Getting back to it

'Allo again, I have finally got some time to sit down and blog. Been massivly busy of late, First thing first the few games I have had in this time. Quick recap on the first two and a report for the third.

Haley2 (gravediggers theme force) vs Feora2 (with bonded Judicator)
...
Do I need to say more? Actually I probably should, I won this game though it got a bit hairy once the Judicator got more involved. He also took a Vanquisher, and I used a lot of Domination to keep standing him in the Judicators way and shoot his AOE cont. fire at the Temple Flameguard unit (I wiped them all out eventually with his own 'jack trololololol!) The Trenchers took a pounding once the AOE's started drifting favourably and he finally got close enough to start using the flamers. Unfortunatly for him the turn after this I loaded up 3 focus on both my 'ranged' Warjacks (the Defender and Avenger) and thankfully because of a random couple of shots I threw it's way earlier, brought the mighty machine low. It survived with 2-3 boxes and the retaliation didn't break either of my 'jacks who were free to finish it off and then hunt down Feora herself.


Second game was against the same guy, I took my B list and he just tinkered a bit (dropping the Vanquisher, trololololol!).

So, Nemo3 vs Feora2. Lightning vs Fire.
This game was odd, Stormwall should have died 3 times over but ended up held together with duct tape and wishes by the end. Anyway, I ran a lancer up to his Zealots who has prayed to blow up stuff more (out of terror of a lightning pod, go figure) and cast chain lightning twice at them. I rolled a 5 and a 6 for extra leaps so took down the full unit and then half the choir whom quite understandably fled. The Stormguard somehow won out against the Exemplar Errants, and Thunderhead followed in to help that out. The big thing was Stormwall, I placed a pod badly (forgetting Escort is a movement buff and Judicator can charge past the damn thing with that extra speed) and Stormwall took the charge. Surviving quite handily thanks to Failsafe and a few bad damage rolls, The Field Mecaniks fixed him up a bit and I swapped Lightning Shroud onto him, put a few shots in from Thunderhead to soften things up and went to town. Judicator went down. Hard. But I was in a bad place for a countercharge from the Avatar so I put a pod in the way and ran a Stormsmith to also stand in the way. Meaning to force the Trample. Feora moved up and flamed both away (B*&^%) and the Avatar activated, thankfully rolled a 1 for focus so it only had the one to charge and the second for an additional. Stormwall survived again! So, the Mechaniks got to work patching up the crippled systems and Stormwall went to work on the Avatar, destroying him. In his turn realising now that Feroa is far too close to the stormwall tries to get a bead on Nemo and burn him down. Thankfully this fails, the Mechaniks
activate and bodge a few boxes back onto Stormwall but one of the gobbers goes to stand next to Feora. Nemo Force Hammers the poor little Gobber into Feora and manages to plink a point of damage through her camp. Anyway long story short, big camp helps not at all when knocked down near a Lightning Shrouded Stormwall. 3-0 to the big guy. Luck helped a lot in this game, from high damage rolls and high leap numbers to the opponent rolling badly allowed Stormwall to face tank his way right through the Menite lines. It was glorious though.


Third Game, Haley2 vs Strakhov.

We got photos, so here we go!

Set ups, I won roll and elected second. Trying to get the feel for if I were to loose first turn roll off, which is a roll I haven't lost yet. Commandos went opposite widowmakers, (who kicked ass and also got Eyriss1 with a Grenade). Infantry took front and center, opposite Beast09 and Greatbears, with Assault Kommando support (and died horribly). Haley perched upon a hill (and chilled there). there were also Doom Reavers and the Manhunter trio who shot up the right flank.

He shot up the right flank and put Superiority onto Beast and Occulation onto the Greatbear, which I promptly forgot about and moved some Trenchers up to shoot one down.The Grenadier got Temporal acceleration and lobbed 4 grenades at the manhunter and doomreavers but hell, Manhunters have thick armour and i only managed to put a couple of damage boxes on her. Really ARM14...what?

So, he got the doomreavers ready to wipe down Haley next turn, the Manhunter wrecked the Grenadier (WHAT?!?! those things are bonkers is what) Kommando flamers put few Trenchers down and the Trencher return fire didnt get through their shields...damn Kommandos, But they did drop a Greatbear. The Defender slapped both Yuri and the other Manhunter down. Thorn Moved up and killed a Second Bear. It was looking Grim at this point so Haley Feated.

His turn wasn't very productive, he did however show utter ruthlessness and moved his Kommando flamers up and then shelled the area with his Mortar. I lost 5 Trenchers to this underhanded tactic. One of them was directly hit by the Mortar so at least was saved the horror of burning to death. Anyway after his turn (and him a little foolishly moving Strakhov up) my chance came to bring the 'jacks through for the win.

Thorn Arc'd a telekinisis to slip away from the Greatbear and headbutted Strakov with a boost to hit, Kd'ing him and then a 4 focus (bonded 'jack) Avenger charged in to steal the show.

