Sloan's Rangers (Gun Mages)

Here's a little more painting for you, this time of a Warmachine bent. I'm pretty happy with how these all turned out, but the pictures are actually nicer than the models in real life. Which is nice

Back in Black 13th

Love these models and the normal gun mages. Great concept well executed. Oddly small, but we'll get on to that in a minute...

And a bit more painting

The release of 6th Ed. 40k has been positive in  that it's persuaded me to paint. Here are some pics!

Brother-Sergeant Chronus

 So first up we have Chronus, who was a bit fiddly, but ultimately quite a nice job, after removing all his Ultramarines insignia.

Aegis Defence Line

 Next, another 40K painting job, the Aegis defence lines, which can be used as a fortification in the new edition. Don't know if I will, but of course they can go in normal terrain.

Gobber Bodger

And finally a Gobber Bodger. I love this model dearly. Would love to know who sculpted him, but PP don't seem to want you to know who sculpts their models. Nice though. It was painted using the new GW ork triad of paints, which are very nice indeed.

Next up, Kara Slone from Warmachine and some Vanguard Vets for 40K

Back (in denim)

First post in a little while. I would like to say how I've been off doing very interesting things like going to the Arctic with Helen Skelligton off Blue Peter or been abducted by aliens but the truth is that I've been busy with work and Christmas and so haven't been gaming much and certainly haven't had any time to write. This isn't the only game that we played over this period. We payed at least a couple of games of Space Hulk, a bit of summoner Wars, Monopoly Deal (which is an excellent game for a fiver) and various other kids games. This is the first that I've had some time to blog about though.

The other day Holdenstein Jr asked if we could play a game of Warmachine, so I ventured out to the shed to get a board and some scenery and we did. Stryker vs Kreoss again, this time with Junior bagsying Stryker, so I took the partially painted Kreoss and got first turn. We set up across from each other and advanced.

Junior's Cygnar

My Menoth

In my second turn I misjudged some distances which left me in no-man's land with my melee jacks, but able to get first blood by setting Junior's Charger on fire

First Blood

Junior then returned the complement by charging his Ironclad and Lancer in and shooting the Charger at the Revenger. He also disrupted the with Stryker's gun. The Ironclad managed to get a bit of damage done before getting pushed away from the Revenger by its repulsor shield.

Stryker about to pounce

That was a bit of a pain, as it meant no boosting for my best 'jack even though it was in range. I just had to settle for meandering in and trying to hit the Lancer with the Crusader and the flail on the Repenter. Unsurprisingly not much damage was done. Kreoss advanced and set Stryker on fire with Immolation which was nice, although not for Stryker. I also forgot to use my feat, which at the time was a terrible thing.

Junior went for the kill this round. He put a point of focus on the Charger to move round and boost against Kreoss (with some success) put the Ironclad back into combat with the Revenger, and finally charged Kreoss with Stryker, popping Stryker's feat just in case. Junior should have done me then, but fluffed his last two hit rolls and left Kreoss on two wounds. This is where forgetting to use my feat on the previous turn was lucky. I knocked Stryker over and gave him the sort of pummelling that even +5 Arm can't help.

Ooops

So a win for me, but what did we learn? Well Junior prefers Warmachine to Space Hulk, because you can do almost anything, and I enjoyed myself and I think have worked out why I don't like Warmachine. Wait I hear you say, you just said you enjoyed yourself, what's all this about not enjoying Warmachine. That's correct. I enjoyed this game and I have enjoyed all the other games that I have played at this size. What I have never enjoyed is 25 to 35 point games. I think that it's a combination of ever increasing numbers of special rules, totally optimised lists and the Caster kill end to the game that do it. It's a lot of effort for a game that might last a turn and a half or five, and a small mistake or not understanding all of your opponents abilities can easily lead to the end of the game. I would rather have a game that lasts for a relatively predictable time, which Warmachine is at this level.

I hope to be updating the blog fairly regularly now, so check back soon!

Battle Boxing

Holdenstein jr. and I had a simple game of Warmachine yesterday, pitching Stryker's battle box against Kreoss'. I took Kreoss, which put me at two disadvantages. Firstly the Menoth box isn't painted yet and secondly I judge that Stryker's Battlebox is somewhat more effective in 'jack on 'jack action than Kreoss'.

