some little metal pie oven trays I keep around to make craters. Those are stuck to the hand and head variants, trimmed a bit, and glued. This is actually looking decent!

Now it’s time for some drilling and magnet gluing… always a bit of a pain. Anyway, I glued a magnet on the neck position, one on each shoulder (on the arms side of course), and the right arm needed to get two magnets, one to attach to the shoulder (so keep your polarities correct!) and the other for the right-hands-with-huge-axes pieces. You are able now to check how those heads fit and even how the axe hands work on the right arm.

After this is done I glued the shoulders, slightly turned in a way they don’t look so stiff, and glue the torso to the legs. You already have your basic model. Everything else will be detachable and usually kept in a ziploc bag for safe-keeping. You can even start painting it in case you take a while with the final step.

This next step is tedious, but obviously important. Drill and glue magnets on every one of the weapon options, checking the polarity on the correct shoulder all the time. You can see I glued the left hand to the arm, since it didn’t need to be a separate option. And yes, after this you’re actually done!!!

So here are the options, clockwise starting from the top: Juggernaut, Destroyer, Decimator, and Marauder. The kit comes with cards for all of them, specially useful the Decimator one since it isn’t in the 2010 card deck.

I’m sure I didn’t cover the process in extreme detail, like where to buy magnets or which glues to use. The thing is, my data won’t mean anything to you (unless you live in Buenos Aires) so go to your friendly hobby shop and ask about magnets, sizes, glues, and of course pick up a heavy warjack kit. Oh yeah, here’s a little something extra for your troubles.

They are lovely figures, way prettier than any light jack I’ve seen and rumour has it the coming up in mechanic officer from Wrath will be able to repair jacks and these guys as well!! In case you’re not familiar with Warmachine, yes, that is a cannon sticking out of their shields.

Later this week not one, not two, but three Small Table battles with pictures!!!

First, the scenery from Dust Tactics. I just felt like painting them. Yeah, the figures will be too, those are just too pretty.

If you’re wondering why they rest on a textured CD base you will see soon enough when I share my Dust Tactics hack to play without the board

And thought I’d share these WIP of 3 Khador warcasters I’m painting. Plastic Sorscha, the Butcher (gorgeous mini… and amazing model on the tabletop!) and epic Irusk. I still have to paint Karchev and put together Strakhov. No shortage of warcasters for Khador here.

Probably on the weekend I will show you the painted metal Sorscha and the Man-o-war unit. Meanwhile, some interesting comments on the post below. Be sure to check them out and share.

Did this ever happen to you? Feeling bad about buying something as harmless as toy soldiers is way strange for my world. Am I just a dumbass and should stay away from the internets for a while or is it possible that GW really put that feeling into me with the last couple of weeks’ news? I’m no ad or PR professional, maybe someone out there can shed a light.

PP lets me, lowly South American, buy their figures from wherever the fuck I want. And yes, it is a very big difference.

In other related rants. PP is still dealing with the Mk. II wave of new players. After the Adepticon master stroke and the recent GW retardness, there’s a new wave of players hitting on them like a fucking tsunami as we speak. Time to show you got a pair, PP.

No, I´m not moving out or anything. Drop by if you´re curious.

However, it is written mostly as a miniatures game. Yes, the square board is important, but the designers note (I might disagree in some of those notes) that the board can be expanded, the scenarios improvised, and even new rules added to create your game. It doesn’t give the vibe of a heavily balanced and enclosed boardgame which just happens to have miniatures, like Memoir ’44.

And the figures… wow. They are amazing. Some of the best miniatures in my collection by far, and the walkers are positively the most amazing kits (they are kits after all, they just come assembled!) I have seen in the sci-fi/www2 genre. So you’re left hanging in the middle there. Is it a boardgame? How long till I paint those gorgeous figs? And then what? Will I still want to play in god-awful carboard squares instead of a realistically modeled tabletop? Should I use them for another game system?

Well, the game is decent. I don’t see anything revolutionary yet, but it is easy to dive into and quite tactical. I still consider the robots are too easy to kill with just 4 “wounds.” But it’s definitely a game of “shoot first” tactics.

Now, I have to confess I am geometrically challenged. The LOS rules are confusing at best, and easily picturing lines of fire on the board is hard for me. And I know it’s just me. I’m sure lots of smart people out there are thinking “it’s just squares dumbass” and measuring from their centers is a piece of cake. I hate to admit it makes my head hurt. I’m a tabletop man, and at best a hexagons man as well. I love hexagons and they make life easier (and prettier… seen all those in Tron: Legacy?)

The future for the game looks nice as well. Robot boxes with 4 different weapon setups, infantry squad boxes, new models coming out, and quite a few campaign expansions. Not to mention the alien army that’s promised in the fiction. So what does it take to make the game tick for me? A simple adaptation to tabletop.

Real tabletop. Killing the board without killing the game. And I’ve been thinking about it. In fact, to the complete dismay of my girlfriend, I dreamt with rules for this on Saturday night (what… you don’t dream with wargames rules?). And I tried them!! A few very simple tweaks here and there, simple guides for the 3D scenery you will be using and it’s done. Played almost all of the scenarios from the basic game so far with these, and they’ve improved the game for me. Not only visually, but I don’t have a headache anymore!

I will keep tweaking them, seeing if there’s something obvious I’m missing. I haven’t checked the online activity for the game so far, though I have a couple of rules questions I will need to post at some forum. I don’t know if anyone adapted the game to be played without squares yet, and I will share my document soon after more play, but just in case, does any of the readers know of a good online community for Dust Tactics?

Dust Tactics basic set.

First a few LotR figs I painted to kill the Warmachine fever (no pun intended) I had for almost 6 months now. Some elven archers and swordsmen. Elves are one of the armies I like the most in this range and it’s surprising how few I have painted!

Now to the promised guys. Took me a long time to paint these guys. I don’t really like them (don’t ask why, I don’t know), but on the table I rarely go without them. I had them half painted for a very long time now so I’m happy I got them done. Widowmakers, the 4 point unit no Khador battlegroup leaves home without (perfect for 15 points with the battlebox)

I will finish the bases of the Man-o-War Shocktroopers and take good pics as well. Maybe even finish painting all the arms variations of my plastic jack kit so I can show him (I have painted the magnetized chassis quite a long time ago, and it’s just lovely).

In another place in this same blog there has been quite some activity regarding my solo rules for LotR, Isildur’s Bane. There has been at least a couple of new players, asking questions and posting reports either in the article here or their own blogs. I am really glad more people find out about them.

Anyway, life is busy but the brush carries on!

PS: Played some Warmachine last night against my girlfriend. Epic Sorscha vs. the Butcher. Behemoth, Destroyer and Juggernaut on the table among other violent, smashing beasts. It was all that Warmachine’s supposed to be!

It will be my first tournament so I’m pretty excited about it. And since I started not too long ago, 15pts lists are an art I’ve been performing pretty much my whole Warmachine “career” However, I’ve got a somewhat limited selection of models, specially painted ones or “paintable” for the tourney. Mechanics, widowmakers, and manowars are the only units I’ve got. On the warjack department I’m fair a bit better. What I do have is several warcasters, and as you already know, every one of them is a different army alltogether. Also, the games here allow to play epic or regular versions no matter the actual model you’ve got (except when base size changes happen).

So until today I was dealing with a few lists. I decided to get the best bang for my bucks, so in spite of having Karchev, Sorscha and epic Irusk, I thought I’d take a caster with +6 Warjack points. That left me with either regular Irusk or epic Sorscha. And I still had at least a couple of lists for each of them.

Imagine my feelings today when somehow I ended up with both the Butcher and Strakhov’s models. And such beautiful models they are. So yeah, back to the drawing board.

PS: I’m playing Mercenaries on Vassal after getting the card deck. So… much… fun.

Both Beasts of War and RHQTV covering Adepticon like they do. Am I the only one completely shocked and excited about it? For someone in South America like me where events like these simply do not exist, seeing, hearing, and learning about all of this stuff with such detail is just amazing.

All praise the internet and the people with the drive to do this (for free, though you probably figured).

And let’s hope they go at it at some other conventions.

Of course the price will surely suck, but at least it’s some great inspiration for my STGDs!!! (and who knows? Maybe I could get one if they outdo themselves).

Check it out.

She had the classic 15p force with Sorscha, Juggernaut, Destroyer, and Widowmakers. She likes them and knows how to use them. Now the title makes sense, because I was playing with Epic Sorscha (my new love), a Destroyer, my newly built Torch, and the Widowmaker Marksman solo.

We deployed 5 inches from the edges, and 7 inches for the advance deployment Widowmakers (both her unit and my solo). I had first turn and with eSorscha gave the Marksman a spell that basically turns his shot into a 3′ AOE if he killed something. Shot at a Widowmaker without cover and incredibly missed. Bummer. Torch advanced and threw smoke bombs, and Destroyer shot and hit the enemy Destroyer, doing nothing, but killing a Widowmaker in the blast.

She ran both her jacks, keeping Sorscha and the Widowmakers behind (some in cover but not all). They couldn’t shoot at eSorscha behind Torch’s smoke and the Marksman had a whooping +6 behind cover (I forgot he had Stealth, but later in the turn remembered).

Second turn and I managed to pull the good charges in, but with a stupid mistake as follows. Both her jacks were behind small walls, but just far enough to fit my jacks’ bases! So I gave a focus to Torch who charged the Juggernaut (he gets pathfinder on charges, so he crossed the wall) and did some damage. Marksman shoots against a fellow Widowmaker, the aforementioned spell upkept by the caster, and kills another Widowmaker with it, making the reminding one fail a command check. Then I remembered about the awesome feat Ms. eSorscha has, and decided that even though I already charged and did some damage with Torch and the Marksman, it was STILL worth to pop. Yes, it’s THAT good. So she pops her feat, gives boundless charge to the Destroyer, and a focus full jack charges 9 inches through a wall and into the enemy Destroyer. Needless to say after 3 hacks with double damage he was scrap metal.