And this is just how close those Doom Reavers came, thankfully I ended things soon enough and the decision to ignore them and let them run around paid off. They didn't really contribute much but were very threatening by turn 3.

I am loving the Gravediggers, yes it is a hard list to use fully but it has options. Options help keep things fluid which is I believe is the Major strength of Haley....(get it? I made a funny). I am tempted to loose Tier4 swap the 2 heavies for stormwall and drop the Grenadier to max the Commandos and put the extra point towards Stormwall. But that makes the Master Gunner a bit redundant so would want to swap him for a Chaingun crew or something.

Anyway, hopefully I can update a bit more. Though gaming time is now split between Warmachine and a Bloodbowl League.

Inventory Day

Right, probably not a super exciting blog but today I wanted to take stock of my Cygnar and just how far along I was with getting it all done. Easiest place is here, so here we go.

Warcasters (painted)
Caine1
Caine2
Haley1
Haley2
Nemo2
Nemo3
Sloan
Stryker1

Warcasters (unpainted)
Siege
Stryker2
Constance

First thing that jumps out is right here, I really need to paint Stryker2 and Siege. I love those guys. Constance too but I need to buy a few bits to get a list for her working so is quite back burner.

Warjacks (painted)
Classic Charger
Classic Lancer
Classic Sentinal
Grenadier
Thorn
Avenger
Cyclone
Defender
Ironclad
Stormclad
Thunderhead
Stormwall

Warjacks (unpainted)
Firefly
Hunter
Classic Lancer
Ol'Rowdy

Need to get Ol'Rowdy done, the second lancer is never going to be used so might see if that can get passed along to another home. The Hunter could use a duplicate and painting but I don't use them very often. The Firefly? I still havn't come up with a list where 2 more pow10's are worth 5pts.

Units (painted)
Gun Mages + UA
Long Gunners + UA
Rangers
Stormblades + UA
Trencher Infantry + UA
Field Mechaniks

Units (unpainted)
Stormblades
Stormguard
Trencher Commandos
Black 13th

The Trencher Commandos are currently drying before I start again on them, the Stormguard are about half way there. The Stormblades are a duplicate for few punchy lists but more a gimmik and not needed. Black 13th I have no excuse.

Solos (painted)
Gun Mage Captian Adept
Journeyman Warcaster (male)
Stormsmith Stormcaller x3
Squire
Trencher Master Gunner
Captian Finn
Arlan Strangeways

Solos (unpainted)
Journeyman Warcaster (female)

HA! Maybe I should paint her? I tend to use the male one because he has earned himself a nickname and has a bit of a tabletop personality. But I do prefer the female model, it is less two dimentional.


Right, I didn't bother putting mercs on there. I wanted to focus on the Cygnar faction stuff. Looking at it after I finish up these units it is onto Stryker2 and Ol'Rowdy. Not much left to do really, so might start looking at filling gaps in my collection. aka, Storm Strider, Sword Knights and Runewood. Still money is getting tight at the moment and this is a secondary priority at best.

Stormwall

I finished this a while ago but forgot to put up a completed shot, I feel my methods (read: cheats) don't really scale up as well as I had hoped. Still I am not dissapointed with him. The Stormpods are all done too and I'll get them up when I finish the Stormguard for Nemo. Not much else has really been happening though, I have made a good start on the Commandos and Stormguard but am not really rushing to get them finished.

At the moment games seem to be drying out a bit as the club I attend has started playing more Warhammer. I am currently teaching someone who wants to pick up Cryx but hasn't really decided on which Warcaster yet so is borrowing the Deneghra I own and using a few mercs to top it off till he settles. All in all life is slow here at Forest Mans.

Epic Tier 4 Engineer

So, I have very nearly gotten my hands on the Trencher Commandos to make my Haley2 Gravediggers theme force up. I have only really played this list over vassal and will be massively happy to get it on the tabletop.

This got me thinking about another theme force I love, a hark back to my days playing Krueger. This theme force belongs to Cygnars newest 'caster. Nemo3's Lightning War. As luck would have it I can also run this lis right up to Tier 4. Though I am not entirely happy with it, I'll show you why.

Nemo3 & Finch
Thunderhead
Stormwall

Stormsmiths x 3
Journeyman Warcaster

Stormblades w/UA
Stormguard (Max)

Now obviously you can see the problems right? Too many troops, Nemo doesn't really support them all that well. Or you know, at all. The second big problem I can see is that I really want a stormstrider in there, that thing as some amazing firepower and would work well with Nemo. Problem is affording one at the moment. Though I have only had a few games with Nemo I find him enjoyable if not super powerful. Which is exactly what I want at the moment.

The List I want to try looks a little something like this:

Nemo3 & Finch
Thunderhead
Stormwall

Stormstrider

Stormsmiths x 3

Stormsmith Stormtower
Stormguard (Max)

This version really takes the lightning theme right up to 11. Usually I would tell people not to build towards the feat but I have done exactly that here. Not that the weapons I want to take are anything less than destructive on the non-feat turns. 


