Goaliejack Luongo! aka Go Canucks Go!

This is the tale of how one unassuming little warjack grew up to be one of the best goalies in the world. Warning: this post contains conversions, sculpting, hockey talk, and may contain traces of Canucks fanaticism.

As well as being a miniatures enthusiast, I’ve been a Vancouver Canucks fan for 18 years now – as long as I’ve been watching hockey. Shortly after I started following the Canucks, they came within spitting distance of the holy grail of hockey: the legendary Stanley Cup.

They were exciting times in the city of Vancouver, as it was only the second time the Canucks had ever gotten as far as the finals. When the Canucks lost by 1 goal in game 7, it was devastating.

Thousands of ‘fans ‘ jumped off the bandwagon, but I stayed true. Through 17 years of more disappointments than victories, I stayed true. Now, at long last, the Canucks are in the Stanley Cup finals once more. For the first time ever, the Canucks are the favorites to win it all. I decided that I must honor this achievement in my own way, by creating my own personal mascot for my team. (more…)

Dreaming of Lock and Load – Spriggan – First steps

A bunch of the Vancouver folks are heading down to Privateer Press’ Lock and Load in June and I eagerly signed up with them. I have always regretted not participating in gaming conventions, so this year I decided I’d seize the opportunities rather then hem and haw until it was too late. I got this idea in my head when I was staring at the events schedule months ago that I would participate in the hardcore event. I believe, at the time, I had a grand total of two painted Khador models… But since that crazy thought ran through my mind, I haven’t been able to shake it. I make no claims to being a good player, but I do know something about myself as a gamer (or in general, even). I can make clear and sound decisions under time pressure and I also feel like I learn much more when I’m under the gun and make a mistake. I like playing games where time is a consideration – Blood Bowl, for example.

The idea of a strictly timed event pleases me greatly. And hey, some stupid sucker has to enter these hardcore events and get slam-bang-ssassinated in under 4 minutes, vaulting yet another player into internet stardom on the Privateer Press forum. That stupid sucker might as well be me. And as an added bonus, I will have a strong incentive to paint my models, and keep painting! And in that vein, I have a small painting update. (more…)

A Reasonable Dream part I

In late 2010, the staff at Privateer Press (the makers of Warmachine and Hordes) had an in-house “Impossible Dream” challenge, in which they each attempted to paint a 100 point army within one month.

When I heard about that, I thought to myself: “Self, I think I’d like to try that.” I tossed the idea around amongst the regulars over at Vancouver Gamers and was ultimately convinced by them that it was a ridiculous idea, but changing the timeline to 3 months would make it a fun thing to attempt.

A few of us decided to take on this challenge, with the ultimate goal of having some sort of show-down at the end, where we would take our newly-painted 100 point armies and battle it out for bragging rights. Unfortunately, it looks like that grand finale probably won’t be happening, due to waning interest, one of the participants moving to another city, etc.

Anyway, for me the most important part of the challenge was always trying to get that army painted. I really enjoy painting, but for some reason I always have trouble getting myself motivated to actually do it. I tend to find that unless I’ve got some kind of deadline in which to get a certain number of models done, it just won’t happen. Because of that, I’ve got a firm rule that I’ll never take an unpainted model to a tournament (I will sometimes use unpainted models in casual play, but I greatly prefer not to). I also take on whatever painting challenges come my way. If I didn’t, I’d probably only have a half-dozen Cygnar models painted right now.

The first step for this particular challenge was to look through my depressingly large collection of unpainted miniatures, and decide what to include in this 100 point army. My primary focus was to include models that I’ve wanted to get painted for a long time, with a secondary focus on ending up with a playable 100 point force, and a tertiary (yes, that’s right, I just used the word tertiary in a sentence – thank you AD&D module D01-02 Descent Into the Depths of the Earth for teaching me a word that I could then insert into a blog entry many years later in an attempt to make people believe that I’m educated!) focus on making it somewhat reasonable from a painting standpoint. No massive infantry horde for me! (more…)

Shattered Grounds game report – Strakhov vs Bethayne in King of the Hill

Having missed an opportunity to play on Wednesday, I headed out to Connections on Renfrew intent on finding an opponent. When I arrived there was a game being set up between Ryan and Ben.  Ben has been on a bit of a tear with “Darth” Stryker (aka Lord Commander Stryker), so Ryan was predicting doom for whichever of his merc casters he was sending off to the gallows. Right next to them was Stephen, with his Legion arrayed before him, who jumped at the chance to kill some poor defenceless Khadorans. We threw down some terrain and ended up with a large rectangular hill (with obstructions on either end) in the middle.  Each player had a small 4″x6″ forest on his left and an obstruction on his right.  The obstruction near my end was a small thatch roofed hut.  My opponent had a small fountain on his side.

