As the Cog turns...

So tonight is week 2 for the League. I wasn't able to spend much time on my Cryx as I would like, but I have everything ready that I need.

Tonight is 15 point games, so basically battle box plus a one point solo. I went with the necrotech and scrap thrall. I know people are probably going to say I should have gone with the machine wraith, but I don't own a machine wraith. And truth be told, I like the idea of scrap thralls. I'm sure it won't work out and he'll get blown up, but who knows, maybe I'll get to make more?

I'll have to read the rules again for placement of newly made scrap thralls. Would suck if the very next turn you could just shoot one as they are all bunched up together and wipe them out with one shot. Eh? Who knows. Also, being able to repair my jacks won't be a bad plan either.

Most importantly, this is another learning game for me. My slayer seems to be a big target for enemy shooting, and keeping the necrotech behind him doing repairs sounds pretty darn good. I may also see about using Deneghra's knockdown spell tonight. See if I can set up some combos there.

As to painting, the models have their base primer color on them, and then a little bit of other base colors added. So nothing really to show at this stage. We will see how this week goes for adding more color. I have to say I'm actually a  bit worried about the slayer because I'm not sure how I want to separate the colors on him just yet. But I have my pallet at least.

So wish me luck. I hope to get in at least two games. I think that is all the stress I can handle. :) I know, I really shouldn't worry about winning at this stage in the game, but I can't help it.

Week 1 of Slow-Grow League

So the local warmachine group called the Cog Collective is sponsoring a slow grow league. Basically a journeyman league for new players. Luckily for me, the timing was right and I was able to make the first night.

I've been fighting back and forth between taking Cryx of Menoth. Menoth had the upper hand on the connection part. Who knew it, but apparently I secretly want to set people on fire? Cryx had the upper hand with model collection. I already own enough to go through the whole league without having to buy another model. Plus, I've always been an undead player for other games...so apparently I'm also a closet necromancer. Could be worse I guess.

Well it finally came to a head last night as I had to bring a force. And well the number one most important factor determined the faction...laziness. The cryx was already assembled and ready to go, so cryx it was. :)

So here they are. Now the Defiler in the back is my test model. He's looking quite funny right now because one side of him is painted one way, the other half is painted another style.

Well I happened to get two games in last night. The first was against a Convergence player. Now I already am behind the eight ball when it comes to faction knowledge, but I had no clue as to what this force could do. So my plan was to spread out my bonejacks, get at least one of them close to his caster, and try to burn him down with spells. The slayer hung back with Denny and just applied a threat up the center.

I put a little hurt on one of his jacks in turn two, but he healed most of it (darn convergence), and he countered by moving his warcaster up and shot my slayer. He did a good hit, but didn't take out any system, and then his heavy placed a crater around the slayer so that he wouldn't be able to charge.

Well as soon as he moved up his caster, Ghost Walk came to mind (due to some nearby woods between his caster and my slayer). So it was just icing on the cake to know that the tactic was going to bypass his crater too.

On my turn, focus allocated, Denny kicked off her feat, cast Ghost Walk, and then let the slayer saunter up and lay down the hurt on the warcaster. He was gone and the slayer still had two focus left on him. So not a win by plan, but I was glad for the opportunity.

My next game was against James and his Khador set. James was one of the hosts and had several factions to pick from. I knew I was going to get smashed. I have to say, I just didn't have a clue on how to deal with his jacks. I figured I would simply try the same thing against his caster, get a node within range and try to burn them down.

Turn three was my moment, his caster had popped out of cover to take a smack on one of my bonejacks. Now my plan was going to try to spell down his caster. But after looking at the board, he suggested another tactic. He had me line up my bonejacks so that one of them would slam the other into his caster, and then I would have a much improved chance to hit his caster. It had never even occurred to me that I could attack my own jacks. The dice panned out and down she went. I got two spells off on her, at dice -4. The first damage roll was just silly and I ended up doing 12 boxes to her (boosted). My second spell hit but no focus left for boosting...And his caster only had three boxes left...to which I declared, "now this is when I roll snake eyes" and sure enough I did.

But due to the Withering, his caster really couldn't get away and his jacks were in no position to help. I got a third bonejack behind his caster, and with a boosted spell took the remaining points from her. I don't really count that as a win, but it was a great learning experience. Kudos to James for being a teacher over a player. Had a great time and now gotta start painting to be ready for next week.

Crisis of Faith

Figliturally (trademarked) I am having a crisis of faith. I am all hyped on Warmachine right now. The crisis though has popped up due to Menoth. I was all set to learn the game and grow with it playing Cryx. I love Deneghra, I like the undead angle, and I got a great deal on figs and have room to grow. All should be right in the world.

But it isn't. I also got a small set of Menoth stuff a while back in the hopes that my friend Robert could use them. Well Robert went and got into Cygar instead (which is cool). But that left me with another book to read...and models to play with. And once I started reading the Menoth book...I really really liked it.