On her second turn she kinda freaked out, Widowmaker couldn’t shoot because of the fleeing status. She didn’t even pop her feat to try and freeze Torch (eSorscha and the bonded Destroyer are both immune to cold). This was perhaps the biggest mistake in the game, because she could still try and do something with her caster and a crippled Juggernaut. The jack had his right arm (big ass ice axe) crippled so he really didn’t do much to Torch. And because he ended his activation 2 inches away from the bonded Destroyer, he got frozen.

My third turn. Torch beats the hell out of the Juggernaut, setting him on fire while frozen (Warmachine rocks!) and the bastard is left with one health box on. Yes, one. Blocking my charge lane to Sorscha. But don’t despair. Mr. Marksman takes a shot at a frozen jack (engaged by Torch, which still wasn’t enough bonus to make him sweat). Widowmakers can make one single free damage instead of rolling the dice. Which in this case was more than enough. One bullet and the Juggernaut was debris. Another boundless charge on the Destroyer and he charges Sorscha, who had a Defence bonus. He couldn’t hit her in a million years, of course.

One last turn for Sorscha and now yes, with only one Widowmaker and no jacks, it just wasn’t going to happen. Assasination was very unlikely (the thing with playing in such a tight surface) and she just tried to hurt the Destroyer which she did just a little bit. After her raging attack she was with one focus left, not enough for a wind rush spell.

On my turn I simply moved the Destroyer out of the way and took a swing at her which amazingly hit and got half her health. Then Torch charged in, I made sure the first boosted hit was with his sustained attack rip saw, but she was dead after the charge attack.

A great game with some minor mistakes (in tactics, not rules) and quite happy how it turns out in such a little play area. Every move was deadly, and the mistake my gf thinks she did was exactly that. Thinking things were going down from turn 3 onwards, as usual, while I got the charges in after a turn in which I didn’t even run.

Models we knew, some decent sinergies going on, but a whole new game with lots of cover and small playing area. And damn I like eSorscha and Torch.

As a refresher, I play solitaire LotR using my own rules hack called Isildur’s Bane. Click here to get them. Also, I decided I would give it a shot and design and play some scenarios for different games using a 60x60cm table. That’s roughly 2′x2′. Of course I was thinking small skirmishes with a few models a side. This was, of course, not the case!

For this scenario I decided that a dwarf warband lead by Mardin, one of my favorite models, would go into goblin infested depths of Moria to reclaim some ancient treasure. The objective was behind the center column (from the dwarves’ point of view). They had 10 turns to get the treasure and take it back to their side of the table. As well as the time factor, there were two trapdoors on opposite corners of the table. From those, each turn after the first there would come 1D3 goblin reinforcements.

The lists were roughly equal:

The dwarves

Mardin
5 archers
6 iron guards
4 teams of vault wardens
Points total:  310

The goblins

Goblin captain with shield
10 goblins with shield
10 goblins with bows
2 cave trolls, one with spear and chain
Points total: 307

Here you can see the table set up, both armies deploying on the platforms 5 inches from the borders, and the starting forces. For the game I used the rulebook, my own Isildur’s Bane hack, tape measure, a few D6, a single D3 for goblin reinforcements and some tiny dice for the trolls’ wounds and Mardin’s and the goblin captain’s Might and Wound scores (no bookkeeping for me). Deck of cards because of the solitaire rules and a new zone of control marker since I misplaced the other one

After deployment the armies advanced. One single change I did for the solitaire rules was that instead of creating groups every turn with figures 10cm from each other, I’d simply activate groups of similar figures. The table being so small, I could probably get away with very little groups with the original mechanism, so I simply decided all similar troops were a group for the whole battle. So I dealt one card for trolls, one for dwarf archers, one for goblins with shield, one for the goblins with spears (reinforcements), etc.

The first couple of charges were from and against the trolls. One of them was left with just one wound but amazingly finished the battle, while the other one fell after the first combat. Dwarves are very hard to scare with a simple Terror test.

After that the centre became a big Bloodbowl match, goblins going down easily, but dwarves falling here and there and hurting a lot more. For reinforcements I only rolled 2s and 3s, so there were between 4 and 6 new spearmen every turn!

After some turns Mardin managed to get to the goblin captain with a small escort, killed him and took the treasure with him. This was probably around turn 6 or 7 so time was almost up. The troll tried to catch Mardin running away with it and with his chain managed to hurt him. But the battlefield was too crowded for him to move easily around his own troops. At this time the dwarves had to start making Break tests, and they managed to pass them all being near Mardin (20cm is a lot in such a small table).

I kept drawing a red activation card for Mardin, even though he was the only character. That was because maybe, just maybe, a red Joker might come up with something bad happening to him (using the random events optional rules from IB). The iron guards had a tough time during the battle when they got the Joker and couldn’t do anything for a whole turn. Goblins needed to roll 6s and then 5s to hurt the vault warden shield-bearers. The bastards killed 2 of them! Finally Mardin kept running away with the objective, while goblins chased him from every corner and the remaining dwarves kept blocking. It was turn 9 when he finally reached his table edge with the relics. Very close call for the sons of Durin.

Overall a really fun scenario, surprisingly balanced too. In a new battle I would probably send some goblin reinforcements to block the dwarves edge instead of attacking the battle line from behind, but of course the dwarves could deploy a few vault warden teams to cover that corner as well.

Here’s the end stage and the casualties. A crowded small table with lots of LotR flavor to it and a very good scenario, by chance of course. It could have gone horribly bad and end in the second turn, but I was a bit lucky (as well as knowing dwarves and goblins pretty well, game-wise).

Small Table Game Day 1 was a complete success, even if it was a solitaire battle. Got to play with a lot of models, a game I haven’t played in a while, a pretty cool original scenario from scratch, and great tense moments on the table (as well as pretty pics!). And now that I think about it, seems appropriate to open my STGDs with small size creatures like these.

This week’s Beasts of War spotlight on the game got me to revisit it. Yeah, it is written in an old style, if you know what I mean. But man they’re crazy. I just remember watching some Valkyria Chronicles gameplay videos in youtube (I do not have a last gen game console) and loving the orders system. It’s all Infinity. The ARO system, just amazing (and so much simpler that THW’s).

So yeah, I’m guilty of putting a game aside by the look of its cover (and with Corvus Belli it’s usually a very pretty cover). Might have to get me some ALEPH troops to make it up.

By the way, had my first Small Table Game Day game last night, some LotR solitaire action with an original scenario that worked just too well and a lot more troops than you should ever deploy on a 2′x2′ table. More on that to come.

I mean it, it’s excellent material, specially the custom made Quick Start rulebook the did together. Amazing work.

In case you’re wondering, yes, this is the illo that inspired my whole army scheme.

Reading her skills and spells is just pure pleasure and fun. She’s as kick-ass as they come. And I’ve been playing lots of Winter Guard + UA + Kovnik Joe, which is something of a given in an eSorscha force.

Anyway, her feat is just amazing and pretty straightforward to use. It is not a matter of how to use, but when. When is it going to do the most damage? Which is the turn I’ll set my whole army to deliver one devastating blow and make the opponent cry? It’s as simple as doubling every point of damage that beats enemy models’ armor. Yes, anything that damages, does it twice as hard for the whole turn. So it reminded me of this song from a great band. Fits perfectly.

The past few months saw me playing Warmachine, a great game with a skirmish concept to it (at least in the most basic type of play) and a strange slow rate of actual movement. Figures really don’t move that much. You measure a lot of stuff, but a lot happens with figures standing still most of the time. (I know, the strange thing would be for them to NOT stand still, but you get my meaning).

Eden, a pretty amazing little game I discovered recently, is played with even less figures than your regular Warmachine. The nominal table size is 60×60 cm, or roughly 2′ by 2′. The design philosophy is similar, as is most of the skirmish character driven games coming out now. That table size caught my attention, specially because I have a bunch of boards in that size that make up bigger tables. Playing wargames with my girlfriend and painting whatever the hell comes to mind also have something to do with this.

Finally, accepting the Song of Blades engine (mainly played with Flying Lead, but I’m going to use the good old original game soon) is way more fun with a small number of characterful and specialized models a side. Oh yeah, trying out some samurai action with Rich’s Bushi no Yume, based on the same engine, also counts.

So after many years of this, many periods, many armies, many everything, I realised the only “big army” game I can stand and not die trying is War of the Ring. Tolkien’s work and GW’s figures just inspire me to no end, and I just can’t get enough of building big, no, huge, armies, even if I rarely get to play. For the rest, you’ve seen me dwell in the aforementioned games, plus the regular LotR, plus some AT-43, plus Incursion, so there’s clearly a pattern.

Now back to the 60×60 cm table. It’s small. Almost like a boardgame. But for the kind of games I seem to enjoy lately, it isn’t that bad. Yes, I might want to play Warmachine in 120×120 cm, specially since the store I usually play at has smaller tables than that. But I’ve been thinking of using the Small Table Game Day ™ as an excuse to finish varied terrain pieces lying around as well as odd models. I’ve got a lot of Epic to paint, as well as some pirates. I won’t expand those ranges, like I won’t buy any more AT-43 or the way I buy small amounts of 40K models for Flying Lead, so might as well make something with it all.

Hence the Small Table Game Day. The objective is first and foremost to have some kind of plan. The idea is to set a game twice a month, every two weeks or so. A specific scenario, with specific figures and scenery. I will start using the stuff I already have and that gives me time to work on the rest of the things for future STGDs. After it’s set up I’ll either play it with my girlfriend or some friend, or even take it to the club nearby and let it play for the whole weekend. Hell, I’ll even play it solitaire, something I really enjoy.

I should say I must blame Eden for this. At first sight it’s another Warmachine clone. But deep within, it’s bordering roleplaying with some of the added effects for scenery and stuff like that. You can probably take a diorama base and turn it into an interesting setup for that game. I’m not saying I’m diving into it, but it has been important in identifying and eventually writing down these thoughts. And if you’re curious, it’s definitely not a Warmachine clone and the rules seem just as fun (funner than Malifaux at least). And hey, they’re free online, so make a search for Taban Miniatures and take a look.

Anyway, guess that was it. Another long random mumble with no pics. If you got here, I apologize

Let’s start with something simple. No tabletop miniatures wargame is perfectly balanced.

Yeah, you probably knew that already. But, you say, you have been talking about playtesting and Warmachine and all that recently. Yes, that’s true, but there’s something about playtesting that escapes most people when thinking about it, and dare I say, some game designers too.