The lists:

I had decided I wanted to play Strakhov earlier this week, but had not actually gotten around to building a list with him.  I frantically started pulling models out of my case, burrowing down until I hit Assault Kommandos at the bottom.  Here is what I ended up with:

• Kommander Strakhov (-6 pts)
• * Torch 10 pts
• * Destroyer 9 pts
• * War Dog 1 pt
• Assault Kommandos, full, 8 pts
• * 2 x Flame Throwers 2 pts
• Greylord Ternion 4 pts
• Kossite Woodsmen, min, 4pts
• Man-o-war Demo Corps, min, 6pts
• Man-o-war Shocktroopers, min, 6pts
• Widowmakers 4pts
• Widowmaker Marksmen 2pts
• Total 56 pts

I’d like to lie and say that I had a totally awesome reason for choosing each and every model, but I was literally plunking down models until I ran out of points.

My opponent had a bunch of magic-enabled legion models, leaving me to ponder just how bad Bethayne’s feat turn would end up being.  Here is his list:

• Bethayne (-3 pts)
• * Belphagor 0 pts
• * Carnivean 11 pts
• * Seraph 8 pts ** league model
• 2 x Shredder @ 2 pts ea = 4 pts
• Stinger 2 pts
• Blackfrost Shard 5 pts
• Blighted Nyss Hex Hunters, full, 8 pts
• * Bayal, Hound of Everblight 3 pts
• Blighted Nyss Raptors, full, 10 pts
• The Foresaken 2 pts
• Total 53 pts

(more…)

Painting update – Shocktroopers

I had a busy start to this week, but I did manage to get some time Thursday to get a little painting in.  I sat down for an hour and put some red undercoat on two of the three Man-o-War Shocktroopers.  When I was at GottaCon I had two of the three Shocktroopers weapon arms come loose…  I wish I had waited to glue them back on.  Painting the crevices under the shoulder pads is tricky.  I also changed my mind on what colour I wanted to do the ends of the shoulder pads in between model 1 and 2.  It should be easy enough to fix though, as the colours I want to paint on are darker than the GW foundation red that went down yesterday.

On a mildly related note – I had something happen to me that has not ever happened before.  Hours after I had put the brushes down and seen to dinner, I was finally settling in on the couch with my PS3 controller in hand.  Despite having done some painting earlier in the evening, I still had that itch to do more.  I may have finally caught the painting bug for real…  We’ll see if it lasts. :)

This weekend I’m hoping to get some shattered grounds league games in at Connection Games.  I’m not sure if I’ll aim for Saturday or Sunday (maybe both???).  Hopefully I will also find time to put the red undercoat on the leader of the Man-o-War unit and fix up the colours on the other two, then snap some more work in progress shots of them.  While I am looking forward to getting the Shocktroopers done, I’m also eyeing my partially assembled Devastator and itching to get some colours on it.

Man-O-War Shocktroopers in progress, Llama almost finished

During the lead-up to GottaCon, I had found myself with a few spare hours before registration, so I had base-coated the shield cannons (and shield arms) of my three Man-o-War shock troops.  I started with the shields as I wanted to glue them on for the tournament.  I’m going for the same colour scheme as on the Marauder – the Khador insignia will be white on a field of purple, with a more standard red with silver, black and bronze trim.  Last night, I put down some more iron sections on the shock troops.  As I bone-headedly forgot to take pictures of the work in progress, I’ll use this post to quickly describe which paints I’m using in my scheme.

• Primed in grey – no idea what brand, I’m guessing Krylon sandable primer
• Red base coat:  GW foundation red (Mechrite?)
• Red over coat/highlights:  GW Blood red
• Purple areas:  GW Liche purple (thick coat for base then thin coat to smooth it out)
• Black:  GW Chaos black
• Iron:  P3 Pig Iron, highlights with P3 Quicksilver
• Bronze:  GW Dwarf Bronze, highlights with GW Shining Gold
• White:  Undercoat with P3 Menoth White Base, covered with P3 Morrow White
• Base:  P3 Battlefield Brown and P3 Bootstrap Leather.