On a personal note, I've never been one to have a strong faith in the holy. Not a big fan of religion, and it took me years to finally come to a place where I am accepting and happy with my faith and belief. I have to say, I have always been jealous of those that have a strong faith. What an amazing thing it is to believe so completely in something that it soothes your soul and sets your mind and heart at ease. That sounds wonderful.

As a big roleplaying nerd, I've always been attracted to the divine classes. I think because I don't have that sort of belief, it is great to play someone who does.

Warmachine has a whole faction to play like that and it is really intriguing. Plus they have some great models. Originally, I was going to go with Feora and a bunch of flameguard. I like themed lists..so sue me. Plus, Feora seems so different from Denny in terms of play style. However, the more I've been reading about Menoth, the more I like Kreoss. He's a decent guy who does right by his men. How can you not like that?

So there is the problem. I have all this cryx stuff, which I like. But I also have a starter of Menoth which I could use instead. What do I do?

Back again!

Hello gentle readers,

I am back. I was off on a fantastic vacation. Three words, Swam with Dolphins. In fact that may be my new indian name. :)

Thanks to all two of you who keep checking on this darn thing. I will be making some progress soon. Things are crazy at home as you can imagine after being gone a week. I have been working on a mechanithrall and with luck will get that finished within the next couple of days. I'm hoping it turns out well.

Thanks again for stopping by. I will be posting up more in the next few days. Also, my friend Robert finally took the plunge and now has a Cygnar force, so he and I will be learning the game together quite soon. :)

To be fair

So I posted up pics the other day of a new model I did because the orange paint scheme didn't seem to be working. However, to be fair, the first pics I posted lacked any shading done to the models. So last night I did a quick shading to the two test models to see how they would turn out.

Compare this to the last set:

Quite an improvement actually. Now even with that, I don't think the orange is the way to go. I do like the tan better. However, I am still looking for a good contrasting color. Now I might pick up the typical cryx green and find a way to incorporate that into the model. I still want the tan to be the primary though. Or, I can go with a darker metallic and see how that plays out. So the above two minis will be heading for the krudd kutter soon so I can repaint them.

Was super busy last night so all I got done was the wash. I am getting my scuba license and did an hour and a half in a pool and then had a futsal game after that. I am beat.

But very excited to be painting my Cryx minis. Can't wait to get a force done to play.

Cryx paint scheme part II

Okay, so went back to the drawing board on the paint. The orange really wasn't doing it for me. It was getting more and more apparent that I was trying to force the color to work. So I went back and thought of something else.

He has the bright green in the vents, but that didn't really pop out too well. Also, the bronze is really close to the tan. There just doesn't seem to be enough contrast. I like colors to have a certain level of separation, and this model just doesn't seem to have it.

I mean it doesn't look bad...not like that orange by any means. I'm just wondering if maybe I should ditch the bronze and go for a gun-metal color instead? Or maybe some other darker metal (not bright silver though).

Maybe a contrasting base will help it out. Robert seems to like it. And I did this in just a couple of hours, so it was pretty easy to do. Also, the bright green I used was really watery. I had to put in several coats and it just never worked how I wanted it to.

I was using a paint from Val's Game Color line. I loved the color..but maybe I should see if PP has a matching one. I hate thin paints. I'd rather they were thick and let me thin them down. All in all though, a much better turn out than my first attempt.

Next up, a mechanithrall done in the same color scheme.

Test run was a little shaky

So over the holiday weekend, I actually got some paint down on models. I grabbed a defiler bonejack and a mechnithrall to be my test subjects.

The defiler was primed grey and the thrall was primed in zombie flesh (courtesy of AP). First color up was the orange. Now after rummaging through my paint stores, I ran across GW's old foundation orange paint. I really liked Foundation from GW. It did what it said and was fantastic for base coating. Unfortunately, while the paint worked great, the pots were crap! Most of them are completely dried out despite the fact that they were never used. I hate hate hate hate hate GW paint pots. Jesus GW, get with the program!

Rant over. So the bonejack started looking really really really orange. Cuz most of it is just armor plating. But I had faith and kept going. The thrall got the orange on all the armored sections..so fists, head, and back mostly. Not bad, and I'm sure once the dip/wash phase happened, it would be all good.

Next up the bronze color. This was my first screw-up. The color works well, I just didn't use it where I should have. I ended up painting some areas on the bonejack a silver..and those should have just stayed bronze. Good to note though for the future. The thrall just didn't have enough space. There were dots of bronze here and there, but no good solid piece. I think I will fix that by doing the fists in bronze and just keep the armor sections orange. Plus, it sort of looks like they have pumpkin hands.

Next up I made an iffy choice by painting some necrotic flesh on the bonejack...basically the area around the stacks. Can't say it worked well. I think that is going to go away.

My next blunder was to try and use purple for the witchfire effect (and thus on hoses too). That really didn't work out. So I'm going to go back to glowly green for that effect. I love my Clemson, but the orange and purple did not work out on Cryx models.

So all it all, it was a bust. I will have to strip these models and try again. But, it did get me painting and gave me some ideas for the next trial run.

Pics below. No shading was done to these models. I knew they were heading for the Krudd Kutter so why waste the ink? They might hang around until I get another test model done..so I can use for reference.