Any game as complex as most wargames has no chance of being perfectly balanced, specially when talking about point costs. But I like point costs, and a lot of people do too. There are many reasons to like them, but there are also many reasons to get off your lazy ass and create one for your game.

Point systems give peace of mind. We know things cannot be perfectly quantified in a complex game with many, many interactions. But they provide a framework. They put the mind of the player off from some things, and into others. A player can focus on building an army, setting up the game and battling it out. Without point systems every game is a scenario design task, and even though some people love that (specially when recreating a historical battle, not necessarily balanced), some other people do not. And let’s get this out of the way early. A battle game with different strength forces, like many a historical event, still needs some balance when turning it into a game. It’s a matter of playability, or fun. Even when playing same side, the opposition needs to have a chance to do stuff.

Now, back to point systems. There are all kinds. One great publisher, THW, has a section on points in their rules. The way they are written (“The necessary evil” and other smart titles like that) basically reads like “this game doesn’t have points and you are stupid for requiring them, so here’s the page of the book that pleases stupid people like you. Now get out.” Yeah, I might be reading a bit too much there, but what the fuck, I payed for the rules as well.

There is another great publisher which wrestles with point systems in a different way. Ganesha games. They have force creators online with point costs for most everything. And yet, the Songs games are not well suited for competition, and only slightly for pickup play. They shine in scenario play, and campaigns. But you know what? They try. Yes, it’s true that stuff has point costs with numbers like 98, or 46, or 127, and making a set number list (usually very round like 600) can be a pain. If I were to advice Andrea I’d say round them up. They won’t be perfect either, but they will help during the building of your force.

That there is one of the functions of a good point system. It not only let’s two players build to a set number of points, but also helps the player put his minis together in a somehow coherent way. In War of the Ring (a notably broken and unplaytested game, as far as my experience with it goes) the different point costs among troops of the same army drive you towards a certain style. And this is great, because Middle-earth armies are supposed (for game purposes) to be “historical” affairs. So when you field Rohan, you will have a ton of riders. They are cheap, they are good, and the designer wants you to put as many as you like along your infantry. Good point systems do much more than just balance things out.

Now when I talk about playtesting, most recently about Warmachine, I not only mean point costs. It’s a matter of writing the rules, checking to see they make sense, match the game’s lexicon, make sure they are clear, and that they use the normal procedures players are used to in the game. Of course the effects are preferably kick ass, new, fun, and in Warmachine usually devastating.

Each of these new models is playtested not only to determine the point it costs. It’s also checked for synergy with the rest of the faction, the “fun” element, and also the comparison between the rest of the models in the army. It happens in some games that some units or models are universally ignored. Some models people just don’t field. Even if they are bought and painted, the model in itself might be underpowered, or not fit the theme, or the play style of the army, or simply too complex or unfun to play. If you see lots and lots of people choosing another option over your new unit all the time, then you probably did something wrong. Even in a historical game. If the unit existed and was widely used, enough to be included in your abstract battle game rules, then they must have something going for them, even if historical data shows they were “bad” in some terms. There was a reason the armies included them in spite of things. Find that and turn it into a fun mechanic.

Warmachine succeeds on this. They playtest their models. The point cost is completely secondary. If you know about the new edition of the game, you would be pleasantly surprised about models costing 1, 2, 3, or in the case of a unit, 6 points. They stripped them down to the minimum, making the math as simple as building a Magic: The Gathering deck. In playtesting they can asses the relative strengths and decide on points that are as abstract as a 225 points unit in another game, but simpler to measure, fitting a completely different game style (one without, for example, equipment options or complex upgrades). You don’t need a model to cost 100 points if you don’t have 15 or 5 points options for it. So you simply cost him 1 point and measure from that.

Now, you probably already got that I think people who don’t make a point system are lazy. Some games might not need them at all. Designs like DBA, for example. But most modern wargames do, let’s be honest. And I think they are lazy because making a points system is hard work. Throwing some random number out like THW is just waste of time, ink and paper. But the benefits are many. Like I mentioned already, it gives the player peace. It creates the illusion of fairness, something we don’t get enough in our “real lives” and it’s nice to have in our imaginary battles. We don’t have to worry about army composition regarding the whole scenario and opposing force. We just build our game the way we want. If you’re smart you know the thing is not perfectly balanced. Hell, some matchups, specially in 40K and Warmachine, are just automatic defeat for one side. That’s the nature of deep gameplay and hundreds of options. That same thing that causes bad matchups is what makes the games so much fun.

In one of the battles I played some time ago, my opponent built his list after he saw mine. That is not cool in Warmachine, so seeing I brought two Destroyers (big cannons with legs) he fielded a whole lot of models with Stealth (any shooting beyond 5 inches automatically misses them). Thing is, I won that game.

Another time, also recently while playing on Vassal, my opponent and myself got mixed up while setting up the game. I ended up playing 20 points while he had 25 on the table. Not knowing the other armies that well we never picked the error up until the end. Now let me tell you, 5 points difference in Warmachine is a big deal. And you know what? I won that game too. So I guess nothing is utterly black or white, simply because the options are so many.

And speaking of options and countless situations, let’s go back to our poor game designers. This is tangently related to the topic at hand. You know when you start reading a roleplaying game and you come across the commonly named Rule Zero? It’s that paragraph of text that tells you you can change any rule you don’t like, throw away any system, and enforce anything you, as the all knowing GM, think is more fun for the players. Whenever I read that what I read is this: Yeah, you spent 30 bucks on this book, but the rules aren’t that solid or thoroughly tested so please change anything you don’t like instead of emailing me telling I’m a lazy ass and my game sucks. In fact, you could have designed your own game system and it would be the same, but without the pretty pictures, and of course your players won’t play anything that isn’t printed in color.

I like games that tell me “these rules are all you need, don’t change anything before playing a fair number of games or the game will break, trust me and you will be rewarded with fun gameplay.” That’s the kind of game I like, and luckily there are plenty of that kind of (definitely non-mainstream) games out there. Ask players to trust you, and deliver.

In the wargames world, the equivalent is that page that tells you: we cannot foresee every possible situation that arises in gameplay. Heck, we are no lowly boardgame, this is serious shit. So when stuff comes up, well, improvise. Oh yeah, and remember “the spirit of the game” whatever the fuck that is. No, I won’t explain the spirit of the game here because it would take valuable art pages.

That’s exactly the same. That’s a line you won’t find in, let’s say, you guessed it, a Privateer Press rulebook. You cannot foresee every situation? Come on! The only interactions in a battle game are those between models, and those between models and the environment (being it scenery, special effects, or applied status). If you design every part of your models, and every part of the way the environment works and affects models, then there is no other stuff to worry about. In War of the Ring Defensible Positions are Defensible Positions. They work this way and no other way. If you put something on the table either declare it a movement affecting area or a DP. No more variables. Hell, most games go about telling you the recommended sizes for scenery. A forest is a forest, and it works differently in every game. And you can even decide this rocky outcrop will be defined as a forest. Now, if you design wacky rules without regard for the stuff you created before, not thinking about your basic procedures, and shitting over other special rules without trying them once against each other, you end up with stuff like the one that plagues War of the Ring’s special rules.

So yeah, if you don’t think before designing, you might have to ask the player to improv. Now I’ve heard many times that PP’s models and rules work better than GW’s because they design rules first, then models, while GW (and I heard this about Rackham too) goes the other way round. This doesn’t make any sense to me. Nice models are the reason we all play these games. Making bad rules is not the fault of the model.

So, designer X had this great new rule for a possible model. It’s called “Three Arm Strike” and it gives an extra attack on melee because he thought the upcoming Badass model would be an awesome 3 armed mutant. Now the mini designer comes up with a different model for Badass, because the marketing people didn’t think the original concept was sellable. So designer X receives a big human knight with a big sword. Oh no, now I have to write another rule, he thinks. But because designer X is a smart chap, he simply renames the rule “Blade of my Ancestors” which effectively does the same thing, with different fluff. So you see, there’s no logic to whether the model is designed first or the rule is. Bad design is bad design no matter what.

To finish, if you plan on writing your own game, think about point costs. Do not see them as a necessary evil, a last thing to do for stupid people like me. Get them, if needed for your game, in your main design process. And playtest. You won’t balance it perfectly, but if you had a 5 point model and after some playtesting you think it’s a 10 point model, then you’ll be glad you fiddled with it. Don’t tell your players they can do whatever they want with your rules. They will do it anyway. But in your text, keep the game focused, clear, solid but deep, even with room for expansion.

At least, keep things more focused than this whole rant

So now I’ve got another beautiful Sorscha model. And speaking of Ms. Kratikoff, my gf is getting REALLY good playing with her. She has beat me quite a few times these past few days. I’ve been trying other warcasters too, and having a ton of fun.

With the jacks, I will use one of them to make the Torch character jack from which I got the upgrade kit a few weeks ago. I’ve got the Heavy Plastic Kit so I’ve got the weapon arm from the Decimator already (and magnetized). The other one will be magnetized to be able to represent any of the 4 heavies (Juggy, Destroyer, Decimator and Marauder) with the added capability of making 3 Jugs or 3 Destroyers if need be (adding the two plastic ones to the metal guys you’ve already seen in this blog).

In other Warmachine related news, I’m finishing painting the Widowmakers and some mechanics. I’ve also got and already built Karchev and the Behemoth, two beasts of a model that can injure you if they fall on your toe. Funny thing is I proxied the Behemoth a bunch of times, but now that he’s built, he has been proxying as a Devastator, my new warjack crush. In words of my girl: “He has HOW MUCH armor and does WHAT with Rain of Death???” Last battle we played, RoD took care of all four widowmakers, widowmaker marksman, and winter guard cannon crew, all with just one flash. He ran the whole table in 2 turns with Superiority on him (runs 12″). I really need me an Irusk model.

She killed everything I had except the damn dog, then of course charged the Butcher with a lot of focus. She had some shitty dice, but the bottom line is that she couldn’t kill him. Then he took a couple of hits with Lola and decimated poor Ms. Kratikoff.

