Forearm Gunblades

So we got a sneak at the cover to NQ25, including this pretty awesome looking Iosan dude… with one massive shoulderpad, since clearly he’s only half as awesome as Dawnlord Vyros.

Warcaster? Solo? Could be either but those gunblades are freakin’ awesome.  My immediate thought is of Holt – dual pistols with bonus slicey bits – so it’ll be interesting to see just what PP’s done with this fellow to make him stand apart from everyone’s favourite bodyguard.

Most significantly? After all the discussion on forearm blades as weapon systems for the Myrmidons, we have an example of bladed weapons extending a good length beyond the elbows and looking pretty darn awesome. Yes, they’re extensions of the firearm stocks rather than actually affixed to any vambraces, but the visual concept stands.

I really…. really… really… wanna see them pull this art off on the mini.

Summertime and the living is expensive

So I play Protectorate… so I’ve started Trollbloods… Searforge was my first love, and still comes out to play despite my owning over three times the points worth of Menites.

We’re coming up on the Summer Rampage – the next NQ will be out shortly with details, and you know what would make me happy?

Mercs not being the last book printed.

It’ll be an uphill battle – it can be said that certain factions will win out strictly based on popularity, and it can be true that the sheer number of players from the primary factions threatens to bury the mercs at the end of the list as well…

… but you can’t tell me you wouldn’t find it entertaining, and a very real example of Privateer’s integrity, if Mercs managed to place better as a faction than one of the four primary factions, and thus bumped one of the big four to a lower slot in the release schedule.

I charge everybody with a merc army out there to play them for the Summer Rampage. I charge everybody who’s using a different faction to play honourably and eschew mercs in your lists – if you want to use mercs, then play a merc warcaster and give credit where it’s due to the hardworking sellswords who make your victories possible. If you’re not willing to promote the merc cause, then I suggest you shouldn’t be using mercs at all during the event!

I have spoken. Make it so.

Saturday Morning Salutations

After yesterday’s nice big post on the Bastions, I confess that I don’t have a lot to ramble about this morning… but I do want to give a shout-out to a bunch of the folks that linked back to my Bastions pic post from Thursday; Lost Hemisphere welcomes you all, and hopes you’ll come back and visit sometime soon!

In no particular order, we received visitors from forums at the following sites:

Defiant Gaming
The Whiz Store
WargamerAU
Warseer
South Island Wargaming

And just because I haven’t shown him off here yet, the first of my Allegiants is done too.

Why play Exemplar Bastions?

Much has been said about the Bastions and their transition from Mk I to Mk II, so now that I actually own a box of these beefy plastic exemplars, I thought I’d finally weigh in on the topic myself.

Why haven’t I weighed in yet? Two reasons:

One: I haven’t extensively tested them out since  I don’t like proxying. I’ll do it in a pinch, but I’d much rather own the correct model. It’s a personal preference, but I like to think of it as a respectful nod to PP, and also to my opponent, who doesn’t have to constantly remind himself that the line of three Vengers, a Dervish, and an Impaler are actually all infantry.

Two: I’ve been avoiding the threads. There’s enough negativity out there in the world, and online environments often result in things being blown way out of proportion. It can be difficult to maintain an objective assessment when the guy disagreeing with you is a freakin’ moron who wouldn’t know the difference between KE and KEE… Of course, I’m exaggerating to make the point. Everyone knows that KEE are the ones with pointy swords, a rarity in the Iron Kingdoms where the majority seem to favour swords you can’t effectively stab with.

I can haz Bastions!

Look what I got…

No big flashy post today…

… I’m too busy being wrapped up in the experience of having been married to my wonderful wife for 9 years.

You twits can all go entertain yourselves today, I’m preoccupied with real life for once

Top 5 Iron Kingdoms pimps

Continuing the feel of yesterday’s post, today we look at the top 5 pimp daddies of the Iron Kingdom. What makes one a Pimp Daddy of Immoren? It could be the style, it could be the associates, it could be a diamond-studded grill and a way with the lay-deez… One way or another, the following five gentlemen (and I use the term very  loosely) have all earned their Pimp Daddy status.

#5: Borka Kegslayer

The trollblood drunkard has one thing going for him in terms of this list – a massive furry collar. Never mind that Trauma could be used as a pimp cane in a pinch, it’s Borka’s style that gets him his ranking, despite the lack of evidence of troll chicas following him around.

There has to be some – the guy’s a walking keg party, after all – but the king of the frat boys earns his spot through his fashion sense. It doesn’t hurt that every other paintjob I’ve seen of him has the collar in leopard print.

Menoth’s Greatest Sex Symbol

I sit here with my copy of Apotheosis in front of me, and something catches my attention.

Huh, think I. I flip a few pages.

Huh, think I once more.

Some more flipping, and after one more Huh, I end with a Hrm, and wonder just what sort of message is being conveyed.

Turn to page 28 of Apotheosis, and take note of the attributes of the individual depicted.
Turn to page 62 of Apotheosis, and take note of the attributes of the individual depicted.
Turn to page 80 of Apotheosis, and take note of the attributes of the individual depicted.
Now, turn to page 46.

Huh.

More teeth than a Moray

With more and more Iron Kingdoms models migrating over to the Warmachine/Hordes lines (recent examples being Lanyssa and Narn), I began to wonder if we’d see the Iron Kingdoms River Troll making its way into Trollblood armies in Hordes Mk II. If so, what sort of stats would it have?

Now, myself, I’m terrible at this sort of thing. I always either end up overpowering a model, or making something so darn lacklustre that it’s not worth trying, as I try to compensate for my own fanboyism. Thus, I turned to Spud, who’s generally better at this sort of thing, and asked him how he’d stat out the River Troll.

After I dug up a picture to show him what the heck I was talking about (after being personally amused that I’d found something he didn’t know about, naturally), he came up with the following:

River Troll
Trollbloods Troll Light Warbeast
SPD 5 STR 9 MAT 5
RAT 4 DEF 13 ARM 15
Base Medium :: Cost 78
Fury 3 :: Threshold 10

Melee: Open Claw (pow 3, P+S 12)
Melee: Open Claw (pow 3, P+S 12)
Melee: Toothy Maw (pow 5, P+S 14)

Animus: Mucosa
Cost: 2  Range: 6″
Target friendly Trollbloods warbeast gets +2 DEF against melee attacks and gains Slimy Coat. Mucosa lasts for one round.

Saturday Morning Bloglines

I’m sure the more astute amongst you have noticed the little section over there in the sidebar titled Lost Affiliates.  It’s been there for a week or two now, after all

Back in the days of VS I learned the joys of having a centralised site where like-minded bloggers could aggregate their posts for the enjoyment of all. A one-stop blogging shop, if you will. Clearly, I’m not the only one to recognise the niftiness, as the lads over at Iron Agenda have worked their cute little tushies off to bring about the Iron Agenda Blogging Network.

There you can find a slew of Warmachine blogs with different foci, covering an assortment of factions and writing styles… painting blogs, strategic/tactical blogs, and of course, the sheer undiluted awesomeness that is the Lost Hemisphere. How can you go wrong??

No longer will you have to randomly surf Warmachine blogs to find new posts, no more will you have to set up 20 different RSS feeds – one little RSS feed from the IABN and you’ll be properly notified whenever any of the participating blogs make a new post.

Behold, an assortment of cool button graphics representing many of the contributing blogs.

 
 
 
 
 

and of course,

That, my friends, smells something like Win.