Sunday, June 12, 2011

Woops

So about that whole top of turn 2 assassination thing. Today I went to play a game with Keith and some people came up to me and asked "Is it true that you did a turn 1 assassination with eGaspy?!" Wtf? I'm not even good at this game!

Now I feel like "that douche who turn-1 killed a newb". Oh well. People will play games with me and realize how much I suck and not feel so bad.

First League Games

So I went to the LGS yesterday to look for some games for the slow-grow league and was mobbed at the door. Clearly I'm popular. I ended up playing a Siege Brisbaine list that I hated the shit out of. It was 100% cheesefest runaway runaway bullshit, and this is coming from someone playing Epic Asphyxious. I nearly killed Siege on my feat turn but could only fit 2 models into b2b with him and was short on my 1 damage roll by 2. Next turn I got shot up and died. Oh well. I think I'm going to avoid that player for a little while.

Next I played two games against a new Khador player. I felt awful because my list directly screwed over his in every way possible and I was locked into it due to the nature of the league. He was using the Khador box and a unit of Widowmakers, while I had eAsphyxious(too far away to shoot), Bane Thralls (stealth and tough), Deathjack(plink plink), and Gorman(also stealth). Not to mention I could block LOS with Asphyxious' clouds so the Widowmakers didn't have much to do.

The first game was awful and I'm a jerk. I went first and ran DJ up. On his turn he cast Boundless Charge on the Juggernaut and tried to charge me but fell short by about 3 inches. He also had moved Sorscha up to cast a razorwind at DJ. Next turn I picked up the Juggernaut and threw it at Sorscha, then blew her up with a boosted Excarnate via necromancy on the Deathjack.

 I felt bad for doing it but he was a really good sport and we played a second game that lasted much much longer. He actually ALMOST hit Asphyxious with a boosted pow 14 from the destroyer but missed his roll by one. The funny thing is it should have deviated on to gorman and probably killed him, but I forgot to activate him last turn and he was off in the middle of nowhere. I'm looking forward to playing against him more throughout the league and help him learn some of the threat ranges and whatnot that Cryx brings to the table.

Now, I'm off to pick up Keith and go play another game.

Friday, June 3, 2011

Quick Update

Here's a shot of the board I'm working on in its current state. Part II of the Tutorial won't be up for a week or so due to an unfortunate lack of supplies and relevant pictures. Here it is now though!




I also finished up the Ragman last night/this morning
And started work on Epic Asphyxious! One of my favorite models. I decided to go with him for an upcoming slow-grow league. Very exciting!

I'm looking forward to the upcoming league quite a bit. It's sort of a weird format but I like it. Basically we're starting at 15pts for the first two weeks then going up by ten points each consecutive week for a total of 45. 45 is weird right? But if you don't change warcasters, you get +1 bonus warjack/beast point every week. You get this bonus point in the first week as well, but as soon as you change you lose all points. I'm sticking with Epic Asphyxious so my progression will look like:

Week 1 : 16 pts
Week 2 : 17 pts
Week 3 : 28 pts
Week 4 : 39 pts
Week 5 : 50 pts

It starts on Monday and I'm hoping to at least get my 5 games a week in. Mondays and Tuesdays will be my main days since those are the ones I don't work. WOOHOO

Monday, May 30, 2011

Sneak Peak

Here's a look at some stuff that's currently being worked on.
Because nobody likes Haley. I'm thinking about ripping her head off and spiking it on one of DJ's fingers. One thing I know I'm doing is having her soul leak into DJ's soul furnace.
Nothing in Cryx should have A-cups. My girlfriend loves sexy things so I decided to sexy-up my Warwitch Siren for her. Painting this now.
Pistol Wraith!
That's all for now.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Board Tutorial Part I

So I'm in the process of making my first game board for Warmachine/Hordes. My friends and I love going to our local store but a lot of times we just don't feel like packing all our stuff, or want to play late at night. We've always thought and talked about making a board but didn't take much initiative. My friend Keith did buy a 4'x8' that he was going to make in to a warhammer(ew) board but I think it was a little too much and it's only half done at this point(about a year). I decided to take the initiative and exploit my recent re-interest in Warmachine to make a board. I'll be writing up a tutorial here for those who'd like to try making their own.