Perhaps the guy from last post is right and the Butcher is overpowered. Perhaps he’s simply a freaking melee beast with few and expensive spells, which you DO NOT charge with your caster (unless he’s Karchev or one of those Skorne dudes).

I learned how badly I manoeuver with my jacks. She learned not to charge the Butcher head on. We had a great time and will probably repeat the game a few more times (though I must confess I really enjoyed playing with Irusk the couple of games I had… Butcher isn’t my kind of guy).

Anyway, this guy was playing MK2 for the first time, which should tell you a lot (I’ve seen a lot of old players struggling with the most basic rules changes) but the important factor was that the game is unbalanced because The Butcher charged, and killed (in one blow) his own caster, Gorten Grundback.

If you know anything about Warmachine (of which I know very little), specially if you played a lot in the past, you should probably know the Butcher can kill almost any (if not ANY) warcaster on a straight fight.

I wanted to tell him to play a few games, avoid being charged by The Butcher ANY Khador warcaster, and if everything fails to sell me his Merc army. But you know, the internets aren’t always working (specially around Blogger)

Now the other day Sorscha charged my poor Irusk and destroyed him with her Frostfang P+S 13 weapon and 4 focus on her. My girlfriend was really happy. I should have told her she won because the game is unbalanced, not because I was really, really stupid.

Next post some Widowmaker snipers for y’all.

Been painting a lot, just the uploads are slow for many many reasons. Here’s the second Khador ‘jack I’ve painted, a classic Destroyer. He has got a BIG gun.

Now you might wonder what makes Warmachine so much fun. It’s designed in a way that the competition it inspires is fun. If you’ve read this blog for a bit you know my opinion on casual gaming vs. competitive. There really is no difference in this game. It’s a ton of fun even when you’re being pounded to death.

There are no obvious sub-par options. Besides not having any faction clearly under or overpowered, the options between your own troops lend themselves to all kinds of playstyles. A unit one player would never field is another player’s mandatory. Just take a look at tournament rankings and lists. Every faction is in a top ten list, and if you check two same faction lists you will probably have almost zero coincidences.

Playtesting. Oh my god what have I been missing playing other games. Playtesting makes fun. Not only balanced, abuse-free rules. But fun!

Possibilities. Every faction is different, but every warcaster inside those factions is also completely different. It’s like playing with a different army when you change casters. Units work differently with each.

Theme. Believe it or not, being this the most competitive set of rules I’ve ever played, they are absolutely full of theme and fluff. Every single rule any model and character has is related to his story and the Iron Kingdoms. It’s almost scary. Which takes me to the last point.

Affinity. I’ve always wondered in all those wargames when they describe the General model and they say something stupid like “he represents YOU in the battle.” I am an avid roleplayer, but I’ve never identified with any of my toy generals. And they’re nameless and could be anything. In this game, every caster has a story, a name, a background. However, you identify. People usually describe battles and when something affects the caster, or the caster does something, they say “me,” “I ran and cast Superiority.” It’s really interesting how that happens, specially since most players are guys, and at least half the warcasters in the game are female.

And I lied, one last thing about Warmachine. Players rock. They go to your throat, using every little point and comma in the rules. And that’s how you’re supposed to play. You cannot bend the rules, nor break them, and nobody is into that. You have to exploit them, but not abuse them. Every little advantage you get is tactics, not rules-lawyering. I have never seen this in a wargame of this kind before.

Go play Warmachine. You’ll be glad you did.

I’m putting together my first task for the 2011 The Guild Build. I don’t have to list the items in any task beforehand, so I can do whatever I want, but that’s not really how my brain works. I like the freedom, but I don’t want the deadline to pass and have nothing for my team (team Loners… coolest team by far).

Anyway, I’ll be doing a complete gaming table, some scenery and at least one figure for the task. All under the name Northern Immoren (Trollbloods for Hordes and Khador for Warmachine). And here’s the figure.

It’s been a bit of an experiment as usual, and those are the ones I have the most fun with. Thinking about the Warmachine setting, looking at a lot of their art and also seeing how people usually paint their figures I noticed a couple of things. In the art the warcasters always have magic runes flying about them. Warjacks are always battle damaged. And let’s be honest, we all see ‘jacks as the Iron Kingdoms tanks. For the first item, I’m still working on it. For the battle damage (and even some camo, why not?) here you have the first ‘jack, the deadly, heavy as all hell, unstoppable and ice axe wielding Juggernaut.

Khador

Warcaster – Sorscha Kratikoff

Warcaster – Orsus Zoktavir, The Butcher of Khardov

Warcaster (Epic) – Supreme Kommandant Irusk

Warcaster (Epic) – Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Champion

Warjack – Juggernaut

Warjack – Destroyer

Warjack – Kodiak

Warjack – Heavy warjack platic kit magnetized (Decimator, Destroyer, Juggernaut, Marauder)

Character Warjack – Torch

Unit – Widowmakers

Unit – Winter Guard Mortar Crew

Unit – Man-o-War Shocktroopers

Unit – Doom Reavers

Unit Attachment (Doom Reavers) – Greylord Escort

Solo – War Dog

Solo – Widowmaker Marksman

Cryx

Warcaster – Warwitch Deneghra

Bonejack – Deathrippers

Bonejack – Defiler

Bonejack – Nightwretches

Helljack – Slayer

Unit – Bile Thralls

Pink Khador!

It had to happen. Mind you this is not one of my armies. It started as a bday gift for my girlfriend. The first group was 15 points shown below.

Warcaster – Sorscha Kratikoff

Warjack – Destroyer

Warjack – Juggernaut

Unit – Widowmakers

In the internet front everything is cool. I follow some amazing blogs and video channels with lots of interesting content. There have been only two black spots.

First, GW’s non-stop Skaven fixation. I’m a LotR player so I’m used to be utterly ignored, but what about the people who play with the remaining (6, 7?) armies of Warhammer Fantasy? How do they feel having release after release, article after article on just one of them? Some of you probably haven’t gotten a new figure in years. Makes you wonder.

The other thing is an online order that needed correction. My brother got me for my birthday 3 boxes of Wargames Factory zombies through an online store. I have no idea about the change in management and all that story, and honestly I don’t really care. But it was clear that the order wasn’t going to be fulfilled any time soon. So I simply contacted the store guys, very decent guys so far (go Maelstrom!) and turned my present into Warmachine Khador models, specifically a unit of Doom Reavers, the Greylord unit attachment and the Winter Guard mortar.

So, GW seems focused on rats for the moment, so I’ll just ignore any updates till probably June. Have a lot of Warmachine/Hordes to paint and specially play. Oh yeah, PP’s No Quarter magazine is really amazing. In White Dwarf you could probably use 25% of the content. It’s a full 100% if you’re an Iron Kingdoms guy for No Quarter, which makes it so worth it.

I’m a convert, sorry guys. It has nothing to do with price tags, and everything to do with cool rules, original background and fluff, and specially playtesting.

Give me some Lord of the Rings already. Oh! Legion of Everblight starter on the door, gotta go.

Also, been playing a ton of Warmachine. I got my gf hooked (sorry woman) and she’s been playing my Khador, so I had to learn to play with Menoth (my brother’s figs). Think we’ve played 6 games in 2 days, including the first couple to teach her to play. It’s just an amazing game. I don’t care fielding unpainted models or even proxies (temple flameguard unit I do not own!). I even took unpainted models to a couple of in-store games, can you believe that? That day I played against Cygnar and then my first mix game against a Skorne Hordes army.

I’ll get them painted eventually (and take pics of the games). Right now I’m too hyped and can’t wait to read the Hordes manual to give my Trollbloods a spin.

I’m probably getting the rules before continuing with the painting. It’s a matter of weapon options and stuff. Yes, I COULD start to paint the carrier, but that’s the cherry on the cake, so it’s last.

More Dystopian Wars and some Warmachine coming along soon.

2011. Year of steam?

Frigates

Cruisers

Battleship

And a comparison shot with a 1/2400 Scharnhorst from WW2. They definetly look 1/1200 like the manufacturers claim.

Templates set and Khador counter set for Warmachine:

And for the new and completely stunning Dystopian Wars. Kingdom of Britannia Naval Battle Group:

And of course, the amazing Fleet Carrier:

These models are just stunning, and cannot wait to get the rules and see how they do.

Happy holidays wargamers.

Now, one of the big differences between Privateer Press and Games Workshop is (no, not their prices) that the first ones wouldn’t translate their books to other languages. GW translates to various other tongues, with different books and websites. Dead and gone Rackham did this in every product. The basic book came with various languages texts in it, and the game system was designed so stats and abilities in the cards were mostly symbols. PP doesn’t care about this. And they know their game is played worldwide.

What does this imply? In my view, it forces PP to do better game design. Or at least better rules writing, clearer editing, and less confusing text. You can see that in every little ability explanation in any card. It’s amazing how concise and airtight the rules look like, even though that needs backup from actual play of the game. Does this make the rules less conversational, and a bit more boring to read? In my opinion, yes it does. But don’t be afraid, it’s not like reading a WRG ruleset (omg DBA, I still have nightmares about you). For us non native speakers this is a blessing though.

Something really weird happens to me reading this rulebook. I am one to read something and immediately a few questions spring to mind about stuff I’ve read before. It happened to me several times that these questions were answered in the paragraph next to the one that created them. Some other questions are simply answered by carefully reading something you read before, perhaps a little less careful on your first read through. Yes, it is a book to read while you’re very awake. Whenever I’m dozing off in bed I put this to the side and grab something else.

One of the most important factors that battle the small dull factor of the rules is that the rules themselves are fucking awesome. I just love reading about how my jack can do a headbutt and knock the opponent down, or grab the other model’s hand, crippling his weapon, while in the same activation ripping it apart with my chainsaw. Trampling over humans with a jack must be a sight for sore eyes. And they all imply a tactical decision. Sometimes you’ll want to slam a jack hard, while others you’ll want to push it to the side slightly. And every one of the abilities you read is simply amazing. You only think on how to destroy your opponent. Thing is, in his/her turn you’re gonna get beat as well.