As for washes, these are what I used:

• GW Leviathan Purple over the reds (and purple, but it’s a bit understated there.  Might just shade with P3 Coal black).
• P3 Armor Wash over the iron and bronze.  I might have done P3 Flesh Wash on the marauder’s head?

You can see the final-ish results on “Llama the Ramma”:

I put a bit more work in on Llama, and now have access to a better camera than my Blackberry’s built-in fish-eye I should get an updated picture.  Last night I did a bit more work on Llama’s base, painted the base-ring Liche purple (his name will be white, like the khador logo).  I also painted pig iron over the quicksilver on the ram pistons and washed over it, so the metal is no longer so flashy – will add very small quicksilver highlights.  With about 10 minutes of work (mostly on the name I would imagine) and a few splashes of Ash Waste on the base, Llama will be all finished!

Still a long way to go on the Shocktroops though.  Hopefully I can find time on Sunday to start on the red base coat.

GottaCon 2011 – Friday Night Mega Battle

Over the weekend of February 4th to the 6th, GottaCon rocked out in Victoria.  Among the festivities, including PC LAN gaming, console gaming, RPGs, boardgames, Warhammer and 40k, Rida (aka: jack froide/frost, formerly of Connection Games) decided to put together a Steamroller event for us HordesMachiners.  The Steamroller was to run Saturday and Sunday, but there was gaming space and time on Friday!  In order to break the ice a Mega Battle was arranged.  The rules were pretty simple:

• 15+ point force for each player.
• You score points equal to the cost of a model you destroy/remove from play, etc.
• Warcasters are worth nothing.
• When your warcaster dies, all your remaining models are removed from the game and no one gets points for them.

We ended up with 8 players, so we got crammed all together on one large 8′ x 4′ table and randomly assigned positions and one of two sides.  No one was deployed on the short table edges.  There were some additional rules for this first big battle:

• You cannot target any model belonging to a player on the same table edge as you, but if you “accidentally” caused some casualties, you got the points.
• All players on the same table edge act simultaneously.
• In cases where attack / charge timing would come into question, the player with the closest model to the target would act first.

As my lists for the Steamroller event used Butcher and the Old Witch, I pulled out the following models:

• Kommander Strakhov (-6 pts)
• Torch 10 pts
• Decimator 9 pts
• Manhunter 2 pts

With Rida screaming at us that there is no thinking in HordesMachine (and other zen-like pronouncements), we all slapped our models down and got to it.  The whole thing turned into a giant awesome mess.  The far side of the table (my left to right) had legion (Thagrosh?), Menoth (Reznik), Legion (directly across from me) with eThagrosh and Menoth with the Harbinger.  On my side was (again my left to right) dwarven mercs (run by Ryan), Skorne (2x bronzebacks + Morghoul and paingivers), Khador (myself) and Retribution (Ravyn + MHSF and a Manticore, I believe).  As we were all activating at the same time, it was hard to keep track of what was going on.  The Thagrosh player and I basically ran screaming across the middle of the field and obliterated our armies against each other, leaving Strakhov running off behind Morghoul and Thagrosh hanging about mid-board blowing kisses at the oncoming Retribution Mage Hunter Strike Force.  The Retribution player never really moved fast enough to engage the Menoth player opposite him because he was afraid Harby would murder his single-wounders, allowing the Harbinger’s forces to flow into the void left by epic Thagrosh’s meat-brigade.  Morghoul managed to get way upfield to engage Reznik’s forces, but apparently whiffed with both bronzebacks a whole lot.  The Skorne were basically in the opposite deployment line when everything died.  Ryan and the Legion player across from him tied each other up in a heavy-metal slapfight until Reznik’s forces came in to clean up the dwarven stragglers.  The whole morass was wicked – not having a reason to go after casters was actually mind-bending, but it got worse in the one on ones.  I ended up having given up a whole lot of points, but I had also gotten a good boatload myself (19 I think), setting myself up for a good run in the one-v-one matchups.  Or so I thought.