The first step is to print out some graph paper. Make sure there are enough squares to equate 1 square to 1sq". Draw out a 48x48 square and go wild. Plan out your map carefully, where you want terrain, what kind of terrain and buildings you want, how it will interact with the various scenarios, etc. This will make it much easier to make the board itself. I'd show you mine but I'm too lazy to use the scanner. After you've got your board laid out you can start beginning.

Materials Required:
A 4x4 1/2" thick MDF Board - Get MDF! Don't get plywood or sheetwood or something that will split and bend and break. MDF is absolutely the way to go, it is very durable and will stand the test of time. You should consider cutting this in to 4 2x2 boards as I did for storage purposes, but if you've got a place to put a 4x4 board then consider doing it, the board will look better.
1 Sheet of Pink Insulation foam - You know, the pink panther stuff. This stuff always comes in 2'x8', so have it cut in half if you're doing a 4x4 board or have it cut into 4 2'x2' if you're splitting the boards. Thickness is up to you. 1/2" is a good all-purpose but you may want to go thicker if you have terrain features like rivers that you'd like to dig in to it.
Wood Glue -  This stuff is important. Don't get the white elmers because it won't last, it'll eventually crack. When you spend so much time on a project like this you want it to last.
Some Brushes - Various sizes, you'll need larger ones than you're used to for painting models.
Sand, gravel, ballast - You'll need this to make your board nice and textured and not a boring flat surface. The same kind of stuff you use for basing. Multiple grain sizes is good for variation but more on that later.
Stones, Extra Foam, Foam Core, etc. - Anything you'll need for your terrain.
Flock - You'll want some grass. You could just paint some green in but flock looks really nice.

Alright so let's get to it. I was saving up all my pictures to write one big guide but decided it'd be overwhelming, so I'll split it in to 2 or 3 parts.

Step 1
The first thing you want to do is glue your insulation foam to your MDF board. Score the wood with an exacto knife to allow a few good places to grip, then apply a generous amount of glue. You'll want to add weights to the corners so that it lays flat.
Nice right? Various heavy objects. Repeat this process for all 4 boards, or both halves of your 4x4. You should also consider stacking them like this once you've got them all setting. Make sure you let them dry for at least 30 minutes. An hour would be better.

Step 2
So now your boards are all foamed up. It's time to start translating your chart onto the foam itself. Use a marker that will stand out, purple, blue, and black all work well. Draw out your roads and terrain features so you have an idea of what's going where.
The best way to do this is to count the squares in between terrain features. For example, I had a house(top left rectangle in the picture above) to draw in. I measured how far it was from the edges, 2" out and something like 15" in. It's very easy once you have a feature or two in for reference and to build off of. This took me about an hour, maybe hour and a half.

Step 3
This is more step 2.5 than anything. For positioning and drawing in buildings you should consider using pieces of paper or cardboard cut out to the shape of your building. Lay this down in it's general position and get a sense for whether or not it's in the right place. What looks right in your drawing may not translate well to the board itself. I ended up redesigning and moving the house a little bit to get it in a position I thought would make the board better.

Step 4
The next and final step for Part I is to do any roads or terrain features that are built in to the foam itself. For example, I wanted cobble-stone roads running through my board. The best way to do this is to imprint them into the foam using a sharp-ish pencil. Do not use a pen. Do not use a mechanical pencil. Don't use a screwdriver, carving tool, anything. Just a regular old pencil, anything else will tear the foam. Use your pencil to carve out your desired shapes and features. I had my sister help with this since there was a good amount to do.

And here is a close-up picture of the effect:


That's all for now! Expect Part II tomorrow.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Battle Report Vs. Khador

I had a great game against Mike and his Khador today, he won but the game was very close and I easily could've been the winner. Here are the lists

pDeneghra
2x Nightwretch
Slayer
Bane Thralls
Bane Thrall UA
BLT
Warwitch Siren
Gorman di Wulfe

pIrusk
Spriggan
Winterguard deathstar
min IFP
IFP UA
Yuri the Axe

I believe that was everything...here's how it went.


Khador sets up first.