It suddenly came to me that this game is just fit for solo play. There’s no hidden resources, or interrupting mechanics that have to be considered, not much stuff to carefully time other than on your own turn, and no hidden army lists or powers. It’s simply a matter of doing the best you can with one side, then changing seats and doing the same. Hell, I can even learn to be a better player that way and learn about other Factions’ tactics.

Merry christmas to all. Talk to you in 2011.

Unpainted plastic, primed metal, unbased, ugly. But shit I had fun. I mean it. That game is FUN. Yeah, the models are amazing, the factions so characteristic, the fluff is just GREAT (if you find a faction you sympathize with), but the game is simply too much fun.

During your opponent’s turn you’re getting your ass kicked but meanwhile you’re silently considering your options for your counterattack. Using focus effectively is the real challenge, and knowing when and where to strike is the key. Watching a Warmachine game can be dull. All that dice rolling, ability using, and the models hardly move after the first couple of turns. But when you’re on the wheel, man it is fun. So many options with each little figure (not that my heavy jacks are little by any means) it can be overwhelming at first. And the best thing is you care for your guys. I love Sorscha, I like her story, and want to find the perfect troops to enhance her powers. Every jack has a personality, and you better go along with them, or they’re nothing more than scrap metal.

I managed to kill one of my brother’s light jacks and almost destroyed the other one. Barely scratched the caster. He killed my Juggernaut and then went after miss Sorscha who fell in single combat with the opposing caster.

Bottom line is: game is fun!

Recently he wrote about battle reports. It is an interesting view, and one that matches what I’ve tried to do in the latest one I’ve published. It’s obviously a battle report, though not a very detailed one. However, designers from Ganesha Games considered it a decent review of the game being played.

I’ve been doing similar things to battle reports for roleplaying games, something we call actual play reports. In a rpg it’s very easy to lose oneself in the narrative of things, even though when things didn’t go exactly like that in the table. And you know what? That’s lying. It doesn’t do any good to a prospective player or the game’s designer to write a wonderful piece of prose which is an idealized picture of the real events on the table. This does not mean you should note the way you throw a die, or how much you drank (unless drinking IS part of the system, like in this game) and ate. It means you should detail how things developed, both in the fictional setting and in the real table. The important things that were said and done in both environments, and how they relate.

In wargaming I like to do the same. It’s true, I’ve got some blow by blow reports with pics that detail every move and die roll. But they’re both boring to make and to read. I much rather take some nice pics that depict the action in general terms. Note the events, detail the most interesting ones, and also speak of the player’s interaction with the rules. Probably that’s why a game’s designer might think that’s an interesting report. And feedback is perhaps the hardest thing for a designer to get, and one of the most useful even for an already playtested and published game.

So there. I am not one for blow by blow White Dwarf like reports, but neither for literary masterpieces which hardly talk about toy soldiers at all. There’s a middle ground, one that has no set rules on how to write them. It’s different for every battle, or even battles if you’re showing a series of games. Now to leave with some pretty pics which are related, I found some pics from games my girlfriend and I played while still interested in the development of Gruntz. I hardly recall those battles and there’s some unpainted stuff in them, something I don’t exactly enjoy showing, but this is as good a place as any to avoid sending them the recycle bin way.

I am getting into yet another big Guild build for 2011, but I’ve got at least a few weeks for that. How could I not join when the results have been so great?

Getting clear objectives has helped me a lot during the last couple of years. I’m actually regarded as someone that finishes projects now, and probably have the biggest painted collection of LotR figures in Buenos Aires. Not bad for the ego boost.

The first post of the year had 2 objectives:

1. Paint lots.
2. Play lots more.

Did I achieve them? Well, I did paint lots. Really, a look over this blog shows I’ve painted so much stuff. I bought quite a lot as well though, specially in the LotR department, but also getting in a few new projects and eras like Incursion and WWW2, or making sci-fi warbands out of lovely Imperial Guard models. I’m not one to feel too guilty about my buying habits. I just paint a lot to fight it.

Did I play lots more? Well yes, specially from June onwards. Having a girlfriend who likes to throw some dice and push some lead helps with that, though I can’t say I played a lot at the local gaming club. I’ve found transporting figures is something that stresses me up a lot. Specially for something big, like getting 2 War of the Ring armies someplace else. I’ve put a lot of work into my game tables, so I’m pretty sure I’ll be playing at home for a while. Small skirmish gaming (if I don’t have to take the scenery elements) might be something I’ll be willing to do at clubs/stores.

Ok well, resolutions for next year will have to wait till 2011′s first post. For the moment, and not to post a text only update, here’s a hint on something I’m doing right now.

Sentinel coming right up!



And the complete project, Misty Mountain goblins and Khazad dwarves.



The first couple of games were played using Topo Solitario’s urban mat, which you can download freely from his site. I’ve also built the ISO containers from his site, and I’m putting together another set right now but this time I’ll beat them up a bit. For the rest of the scenery, the low walls and big plastic container are from AT-43, while the rest of the stuff (ruins, barricades) are GW’s.

I’ve found the vehicle rules a bit heavy to begin, so the squads we’re only infantry. My Snow Guard on one side and some U.N.A. troops on the other. During the games we added a few figures to make things interesting. The profiles I’ve created for the troops and their weapons are listed below. They were straight skirmishes, to the death. But let me tell you this game plays different every time, interesting no matter the scenario (or lack of).

Snow Guard

Sgt Athos – Personality
Points 92
Quality 3+ Combat 3
Laspistol, Leader

Crazy Argos
Points 63
Quality 4+ Combat 2
CQB Specialist, Fanatic, Laser Rifle

Breather Nikolas – Personality
Points 53
Quality 4+ Combat 2
Crack Shot/Marksman, Laser Rifle

Loud Petros
Points 54
Quality 4+ Combat 2
Eager, Laser Rifle

Scout Alexandros
Points 53
Quality 4+ Combat 2
Laser Rifle, Sprinter

Snow Guard weapons

Laser Rifle
Points:22 Combat +3, Range: Long

Laspistol
Points:16 Combat +2, Move & Shoot, Range: Short

U.N.A. Scouts

U.N.A. Leader – Personality
Points 98
Quality 3+ Combat 2
Laser Carbine, Leader

U.N.A. Steel Trooper
Points 62
Quality 4+ Combat 2
Fragmentation Grenades, Laser Carbine

U.N.A. Steel Trooper
Points 77
Quality 4+ Combat 2
Missile Launcher

U.N.A. Steel Trooper – Personality
Points 56
Quality 4+ Combat 2
Crack Shot/Marksman, Laser Carbine

U.N.A. weapons

Missile Launcher
Points:41
Anti-Tank 7, Combat +2, Priming Needed, Range: Long

Laser Carbine
Points:24
Auto Fire, Combat +2, Move & Shoot, Range: Medium

The warbands were made somewhat balanced. In the case of the U.N.A. there were several of the regular troopers (the ones with the grenades). The board was clear ground, the low walls were reinforced cover and everything else was hard cover. The first couple of games were played solo while the others were against my girlfriend (you can see the different colored dice and the D3 in one of the pics below, and the rules for solitaire SBH/FL can be found here).

I taught the game in a little while. It’s not the simplest game to teach, mainly because of the activation roll and all it implies. It’s something that can be only seen on the table. In fact, a lot of the subtleties of Flying Lead cannot be noted from reading the rules alone. It is not hard to teach, just a bit weirder than most. After the first few long distance turkey shots you will find yourself running for cover like a madman.

I played the Snow Guard and in the last few games I was outnumbered. The few times I split my leader from the group it was just a little while before he was running fast towards his troops. The activation bonus and the group orders are essential for any plan to work. Hide, give orders, and let the grunts do the work.

The first game was quite incredible. I activated and moved forward. My girlfriend failed and pretty much stayed still in her deployment zone. After that I activated Scout Alexandros, with his Sprinter rule that allows him to move twice the distance with one of his movement actions. He ran, took an aimed shot at the U.N.A. leader, gory death on a 6, triples the score, and the morale tests near the edge of the table took care of the rest of the U.N.A. troops. It was over in just 2 turns.

That’s when I noticed the Sprinter and the Eager. I really added those rules to the figures to add a bit of variety and character. Now if you check the profiles, the Sprinter guy costs the same points as the Marksman, and the Eager dude is actually more expensive! It was amazing how useful those rules were. Alexandros moving around like a madman, using cover the best possible way, while keeping Loud Petros near the Leader meant activating him on a 2+, almost always getting 3 actions to do as he pleased.

Cover is everything, even a low wall can save your ass, making the enemy’s shot harder and also keeping you alive (tieing any score by 1 or 2 points depending on the type of cover). On the last game, only the U.N.A. leader was still active and well protected, but had an Out of Action guy nearby. I took a run around the cover the guy was laying behind and took an awful aimed shot at the OOA guy on the floor. The roll was a 6, any hits are Lethal, and the leader had to roll Morale with a -3 because of being the last man standing. He came to his senses and rapidly abandoned the battlefield.

It’s one of those games that works perfect for the scale. You don’t need to play with just 3 figures a side because of a ton of special rules or record keeping, and you can probably play with 20 figs a side if you’ve got time and the rules well learned. But playing with 5-10 guys a side (and maybe a vehicle/walker) just hits the perfect spot. Some guys will do more, some will do less, your opponent will always be engaged. It’s not the same to see that enemy coming along in a game where he can move and shoot, than in FL where he can roll one, two, or three actions, which means completely different things. Moving around cover is vital, morale rolls due to seeing your friend blow up in pieces can win the game, and all fire can be used for suppression purposes if you order your guys around, not only the Overwatch or Speculative fire rules.

Overall an amazingly fun game, a lot more subtle and deep than it seems at first read, and with the basic mechanisms of SBH which means my girl won’t have to learn yet another system to play some fantasy and historical skirmishes.

A+ for Mr. Jones and Mr. Sfiligoi. Now go get this game (and no, they did not endorse this report)

Had this chimera tank for quite a number of years. You have seen it primed black in many a battle report. So far it’s the only one I’ve got (I love this model and will get a few more) and decided I wanted it for my Snow Guard force (AKA IG Valhallans). But I had never painted winter camo on a tank before, so the experimentation began.

Do not ask why, just follow the course of events. Covered the tank with a very dark grey color. Then I used some toothpaste with and old toothbrush, and put all that on the edges of the model. I thought that stuff would dry in a few hours. Well, it took a few days.