After the mega battle (which took a surprisingly small amount of time), we split off into one on ones with our same lists.  My first game was against the Reznik force, composed (from memory and completely ignorant of Menoth tiers) of the following:

• Whatshisname Reznik (-6 pts)
• 2 x Reckoner (8 pts each)
• Vassal of Mentos Menoth (2 pts)
• Choir – max unit ??  (3 pts)

This is where the strangeness of not being able to go for casters became very apparent.  Reznik ran ahead (!) of his army.   The Menoth first turn was pretty standard run forward, as was mine.  After my first turn, Reznik loaded up Engine of Destructuion and flew in to kill my manhunter, getting 2 points. He was easily within my murder range (particularly considering Strakhov’s feat), but the jacks were protected from the Decimator’s Dozer gun by the Choir.  If I killed Rezzy right then and there, I got no points…  So I advanced and protected myself from the flame cannons with occultation on the Decimator – Torch and Strakhov being immune to fire meant the two Reckoners would not shoot them.  Reznik charged in and wrecked the Decimator, and the army stayed back…  Full focus on Torch and Strakhov’s feat later, and I …. hadn’t wrecked a jack because of stupid enliven moving his jack away from my Sustained Attack death-saw (of death!).  Damn. The flamethrower cooked the now exposed Vassal.  Torch then died to twin tetsubo-beatings by the Reckoners, leaving Strakhov alone against everything.  The only target I could reach worth points was the damaged jack, but Strakhov died to a free-strike by Reznik as he charged by.  2 points for the Vassal – though I’m pretty sure I wrote down 1 point, as I assumed that a solo as awesome as the Vassal would basically be free.

My second match was… ALSO AGAINST MENOTH!  Woo!  See if you can spot some similarities to the previous list here:

• Harbinger of Menoth (+5 pts)
• 2 x Reckoner (8 pts each)
• 2 x Vassals (2 pts each)

Two Vassals?  KHAN!  This match I was again snakebitten by Enliven, but there was now twice as much of it.  I would charge a rip-saw bearing Decimator or Torchie McFlameyPants in, then they would dance out of the reach of my sustained attacks.  And every time I killed a Vassal, Harby would martyr herself to save them.  My opponent even killed Harby with Martydom to stop me from getting a single point.  It was pretty hilarious, we were laughing the whole game.  I think he got the Decimator and the manhunter, but not Torch or Strakie.  At the end of the game I told my opponent that the Harbinger had convinced Strakhov to convert so he could at least get to kill something with fire.  The Kommander was sent off to break rocks with his head in the depths of my case.

The event on Friday night was a perfect way to break the ice and get everyone playing.  The atmosphere was friendly, and there was much head scratching and laughter about the inversion of the normal “gun for their caster at all costs” game play.  Thumbs up for a great ice breaker!  The overall winner of the introduction event was the Reznik player, whose name escapes me now (Brook?).  I believe he took home a box of Exemplar Cinerators, but I’m not sure which entity provided that specific prize, so I’ll plug the ones I know supported the Steamroller event:  Connection Games of Vancouver, Dice Bag Games of Duncan and GottaCon.

Shattered Grounds 2011: Windless Wastes @ One Stop Shop

The ever-ready to entertain PG Darren has announced some details about One Stop Shop in Tinseltown Mall hosting Shattered Grounds.  Here’s what Darren said on vancouvergamers.com:

Darren sez:

So I’ll be running the League again at the store. The main Warmachine day is Thursdays and I’m going to try to host a final event this time as well.

Also I was talking to some of the Victoria guys at Gottacon and they we’re interested in combining our leagues together, so I’ll let you guys know how thats going to work once I get a little more info from them about it.

From the Privateer Press Website: The kick off to the 2011 WARMACHINE and HORDES league season launches February 7th! The Shattered Grounds league throws players right into the trenches of the Iron Kingdoms with a wholly immersive experience as they fight for the glory of their faction.

Each season focuses on a specific location in the Iron Kingdoms that players worldwide will battle to control, and each season brings players new, original fiction detailing some of the men, machines, and beasts of these conflicts. Join the fight and determine the fate of the Iron Kingdoms with Shattered Grounds league events! Tour 1 of the 2011 league season takes place in the Windless Wastes, where Khador, Cygnar, and Pirate forces square off. Each player that participates in the league will receive a unique Windless Wastes rank insignia patch. As the 2011 Shattered Grounds leagues continue, each participating player will receive another rank insignia patch that adds to the prior patches to form a higher rank.