I set up my Cryx. Nothing too special, I kind of regret stacking the arc nodes on one side, but with the way the board looked I was afraid I wouldn't be able to keep both in my control area to channel through.
First turn, Khador advances. No action yet, just some spell casting and advancement. Yuri got pretty far up on the left flank but...
With the help of Curse a single Bane Thrall got to charge. I barely matched his defense with my attack roll, but once I hit there was no way he'd live. Other than this, just general advancement forward. I ran my nightwretches up to set up some sprays the next turn. The board looked like this when my turn ended.

Onto Khador round 3.
More movement, more spells. Nothing exciting here. Watch for the next picture, there's a huge before and after.
The Warwitch Siren and Deneghra both sprayed the IFP who were shield walled. It was farm more effective than I expected it to be and left only the UA. I put Ghost Walk on the Bane Thralls and ran them through the building there, engaging the Winterguard but not being able to attack.
A solid retaliation by Khador. While a good amount of the Winterguard were engaged, their defense 17 proved very difficult to hit. I ended up only killing one while the rest backed out of melee and fired sprays at the Bane Thralls. Actually, most of the WG moved to fire at Deneghra. The warwitch ended up dying here and Deneghra took 6 damage total. I lost a lot of Bane Thralls too between the WG, Irusk, and the Spriggan. 5 Bane Thralls died in total, including the Officer.
This was a fun turn for me. First I moved Deneghra up. My intention was to put Crippling Grasp on the WG unit, but they were at DEF17.... So I popped her feat first. This brought them down to 15, and a boost to hit got me what I needed. Now that they were at a manageable DEF13 I let Bane Lord Tartarus do what he does best. He charged at a WG and used thresher, killing 4 out of 5 of the models in range. 4 Bane Thralls for me! Mike wasn't too happy about this. He hates Bane Thralls like everybody else. That IFP also engaged both of my arc nodes the turn before so I was really regretting stacking them on the right. That was stupid. I killed what I could with my Banes but forgot to cast Ghostly to charge Irusk with them. I did take out the Spriggan though.
A slow, sad turn for Khador. With the WG at SPD1 they weren't really going anywhere.
However, a daring IFP Officer had a moment of glory where he survived two free strikes to engage Deneghra. Unfortunately his moment of glory was lame and, despite hitting, he did 0 damage. Irusk did work though. He moved up and one shot Deneghra with his gun to end the game.

So that's that. I think we're playing again Tuesday and my girlfriend might actually play with/for me. Maybe if she plays for me I can take many pictures.

A Very Warmachine Weekend

Despite spending a lot of time at work this weekend I've been able to make it very Warmachine-y. I couldn't do anything except for maybe some minor painting on Friday, but last night after work I had some friends over and played a game against Circle. I meant to take pictures for a Battle Report but got a little too into it. The pictures I do have are from setting up, and they aren't very good/exciting. Nevertheless, here are our armies:




Cryx List: 23 pts
pAsphyxious
-Deathjack
-Cankerworm
min Bane Thralls
Bane Thrall UA
Bane Lord Tartarus

Circle List: 25 pts
Baldur Stonecleaver
-Pureblood Warpwolf
-Megalith
-Woldwatcher
-Druid Wilder
Lord of the Feast

The points are screwed up for various reasons but it didn't end up making any difference. The game was pretty close, both the casters played back and on the top of turn 1 DJ got ALMOST wrecked, only 3 boxes left. I had an arm and cortex so with my 4 focus I repeatedly slapped the Purebloods shit, got it's soul token, and healed my other arm. I was happy until the next turn when he got 1-hit by Megalith.

I might've been able to end the game on round 2 or 3(cna't remember) with hellfire spam channeled through Cankerworm. Thing is I didn't consider the feat, and could've only cast twice in my mind. So instead I just threw one and used the other 3 focus elsewhere(1 was on upkeep). Next turn I told Keith he should charge Cankerworm with Baldur. He ended up only doing 6 damage(sad rolls on his part) and I gobbled him up next turn. I think that's my fault, running away was probably a better idea.

Now, Sunday morning, the same friends and I are heading off to the LGS to play a game there and maybe buy some stuff. This time I'll be playing Khador and will remember to take pictures! I also might pick up a Harrower, but will probably decide against it after carrying the box around for an hour.