Now, the thing didn’t REALLY dry, ever. I still grabbed and old brush and started messing the thing up with white paint. Very messy. Take a look.

When I tried to remove the supposedly dry toothpaste, I thought it would be like peeling out PVA glue. It was actually like removing buggers from the model. If I used a blade to clean it, it would have taken me forever and also remove the grey color (even the black primer). So it was really a bad idea. I decided to cut my losses, I took the model under the faucet, and with the old toothbrush went on with the cleaning. Removed all that crappy stuff, and let the model dry.

Now… that is not half bad right? Instead of a recently painted winter camo model I had one that looked like it’s been campaigning for a couple of years. I’m cool with that, so with a rush of blind faith I carried on. My family passed near that table and saw that model transform so much over the course of a week.

Tidied it up with some drybrushing, metal on the tracks and guns. Applied some simple transfers. Then messed it up with lots of rust (Tamiya powders) and a lot of dirt. After a few more washes and rust dripping down the metal plates, a coat of varnish and voila.

All is well that ends well.

Note: Golfimbul is hosted in the Misty Mountains gallery for lack of a better place. Categories in the current LotR line are based on location, and there’s none for the invaders from Eriador that The Scouring of the Shire depicts. However, there he will be with his wild warg pack

Dwarf heroes

Balin (painted)
Durin (painted)
Mardin (painted)
Murin (painted)
Drar (painted)
Dwarf king with 2 handed axe (painted)
2 Dwarf captains (painted)

Dwarf troops

3 Vault warden teams (painted)
4 Rangers with throwing axe
4 Rangers with bow
4 Rangers with two-handed axe
10 Warriors with shields (painted)
9 Warriors with bow (painted)
8 Warriors with two-handed weapons (painted)
2 Standard bearers (painted)
6 Iron guards (painted)
9 Khazad guards (painted)
2 Dwarf ballista (1 painted)

Goblin heroes

Durburz
1 Balrog (painted)
1 Dragon
1 Goblin captain (painted)
1 Goblin captain with bow (painted)
2 Goblin shaman (1 painted)
1 Wild warg chieftain

Goblin troops

2 Goblin prowlers with shield (painted)
2 Goblin prowlers with bow (painted)
2 Goblin prowlers with two-handed weapon (painted)
16 Goblins with shields (painted)
16 Goblins with spear (painted)
16 Goblins with bow (painted)
2 Cave trolls (painted)
3 Giant bats
1 Goblin drum (painted)
6 Wild wargs (painted)

Well, I got around to read it, and all I can say is: go get your copy. It is an amazing piece of fiction and wargame scenario design. The universe is rich, lacks most fantasy clichés, it’s deep and scary and makes you want to learn more. The conflict between the Druid, the elves, his “awakened children” (the animals), the dwarves of Mountain Home allies, and the Moonglade goblinoid empire is just amazing. The book sets three different campaign paths, completely different from each other, with clear rules, objectives, fun mechanisms (which I’ll use with other SBH material) and amazing narrative. I mean it, it made me go out to SL minis site and realize the designer for most of the figures is the great great Bob Olley (you already know of my obsession with his Dran figures!). The fact that they kinda match Lord of the Rings figures well (for big, talking animals) as shown in the SL minis blog does not help my burning pocket.

So after playing a few solo SBH games, thinking hard on either adapting SSL or simply getting my paws, I mean hands on the SL minis range, I thought it was a good time to try the always interesting Rich Jones’ set based on SBH, Flying Lead. Yeah, that set probably got more good press than all the others together, but the first supplement didn’t get my attention and I must have misjudged it. It is pretty amazing as well. It’s really good how someone can get a good, fun ruleset, keep all the fun stuff intact and add to it that extra twist to make firefights fun, unpredictable, and deadly as they should. I’m not one to enjoy generic games, meaning I like period flavor a lot. But who can argue with SBH’s base rules? With the Flying Lead basis, and the original system of simple, clear, fun special rules, I can see myself playing sci-fi and WW2 skirmishes the way I was hoping to for some time.

And no, before you ask, Ganesha did not pay me to write this stuff. In fact, both rulesets are written by freelance designers rather than Andrea, who obviously scored a big hit with his basic game. There’s some very interesting wargames material being created all over the place as of late, and some amazing new designers doing their stuff thanks to the internet possibilities for publishing. Now, if I could only get my head around the price tag for Rich’s new samurai skirmish game…

EDIT: Made some kind of mistake evidently. Bushi No Yume’s price tag is the same as most Ganesha Games rules. Yeah, I’m off to get them now.

I don’t think playing solitaire is the same deal for every game, period, or ruleset. There are games easier to adapt, others harder. Some require this while others require that. You can see that clearly on my specific set of solitaire rules for the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game called Isildur’s Bane.

Song of Blades and Heroes is a pretty amazing little game for skirmish gaming from Ganesha Games. It’s quality has been proven by adapting it to several settings and eras. The basic rules are set in a generic fantasy world, and the lists of troops show an amazing mix of troupes. It is a very good game for scenario play, creative warband creation with lots of character, and maybe even narrative campaign play. And it suits my solo play perfectly.

The game’s system has, however, two very specific instances where player choice is essential. The most obvious one is what each figure does with its allocated actions. This happens in most every game and we will deal with it a bit later. The other one is more important and a big part of the game. A player can freely choose how many activation dice to roll, from 1 to 3. The more succesful rolls the more actions the figure has. But two or more failures mean the turn passes to the opponent. You can see this game is pretty hectic and when playing solitaire it has a life of its own.

A couple of warbands, in this case historical opponents not really from a fantasy world.

I must now give credit where it’s due. This system to randomize the activation roll was not created by me but by Mr. Timbo75 from Tim’s Wargaming Stuff and left in a comment on a post from the month of May 2010. It’s quite elegant and simple. You take 3 different colored dice and give them a priority rank. For example, I use green, blue and red and consider them in that order. Now you take a 3 sided die, which is usually a d6 with two 1s, two 2s and two 3s or you can simply use a regular d6 considering the following: 1-2, one, 3-4, two, 5-6, three. Roll them all together and the first thing to do is look at the fake d3. This die will tell you the amount of actions the figure is going for. Now check the rest of the dice to see which ones beat the Quality rating of the figure. Be mindful of the priority you gave them. An example will show this clearer.

I roll the dice and get 2 (d3), 4 (green), 1 (blue), 6 (red). Figure’s Quality is 3+. Since the d3 rolled a 2, that means we will only check the first two dice. Given our priority, we discard the red die. We keep the green and blue, giving us a success and a failure. We use the single action for the figure and go onto another from the same side.

This time I roll 3 (d3), 2 (green), 1 (blue), 5 (red) for a similar figure. I will get to use all three dice, and I’ve got two failures and one success. The figure will carry out its only action and since it has two failed rolls play passes to the other side.

It’s actually harder to explain than it is to execute. Now, how do I apply this to my games? There are two ways normally used in solo gaming. One is giving both sides to the “AI,” in this case using the aforementioned system for both forces. The other one is letting one side act randomly while the other is played normally. For this game I prefer to have one side under my complete control. I do however roll to see which force I will be “using” before play.

My dice. The d3 came in one of GW’s box sets (Epic 40K) and it’s pretty useful for playing solitaire.

Now I have my randomized activation roll, but what to do with the figures? A popular approach is to have the automated warband be in a defensive stance, and the actual player’s force in the attack. Personally, if I were to do this, I would not even need a system for them, since most choices would be pretty obvious. I rather device a scenario with very clear objectives for both forces, preferably different goals. And if one of the sides is going to be mildly in the defensive I rather have it be the one I am playing. This way the automated enemy’s choices become more entertaining, making you make the most of what you’re given by the randomizing system.

SoBH lends itself perfectly for campaign play as well. The warband upgrades are fun things and if you keep them on your “real” warband, so to speak, they can grow and change from battle to battle. It’s a game that lets you pit your guys against a horde of goblins, then against a single dragon with its wizard master, and then maybe go underground for some ruins exploration with the weirdest enemies. It’s not a competition game and I believe it can create good narratives, specially playing solitaire, where you can focus on your characters alone and every battle is uncertain.

I make these cards with a Magic card creator. A pic, the Q and C of the figure, and its special rules. A lot prettier than a roster sheet.

Well, let’s begin. I’m painting 93 warriors of Rohan on foot in one go. Yep, that’s like 4 boxes. All together. 12 companies for War of the Ring. I really like them.

Also painting Tau. I started with the vehicles, which I like the most (and can use with Drans). Already have some infantry though waiting for the brush.

Thinking about game design. This takes a lot of time of reading and writing, which might seem useless compared to painting and gaming, but I enjoy it.

Playing the hell outta Memoir ’44 with my girl, going to playtest some Imperial Roman and Celt figure stats for Song of Blades and Heroes I found in some French site (I think), and realising Gruntz is quite the Stargrunt clone. My design efforts are better helped going to the original than squeezing stuff from Gruntz, probably. Go check Stargrunt for free on the GZG site.

Also received Apocalypse Z from the Mongoose insane sales page. It’s an awful book, but with some good zombie content. And to be honest, I really like the Battlefield Evo system. Played it solo a couple of times, the World War 2 version.

Also received two wicked limited edition LotR figures from a UK gamer killing some of his stuff. The collector in me is very happy. I’ll show them soon enough.

So there, a brief update. When doing lots of hobby things the first thing you forget is to take pics and write about it, you know?

You thought I was kidding…

This is a Tau Devilfish troop carrier.

And this is a Hammerhead tank.

And this is a different Hammerhead setup, with different main, secondary, and drone weapons.

Now the magic trick is that they’re all the same model. Really, you can build these guys with just one Hammerhead tank model. How so?

Well, a few guides on magnetizing weapons, found here, and some tricks you learn after a dozen years of model making. So, while painting my first Devilfish APC I put together this beast that can pass for any combination of Hammerhead or even a plain Devilfish if needed.

Here you can see all the parts.

Here’s a few conversion work. The commander hatch was pinned to open (I have finished one Tau commander and two Drans, and will be converting at least another Tau soldier). Also the back door was magnetized to open and close safely.

