Unbound

So this was my second game of unbound, I was a tad dissapointed after the first game as it required a lot of shuffling through cards and took quite a while to get done. This time I had War Room, it helped, quite a lot actually. Yet even though I was impressed with this update for the program (no crashes and no problems) the game was still an epic grind. I had Siege, Haley2 and Nemo3. Against Karchev, Irusk1 and Vlad1. The game took about 6 hours to play and I got burnt out by the end of it.

First death was siege, on a full camp he got shot by an eyriss I didn't see and then shot to death. Next down was Karchev, Nemo feated and the Thunderhead hit him 3 times as well as a Stormstrider twice, he survived that to charge the Thunderhead and scrap it and the Stormstrider finished him for his troubles. Irusk's Conquest was obliterated and then all his troops were slaughtered so he was left on his own and boxed in as the battle line shifted horizontally leaving him behind my lines with nobody for company. I thought this amusing and left him be. Only a token unit of Trenchers who dug in at the edge of a forest kept him from getting anywhere. Vlad then got black oil in the face and stamped on by the Stormwall. While Nemo started wiping out all his troops.

We called the game then, it had taken a very long time and both players had gotten a bit tired. I never played my regular game afterwards. I was Warmachined out. I don't think unbound is for me.

I'm not dead...

Honestly have just been massivly busy. Work has people off on holiday and people off on the sick. Coupled with the fact that my good lady is expecting a wee baby girl come October, well lets just say that this hobby is a secondary concern.

Having said that, I got a lovely present in the post which is my last big buy for a while. I got my Storm Strider. Got it together last night and am manically trying to get at least a showing of paint on the thing because I won't have time for much of the rest of the week.

Come this afternoon, in about 2 hours now I'll be trying my second game of unbound. Not super enthused as I was not impressed with the last game. Am hoping to give War Room a good spin too to save space and book keeping during the match. Hopefully it'll work better on my Kindle than on my phone. It doesn't seem to crash on the Kindle really which is a massive improvement. Still taking my charger because I know what War Room is like for that.

After that I have a game planned with Ed, my Menite friend. 50pts and I am planning on using Nemo3 with both my Stormwall and Storm Strider. Hopefully I shall be getting photos and putting the game up on here.

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.