-Darren

In case you missed it in bold, above, OSS hosts HordesMachine on Thursdays.  Plenty of gaming to go around.

Shattered Grounds 2011: Windless Wastes @ Connection Games Renfrew

Heads up Warmachiners, the Shattered Grounds leagues are back for 2011.  PG Geist has put out a call on the vancouvergamers.com forum with some information about how you can come out and participate in the action at Connection Games‘ Renfrew location.  For those too lazy to click the link to Geist’s post, I will reproduce his missive below:

Tour 1 of the 2011 league season takes place in the Windless Wastes, where Khador, Cygnar, and Pirate forces square off. Each player that participates in the league will receive a unique Windless Wastes rank insignia patch. As the 2011 Shattered Grounds leagues continue, each participating player will receive another rank insignia patch that adds to the prior patches to form a higher rank.

The league runs from Monday Feb 7th  to Sunday March 6th. So come on down on Wedensday evenings until 9pm or all day Sunday from 11am -6pm for confirmed table space for warmachine gaming at connection games on Renfrew.

People are able to get in games any other day of the week but please be mindful of other players and remember that we are sharing the space on other days.

Important date: Saturday March 5th –  Magic the Gathering: Mirrodin Besieged Gameday
Therefore there may be no space or limited gaming space available for Warmachine on this Saturday.  Please call on the 5th to confirm space availability if you plan to come in.

For more information on windless wastes go to:

http://privateerpress.com/organized-play/leagues/windless-waste

Here you will find Images of the League coin that goes to the top ranking player,  The rank insignia patch that everyone gets for participating in the leagues,  as well as the rules for shattered grounds and windless wastes.

There are also special cards for this season that replace the units normally available so make sure to check those out as they present some new and varied options for your force!

I look forward to seeing everyone over the course of this league, be they new players or veterans returning to the leagues!

See you there!

-Lucas Smith
PG Geist

I’m looking forward to getting some more HordesMachining in, as I missed a lot of the league action in the last half of 2010.  If you’re looking to set up an opponent, head on over to The Connection section of vancouvergamers.com and post up!

Catching up

Subhedgehog here folks.  It’s been a while since I posted anything – due in large part to not having played a whole lot of Hordes in the late stages of 2010.  But if we’re being honest (and you are being honest, right?) mostly I was lazy.  I have recently been handed the reins to this site, so I guess there’s no time like the present to change my miserable ways.

So, what has happened since my last post (dated April 18th, 2010…  Ouch.  That’s a while)?  Well, aside from uninteresting mundane details of my life, I have done something drastic.  I was feeling a growing dissatisfaction with the Hordes mechanic, particularly in late stage turns or non-scenario play.  I looked over the Focus / Fury fence and saw green grass, rainbows and unicorns.  Wanting me some of that awesome fairy-dust fuelled horse-flesh for myself, I swooped in on some timely deals offered by local gamers and picked up a decent assortment of Khador forces.  With the Forces of Hordes:  Khador book firmly in hand, I found a few casters that I really liked that also, conveniently, had a lot of overlap in their tier lists.  I ended up, after a few months of other deals and new model purchases, with these fine red-clad murders:

• The Butcher of Khardov in his apparently classic pose
• The Old Witch and her be-crowed pal Scapjack
• Kommander Strakhov

Of course there is an assortment of units, solos and jacks to go with them.

Not only did I pick up another faction, but I also did something shocking to those who have enjoyed my “silver ghost” painting scheme for a couple of years:  I painted a jack!  Without further ado, I present to you “Llama the Ramma”

I still have a few things to do, such as a little dry-brushing on the base, add some ash waste flock and paint the base ring.  I also messed up on the piston heads.  I was rushing to get the jack done and grabbed some quicksilver instead of pig iron…  Should be easy enough to fix, maybe a quick wash would darken it enough.

And why was I painting things?  Well, other than the desire to stop having to wear a brown paper bag over my head when gaming with my snazzy bare metal figs, I was trying to put in at least a token effort for GottaCon, which was in Victoria over the past weekend, Feb 4th to 6th.  More on that later!

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