While taking the pics for this I noticed the Ion Cannon didn’t seat straight. So I went back to the work table and added tiny bits of balsa wood, watching my millimeters and ended up with this, that fits perfectly.

Now to define the paintjob on the Devilfish, and then to paint this guy (and all of its parts) and a Skyray, a missile launcher artillery-like variant of this guy I’ve got built already. I was placing an order for another Devilfish when I started to build the Hammerhead, and soon realized I should get a Hammerhead instead. There’s really no point in not getting that model if you’re willing to go the extra mile to convert it into a modular tank. Oh yeah, some infantry coming along as well.

For me they’re without a doubt the most beautiful models in the complete 40K universe. When I painted some Drantakhs for The Guild’s sniper build it became apparent that they needed vehicles. I’ve even got a few tank commander models as a gift with one order, guys cut in the waist to fit them in a vehicle. The Dran range has no vehicles of its own. And somehow the Tau tanks seem to fit with them. Yeah, Tau troops are nothing like Drans, but I think the vehicles fit the Dran even better.

So here I go. A devilfish is the first step. I don’t usually like movable parts in my models, but damnit this thing is just beautiful. The parts you see here, minus the gun droids and the tank commanders, will be painted separately. I’ll do the interior, and yes, I will leave the hatch, rear door, front machine gun and engines movable. Don’t know why. Maybe cause I can, and I want to point them in different directions during my games. They are that gorgeous. Let’s see if I can come up with a nice color scheme based on the already painted Drans.

Wargames-wise I have no knowledge of this kind of places. I know there are places or publications out there concerned about wargame design, but they’re mostly concerned about historical accuracy and simulation, abstract experimental games and stuff like that. That does not appeal to me. I always thought I could find a place to talk about wargames, with the “game” in mind before any other thing. To illustrate my point, I compare the progressive roleplaying games I enjoy so much with rules like Crossfire from Arty Conliffe, or Two Hour Wargames’  stuff with their revolutionary system. AT-43 is also a great game, as is the highly experimental War of the Ring (it was, in fact, testing grounds for the new Warhammer Fantasy, though that game remains mostly traditional in most aspects).

Now you probably see why I was so interested in playtesting Gruntz. The game however is taking some strange turns, with people (I won’t say playtesters, since most in the yahoo group never played the game once) changing basic stuff like the turn sequence and the designer focusing on optional rules for future releases. The base of the game is still pretty solid, and most importantly fun. This has sent me in one of those drives to design my own rules. I’m still fighting with myself, seeing if I’ll use Gruntz just as inspiration (amongst other games) or as a basis for my game.

Though this post was not to share this, but a comment made in one of the many blogs I read everyday. The whole post is quite interesting, but it has some pretty amazing gems spread in there, hiding behind the rules commentary. I especially like this paragraph:

This is as subjective a matter as one can imagine but more and more I find myself drawing away from contrived solutions to wargame design and towards “natural” ones. In essence it comes down to the difference between a mechanism that eventually gives the right result with one that has the right feel. Of course, ideally you want one that does both.

Since instinct and expectation are linked to past experience and knowledge it is not possible to determine definitive intuitive solutions but by observing the reactions of gamers at conventions and club games and listening to my inner voice, I have found a few trends.  Some of these are the result of past experience of rules but others come from our understanding of how the world works and are the sorts of things new gamers expect even if they have never played a wargame before. Here are a few that I have decided were worth trying to incorporate.

a) Immediacy. Things seem to make more sense when results follow directly  from causes and can be linked visually. Perhaps I should say that they make more sense emotionally.
b) Reciprocity. People like to fight back when attacked.
c) Visibility. Particularly if using miniatures, what you see is what you understand. (again emotionally)

There’s so much in there. I specially enjoy insight from the actual game, from someone observing behaviors in the table rather than just reading through a set of rules. This is taken from this post in Battle Game of the Month. In any case a good read, so go check it out.

You might find plain historical WW2 figures, of course. Since I collect regular WW2 in 20mm, all the 28mm will be posted here because despite the occasional historical skirmish I collect them with this purpose in mind.

Let’s start at the beginning. Incursion figures, part of the Secrets of the Third Reich universe.

America

APE grunts

Germany

Bomberzombies

Sturmzombies

http://www.guildwargamers.com/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=183

Just browse through the threads. You won’t regret it.

A dozen wild wargs…

And a whole bunch of dwarf archers. These are the first regular warriors with a different color scheme in my collection.

In the following days I sense a Space Marines update and finally, finally, some Incursion figures.

The updated lists were as follows:

Therians (New Israelis list)

Commander
Squad + Heavy Carbine + Micro Missile
Squad + Heavy Carbine
Golgoth Walker
Points total: 43

U.N.A. (Slammers list)

Commander
Squad + RPG
Squad
Tank
Fire Toad Walker
Points Total: 40

For the second U.N.A. squad I used a few Imperial Guard models from 40K and the leader was an Infinity model. They didn’t stand out much amongst the rest of the troops, specially since they spent the whole battle inside the vehicle. That’s the other thing. I remembered the Chimera tank in 40K is also a transport, so I let it carry a squad worth of troops. As far as the walkers, I created the stats. They are quite a mess but played well, and the points are probably totally wrong. The basic thinking is that the Fire Toad is a light walker, while the Golgoth is a medium. Here they are:

Wraith Golgoth
10 Points
Move 6 / ToHit 12 / Soak 16
Medium Sonic Cannon: 14 inches / 12 damage
Medium Nucleus Cannon: 12 inches / 14 damage / AP4
24 Hit Points

Fire Toad
7 Points
Move 5 / ToHit 10 / Soak 14
Light Laser: 12 inches / 14 damage / AP2
Light Laser: 12 inches / 14 damage / AP2
20 Hit Points

I treated them as vehicles, as you can see from the profiles.

Deployment and first turn. I put an objective marker for each force which was deployed. To capture it there should be a non suppressed enemy unit at 4 inches at the end of a turn with no enemy near it. The deployment zones were 10×15 inches and on opposite short sides of the table.

For the first couple of turns there was only movement. The U.N.A. sent the tank (with a unit inside) through the right, the other infantry unit and the commander down the center jumping from cover to cover and the Fire Toad walker running towards the left flank. The Therians covered their right flank and put up a defense up the hill for the coming tank.

In the third turn the tank opened fire against the Golgoth, and the first two rolls of the game were double sixes! It hit for 8 damage. In the 4th turn the tank moves and shoots again doing 4 more damage, but a heavy carbine and the Golgoth itself open fire against the U.N.A. vehicle and do some damage. The Golgoth shot both its weapons because it did not move during the phase. Meanwhile the Fire Toad found a nice defense nest where to protect the coming of troops from the flank with its objective safe far behind.

In the 5th turn the U.N.A. commander uses his faculty making everyone move again. The tank gets to move twice and open fire. An infantry unit moves 3 times, something not allowed by the regular “action assign” rules, but I considered it was legal this time because it was about the commander’s faculty. I have no real confirmation on that from the designer though. The Therians respond shooting with the Golgoth and damaging the tank. The commander also shoots the tank and activates his own faculty making all grunt squads fire twice. Somehow the little guys manage to damage the tank with a mix of anti-armor and small arms.

Sixth would be the last turn. The U.N.A. complete their original plan to great results. First the grunt squad go prone behind cover except the missile launcher which fires against protected gruntz and deals a wax result because the AP factor kills the light cover protection. The tank makes a double move towards the enemy objective, the squad inside disembarks and makes a move, reaching within 4 inches of the objective! The Therians go for a last-ditch effort. First the commander uses both his actions to remove the suppressed state of the gruntz and give another action to the Golgoth. Another thing I’m not sure he can do in the rules, but nothing seems to say he can’t. They try to shoot long distance to suppress the capturing unit. They miss! It’s up to the walker. He makes a move. Then shoots, trying to supress the invaders. He sadly misses too. He still has another move thanks to the commander. He ends up 5 inches from the objective!!

It wasn’t really a close game, but it was quite exciting specially in the end. The U.N.A. used their strongest for this scenario, which was mobility. The Therians failed to create a solid defence. Once again the ranges seemed a bit short for these figures and the table space. I tried fighting in a much much smaller surface after this game and they worked, but the battle seemed quite crowded. I think playing in this kind of big play space with longer ranges would be just perfect.

Another fun game, one of many. I’ve got a few more pics of games coming up soon. Can’t wait to see how this game develops.

And the fighters.

PS: Yeah, I will paint the crashed spaceship scenery eventually. Painted a set for the club last week, so I’m pretty sure I can do it in a flash. But it won’t get in the way of my gaming just now.

Here’s the Carthaginian scutarii element I was owing my army. Now I really do have a playable DBA army with a lot of extra elements.

And next to it the Mordor troll drummer. This is actually the first troll I painted. Or started to paint. The truth is that between starting and finishing this guy I painted 2 cave trolls. This guy showed my how hard it is, but how much I love to paint trolls. He’s been through a lot of techniques and paint layers, and I decided “decent” was the best I was going to accomplish if I wanted him hitting the table. Thanks to him I learned how to paint the beasties, and plan on doing at least half a dozen more.

Both figures are in their respective galleries and I’m going to focus first on finishing the Task, then on finally completing the Khazad-Dum and Shadow and Flame supplement figures I started a long time ago. I’m not really that far from completing it!

Now, figures and scales have never stopped me before, so after reading Gruntz for a couple of times I set up some scenery and dusted off my AT-43 figures for their very first combat action. Some scenery was not painted, and all figures were either unpainted (the tank) or painted by who-knows-who-in-what-slave-factory. It was a beautiful sight nevertheless. So hear kids. Badly painted figures are always a million times better than unpainted figures on the table. Learn that Warhammer crowd.

My girlfriend who only played a wargame once in her life was pretty confident about it and wanted to try it. Seems like I was showing my excitement about the nice rules and avoided me the solo experience. Anyway, I made a couple of forces using Therians, and U.N.A. troops with a Warhammer 40K Chimera tank. They passed for New Israelis and Slammers in the army lists. The forces were as follows:

Slammers (U.N.A. troops, played by me)

-Commander
-Squad + RPG
-Tank
Total points: 28

New Israelis (Therians)

-Commander
-Squad with 2 heavy carbines and one micro missile
Total points: 26

The battle was quite straightforward but with some nice terrain to take cover. I placed a bunker near the NI’s deployment zone just because of the slight difference in points, and off we went with the game. We deployed and started moving around.