My Revenger was taken out early on with some boosted shots from Junior's Charger, followed up by the Ironclad smashing it up. Subsequently, the Lancer was set on fire by the Repenter and broken up by the Crusader. I had lost the advantage, however and had to move Kreoss up as all my wrajqcks were either disrupted or had knocked out corteces. I set Stryker on fire and knocked off a half his damage, but a charge from Stryker with boosted attacks and damage killed Kreoss.

Junior got the basics down pretty easily, and some of the metal arithmetic was challenging, but I judge that to be a good thing. Junior's pretty good at maths and giving him something challenging that's relevant can be quite tricky. Overall, this was a success. As long as we stay away from things like soul token mechanics, small Warmachine games are a decent option.

Warmachine mkII

Another game last night, again my pStryker against Alan's Phinneus Shae theme list, but this time a 35 point match. I'm happy to report that my army works better at 35 than it does at 25. I'm not sure why, but I would suggest that the two decent infantry units are better enhanced (I hate that Buff/Debuff crap) by Stryker through spells and his Feat than a single one.

I took an Ironclad and lancer in Stryker's Battlegroup, with a small Trencher unit, UA and Grenadier, and a gun mage unit plus UA and Hunter jack. I would have preferred to squeeze in my Defender over the Lancer, but you can't have everything.

Team Photo

We played  with the two central objective zones. Over on my right the Trenchers squared up to Sea-dogs with Mr. Walls and the Commodore cannon and deck gun, while on the left my gun mages went for the objective, up against a Mariner, a Freebooter and Press Gangers, with both Warcasters in the centre, which had a wood blocking line of sight in the middle of the table.

To cut a long story short, the zone on the right dragged in my Lancer and First Mate Hawk, and we ended up with the Lancer, Grenadier, Hawk and the cannons not doing much to each other, with a lot of dead trenchers and pirates.
On the left, Stryker, the Ironclad, Shae, grog spar, Doc Killingsworth and dirty Meg all got dragged in to the scrap. My gun mages acquitted themselves very well, with their high def plus blur making them very difficult to hit, and them slowly whittling down the Freebooter jack and Press Gang, even with 4+ tough rolls and no knockdown. When push came to shove though, Stryker had to disrupt the Mariner to prevent it destroying the Ironclad and in doing so put himself in range of Shae, who was just able to kill him with a couple of fully boosted attacks with slightly better than average rolls.

Oh well c'est la vie, as they say in Barnsley. Lessons learned- Jack Marshall does not let you use power attacks, but does get transferred from the officer to the unit leader. Blur is ace on ATGM units and PStryker works better wi two units.
Oh, and Arcane Shield Stryker instead of camping on 2 focus. That extra point of ARM might just have made a difference.
Here's a little bigger photo of the Hunter, who I have finished since last week with his forest base.

Warmachine

This is one just for me. With Holdenstein Jr's. health improving and work getting a little easier I went out to play last night for the first time in around 3-4 months. Leeds Games Club still meets on a Thursday night in Headingly, but it seems that it is increasingly going towards board and card games, and the Thursday wargaming has moved to the Leeds Wargaming Centre on Meanwood Rd, where the Leeds Night Owls now meet on a Sunday.

I played Warmachine last night. That James Rhodes is one mean miniature games player. Only joking, I played a chap called Alan, with my Stryker lead Cygnar taking on his Phinneus Shae theme list. Phineus Shae's theme list is one mean mother, with the excellent pirate solos coming in a point cheaper and getting the frickin' massive cannon, not to mention some really nasty movement spells and feat. It didn't help that my armies main trick is knockdowns, and just about everyone in his army was immune to being knocked down. Anyway I lost, due to not seeing a caster kill run coming from First Mate Hawk, who went from being out of range to all too close to Stryker after a quick cast of Coup de Main. Same old problem for me, not keeping the caster safe enough.

The other thing that I got up to was buying some of Alan's forest bases. Alan casts up bases and buildings from resin under the moniker Fat Spider. I had been looking for some cut tree trunks for a little while, in order to nicely base my Hunter warjack, and this was an easy way to do it. The bases are nice and uncluttered.

Fat Spider bases

Anyway it was an excellent night, and hopefully the start of weekly/biweekly gaming once more.