Anyway enough list discussion, onto tomorrows challange. Taking the lightning theme for a spin I have decided to put my stormguard on the painting list. I also have Nemo3 and Finch to paint. None of these are bare metal but the stormguard are blue with the halbards painted a bit. Nemo is like 90% done and Finch is blue with her face painted a flesh tone. So it wouldn't be overwhelming but thats 12 minis to get finished for tomorrow and I have a sports day to attend so am not going to set this one as a time challange.  

Also another note I just got all the Forest Mans photos downloaded to my phone and realised that I haven't put a completed shot of Stormwall. So I'll try get that up tomorrow too.

Job Done - Gorax Repose

Managed to get this far in the time I set myself in this challange, I am fairly happy with the results the pose is not exactly what I was wanting but to have the arms any lower than that would have required rebuilding most of the biceps too and I really didn't want to be doing that. I decided on a fleshy torso as opposed to building up a shadowhorn style belt, mostly because I felt that flesh would be easier.

Hug a Gorax! Managed to find time to paint him up too. This was outside the time I set, but only took a short time due to the limited colour pallet used. Now it is painted most of the sculpting work on him has blended in nicely.

The Gorax from behind, as you can see I took pains remove or cover all the ropes that bound him down.

Anyway I didn't quite make time with this challange but am quite happy with the results. My Gorax is nice and unique and no longer an utterly ridiculious pose. I am also more happy with the paint job this time round.

Half way, Gorax repose.

Right I seem to have forgotten that life hits me even on my free days. Yesterday we were host to a 7th birthday party for the little one and the clean up has fallen to me today. Putting me two hours behind. No bother really, I still have time. I have finished the main pose off, he just needs to cure before I stick both halfs together and then work a bit more on the details.

 

I started with the legs as I like to work ground up, chopped the left hip up to swing the leg forward slightly. I then chopped into the ankles to change the feet so they lay flat. When that was about right I got it stuck back together, using a pin on the hip joint and filling in gaps I had made with greenstuff. 

The basic idea with the upper body, I had forgotten that the right arm was glued on and was pleasently surprised when it snapped off during sawing. Both arms were removed and then using a paperclip I got them roughly where I wanted and started filling in with greenstuff. The right side is built up a bit better and I am waiting for it to cure a bit before I start building up the left side and coving over the fur a bit. I have chopped off all the ropes around his waist and plan on filling over his back to cover the one going down that. The collar was chopped up a bit so it doesnt really attach to anything anymore. He shall be FREE!

A rough idea what I am going for, the waist needs rebuilding a bit and currently I am unsure how to do this. Do I want flesh or an armour belt like the Shadowhorn Satyr has? Not really planned anything here but shall see how things turn out.

The project is fairly behind schedule now and is likely to get worse, tomorrows tasks are looking like they might have to go on hold thanks to an appointment I forgot about.

In other news I am teaching a new friend the game, he is looking into Cryx so thats what I am doing this afternoon.

And finally, thanks for reading. A bit of a rushed blog I know so forgive that please.

Design Brief - Gorax

So, spurred on by my recent success in reposing the woldwarden I wanted another project to sink my teeth into. Well, you guys remember my post about the lot of the Gorax? In it I said how I loved the rules but hated the sculpt (see where this is going?) and as a result he got a lot of stick from me. Yesterday, I was flicking through NQ47 which I just got hold of and there was a beautiful looking bit of art for the Gorax (page 54) and I had my new project.

A plan is forming, I have the goal in mind. I just need a list of things that will need changing.

1, Loose the bloody rock. Seriously that thing is the most ridiculious part of the whole model.

2, Stand the Gorax up straighter (same problem I had with the Woldwarden actually) and maybe give the legs a bit more of a natural looking standing. As they are they are side by side, they will likely need to be a bit staggered to look right.

3, Put the arms down...ok this is a contender for the most ridiculious part of the model. The arms need to be out to the sides, but will also need bending at the elbows a little to look more natural.

4, He needs a facelift though I am not entirely sure how I am going to manage that. I can see me just taking a cutting disk to his lower jaw and obliterating the most of it and then try lengthen it and make him look more....raaaawr! Which roughly translates into I am totally going to wing this part and hope to the Wurm I don't make him more ugly than he is now. 

5, Repaint! After all this work he is going to need it.

Ok, Now I have the goal and the things I need to do to achieve it are (sort of) planned out. This is where the fun part comes in. I have a time limit, self imposed it may be but a limit none the less. As I have to balance this around working and my family, I have set the time limit at 2 days to rebuild and repaint the Gorax. With half the first day already given over to my weekly trip to the game club. My goal is to have the Gorax chopped up and stuck back together by 2pm Monday. Giving it the night to cure enough ready for painting the Tuesday when I have from whatever time I get up untill 1pm to get that finished as that is when my better half gets home and I wanted to spend the afternoon with her.  

Anyway, thanks for reading. Wish me luck.