I have to say the distances are a bit clunky for bigger models (at least the coherency rules) but otherwise the game was perfectly played as written. The NIs deployed behind the bunker but at the last moment ran for a different cover, leaving the commander enter the big concrete defence. My guys ran straight into it wanting to take them out while the tank moved on the center of the board and my commander was using it as cover. Lots of shooting back and forth from the 3rd turn onwards.

Charging into cover isn’t on the rules, so we kind of improvised a bit. The commander in the bunker took quite a beating but single-handedly massacred the squad charging him. He survived with just one wound making my guys get Scared Shitless and run for a bit, so my own commander who was aiding the tank with some shooting had to intervene and fight it out with the enemy boss.

The tank kept hitting some enemies but no real harm since the cannon could only hurt one figure. Besides, the NIs squad had 3 armor-piercing weapons with them. While dealing with the NIs commander in the bunker, the tank lost patience and rammed straight into the enemy squad. It killed one of them but was left completely exposed so her guys just destroyed him and that increased their cover area. The missile launcher actually missed, it deviated back into the unit, killed a couple of its own guys, but in the end hurt the tank helping the tank busting effort.

The game was stuck with some long-range firing between the 2 remaining guys from my squad plus my commander, against quite a bunch of the enemy’s guys. In the end it was decided old west style, with only my commander and the NIs squad leader remaining. My guy had the lucky shot, game over.

A bunch of stuff happened in the game to ask the designer and already did. It was just tons of fun, and my gf was really having fun for the game’s sake and not just because we we’re hanging and doing something I really love. The game makes me want to create stat cards for a ton of troops and also paint up the random sci-fi models I’ve got in my collection like some Imperial Guard, some Drantakhs and other stuff.

And yeah, pics!

And some Incursion British, the final pieces for my favorite side project (and my tools for yet another build at the Guild)

Update!: I’ve added a few lame video clips to the Mines of Moria starter play report, just below. Go check them out!

Now, this set is aimed at new players. Something I’m most definitely not. The reasons for getting this beyond the obsessive collector syndrome are several. First, you get an amazing plastic Fellowship of the Ring. And to be honest, some of the models are the best representation of the characters so far. I specially like Gandalf, Sam, and Boromir. You also get some amazing scenery. The pillars are the weakest of all, but the rest of the little details plus Balin’s tomb are just amazing. Finally, you get 24 more gobbos. You can never have enough goblins, I tell ya. Oh yeah, you also get the freaking rulebook as well!!

Sadly, the scenarios are pretty lame. They are aimed at complete newbies, and I mean kids. The scenarios from the Battle of Macragge set were pretty cool, even playable solo. They were smart design. These from the Moria set are not. They do teach the rules to some extent, but the playing surface and general objectives are small and boring. There’s no chance in hell that the Fellowship player will lose any of the scenarios. That being said, I still played them all a couple of times. And here we go.

Scenario 1: Into the darkness.

This simple scenario sets the Fellowship against four (yeah, 4!) little goblins. The thing is to teach you how to move and shoot with your figures. The Fellowship has to cross the table and escape through the door. In my games the guys mostly just killed the little bastards and ran to safety, covering the hobbits. Not a chance to win for them really.

Scenario 2: Ambush!

This game sets Aragorn in a scouting round, facing a few goblins, and teaching you the close combat mechanics. Once again, a race towards the gates on the other side of the table. This time however the goblins get to stop Aragorn most of the time (the gaming area is so small) but he just keeps beating and killing them!

Scenario 3: Surrounded!

This time Aragorn is not with the Fellowship, and they’re surrounded by goblins. The objective is to introduce some special rules so the Light player has to seal the trapdoors shut to win the game. The goblins have to kill at least 4 Fellowship members to win (which is nigh impossible). Aragorn may or may not join the fight from the door, depending on a die roll every turn. In my game the goblins did quite well, hurting a few of the stronger characters but killing none sadly. Aragorn made the fight in the end to save the day.

Scenario 4: Balin’s tomb.

This is it! The “big game.” The Fellowship is surrounded and goblins keep coming from the trapdoors and the big gate. They keep coming every turn after you kill them, and there’s the imminent danger of a cave troll! The Fellowship wins if they kill the beast, and the goblins win if they kill 4 Fellowship members. As usual, protect the hobbits and you’ll be fine. In my game the goblins died a lot, but came back, and managed to kill the wizard! Then a double 6 was rolled and the cave troll made his entrance. It took two rounds and a few great rolls from Boromir and Gimli to take him down.

All in all it’s a pretty good starter set. It has the LotR rulebook in pocket format (that’s all you need to play the proper game), a nice Fellowship, some scenery, and a freaking cave troll! Oh yeah, and almost 30 little goblins to fill your horde. Game design wise maybe not the brightest product, but as usual with these plastic starters, well worth your bucks.

Update: I forgot I had some awful clips. Enjoy!

While at it I also painted some Epic (6mm “scale”) city ruins I built a long time ago and had several false starts. This was the perfect opportunity so I took it.

Now, while I was taking the pics I thought about those craters and Epic gaming… now, this way they do look like big-ass bomb or meteorite craters. Artillery must hit really hard in the 41st Millennium. I might have to get me a set now.

Anyway, there’s a tournament coming up so that gave me the excuse to buy the new book. Yeah, I do hate tournaments, but I want to support the club somehow.

I did not really play, since a guy there was teaching me the ropes and he actually did most of the playing. My marines faced some chaos marines from one of the club owners. It was a bit of fun and I did get to know the rules a bit more (as well as take a few pics). It’s surprising how veteran players know their special rules a lot more than the most basic ones, like joining a combat or how many strikes a unit does in hand to hand.

The teaching player was quite friendly, but he was more interested in teaching me how to win (with the tournament coming) than the basic rules of the game. Like I said, it was quite fun nevertheless and I also brought some of the club’s scenery home to paint and give them a hand (it’s the moonscape set from GW… basically craters).

Well, not much more to report except for the few pics I took. Oh yeah, the game was a tie, with each army controlling one objective. Lists were about 1000 points.

Now back to toy soldiers. On another post I showed a few quite awful 54mm-ish plastic army men I got really cheap on the supermarket. Didn’t know what made me get them. A few days later I revisited Rogue’s stories while searching for some Cam Kennedy art.

Well, enough of it. I have a ton of ideas in my head, but there’s no use rambling about them right now. I think it’s cooler to get a glimpse of what I’m doing in those moments when you’re waiting for the paint to dry, for the ink to settle.

I turned this:

into this:

Maybe later I’ll put some thoughts into pixels and develop the plan a bit further.

I made a spot, used a computer table I was going to throw away, and fixed a second light I used for painting some time ago. And ended up with this permanent setup. Might as well say I’m quite happy with it.

But so much focus on Khazad Khazad Khazad has made my LotR box collection grow. I’ve got so many kits I want to build and paint. I’ll be honest, it’s pretty cool to open a cabinet and see all these boxes waiting for you, like a little store inside your house (and the stuff is free! ok… already payed, not free, but you know…) but it’s also a bit sad to see all this stuff like that.

So as side projects in the near future I will be painting these guys. Of course, as a true wargamer I will begin with the latest acquisition, bought just yesterday and pictured below.

On another front, the painting update is almost here, and I’ve got a little surprise for you all regarding some cheap-ass weird figures I have shown a few days ago. And yeah, I’m soooo getting a couple of Tau vehicles for my Dran.

In case the pics are so lame you can’t even read what they are. (Yeah, they are).
We’ve got In the Clutches of Shelob, Morannon Orcs, Army of the Dead, The Fighting Uruk-hai x2, Winged Nazgul, Troll Chieftain, Wood Elves, Dwarf Rangers, Dwarf Warriors, Warriors of Rohan, Knights of Minas Tirith, and an Ent!

-Helm, Rogue Trooper’s sentient helmet with the personality of a dead squaddy.

These figures are Drantakhs special weapon troops, a spotter and a sniper. Sculpted by Bob Olley for Regiment Games. They have been painted in very few days for The Guild’s Sniper Speed Build.

Saruman

Lurtz, uruk-hai commander.

Ugluk

Uruk-hai warriors and pikes. The standard bearer is a simple conversion with hand made flag. The one with the white hand on its shield is a captain.

Uruk-hai scouts. The lightly armored version of the orcs. Some are carrying Merry and Pippin. The one with the white hand on its shield is a captain.

Uruk-hai berserkers

Warg riders. Brutal orc cavalry.

Golfimbul, orc chieftain

Moria goblin shaman

Moria goblin captains. They are both plastic conversions.

Goblin drum. One of the goblins of this drum is a plastic archer conversion.

Goblin Prowlers. Due to the lack of prowler models armed with anything other than two handed weapons, the bow and sword prowlers are plastic and metal conversions.

Moria goblins

Wild wargs

Cave trolls

Gollum

Twilight Ringwraiths

Grishnackh. The orc leader in all his awfulness.

Orcs. Sauron´s rank and file, and some amazing figures. If you want to see how I made the captain and standard bearer, check this article.

Trolls. My fav figures in the whole range.

And no, not even some of the authors of the books deserve attention.

Do people actually find this interesting? Or beautiful? Or even fun? Just plain dumb and ugly if you ask me.

The Guild, speed build competition, sniper theme (but quite open otherwise), and “oh I remember I have those wonderful Olley Drantakh sculpts laying around somewhere, I wonder if I got the sniper team” thought on my mind.

They do make me finish stuff. But they also make me start other (gorgeous) stuff I had in the back of my head for a while. We’ll see how it goes.

Dwarf personalities: Dain, Mardin, Murin, Drar, Durin.

Murin’s Guard

Dwarf kings

Captains and standard bearers.

Dwarf warriors

Khazad Guard

Iron Guard

Vault Warden teams

Here you have all 8 of the Vault Warden teams grouped together.

Shieldbearers. These three are plastic dwarf conversions.

Dwarven ballista