Grim Angus, who shall lead the Ta-Ta Kriel in the Breast Cancer Brawl come October. Side and Rear views available at Paint Pink.

It was interesting coming up with the assortment of browns on his coat, pouches, gloves, boots, backpack, et al.

More interesting was trying to represent him as an albino (as all Trollkin sorcerers are), considering I’m already using a fairly pale skin tone for my Trolls. In the end I brought the skin colour up a little lighter than usual, and gave him pink chin growths rather than the usual purplish red.

It’s all too much! I really don’t know how much more of this I can handle! All week long the Retribution model previews have been flowing like some sort of molten, pointy-eared candy, and the official Grind page went up today!

(*deep cleansing breath to avoid hyperventilating*)

Okay…. one thing at a time… first up, let’s look at the non-Retribution preview…

…I’m sorry, but… DAMN!!! The entire unit looks freakin’ awesome, and those paintjobs are out of this word. It’s a wonder the Tharn Ravagers ever leave their tents – as far as psychotic, murdering, cannibalistic, feral savages go, these ladies are hawt.

We get Nayl of the Soulless, who reminds me distinctly of the Khadoran Doom Reavers.  It’s cool to see just who the Soulless Escort is supposed to be … um… escorting, and from the sounds of it this guy does a Feora when he dies – Nayl go boom-boom.

This makes me ponder if there’s any way to protect him from incoming ranged attacks, to stop him getting shot and blowing up in the middle of his own unit. Of course that could be remedied by specifying that he only detonates if killed by a melee attack, but still…

The Arcanist reveals to us one very important fact about Myrmidons… They have lug nuts!

Seriously, this guy’s packing an enormous wrench for a reason, and it can’ t be because he sees E Dominic Darius as his fashion idol.

I love how the tabard’s essentially turned into a work apron.

The Ghost Sniper – now you just know this guy’s going to have at least 12″ range and stealth. It’s pretty neat that the Retribution’s going to have its own ranged answer to the Manhunters, but I’m left pondering just how powerful that rifle is, and whether or not it has any extra effects.

Finally, not one but TWO unit attachments – the Invictor and Sentinel Dawnguard UA’s.

I do like the style of the standards these guys are holding. Of particular interest, and completely without any solid evidence, the Invictor models (silver standard) seem to be women. It could just be my interpretation of the faces, cos Lord knows that’ve got the same pointy loin guard as every other Dawnguard… but there’s something about them that makes me wonder if the Retribution might not be the most progressive army in the Iron Kingdoms when it comes to women in the armed forces.

In the end, these models just reinforce my opinion that the Retribution infantry are some of the sweetest looking models in the bloody game.

Finally, the Grind Money Shot:

Oh Lordy, check out those weapon combinations! Okay, so we get blue Cyngar jacks and red Khador jacks. The heavies appear to be standard Ironclad and Juggernaut style chassis’ (or at least similar enough to the standards that they could be subbed in without difficulty in a game of Warmachine).

The Khadoran lights remind me of the Vandal, if only because of the central raised channel on the carapace. Not so sure about the Cygnaran lights.

Of particular interest is that Harpoon/Grapnel looking thingie… I wanna know that effect THAT has

Oh, and there’s also an 8-page (at the time of writing) thread at PP’s forums where one fellow got his hands on No Quarter 25 a week early and has been revealing the Mk I stats for all the Retribution stuff, including the forcefields on the Myrmidon, and an assortment of stats and whatnot on the Warcasters and units that are basically making a lot of Cygaran and Menite players feel like the things that made them unique are now being bogarted by the Retribution. Me, I say play it out and see how you feel after you’ve actually got some experience against ‘em. Don’t let this turn into another Mk II Field Test Doomathon.

No-one wants that, and there are too many awesome models being released for us all to go wallowing in self pity when we could be planning the demise of the pointy-eared fanatics .

Now, go out and have a lovely weekend, and if you’re a yank, enjoy your 4th of July.

Allow me to start by stating the bloody obvious: I’m not a Brush Thrall.

I’ve never wet-blended, I can’t paint eyelashes, and Lord knows I can’t convert worth squat… but I’ve got a moderately steady hand, and I’ve used a heck of a lot of Chestnut Ink in my day. I’m happy with the results I get, and apparently there’s a number of folks out there curious as to how I paint the whites on my warjacks.

Thus, this write-up.

I start the painting process with a white undercoat. Why white? Frankly, because I find it easier to see the detail than if I were to use a black undercoat. Yes, this does mean that I have to put a black coat down under anywhere that’s going to be a metal finish, but there you have it. I find it easier to put a layer of black over a white undercoat, than to put a layer of white over a black undercoat for sections where I want bright results.

I’m going to doing a full step by step write-up when on the next light warjack, so we’ll hold off on those details for now and concentrate on the the whites for now.

To that end, I present today’s victim, a Revenger. I’ve gone ahead finished most of the model, with the exception of the main carapace plate. You’ll note I was a little messy with some of the earlier paints; I guess we have to cover it up!

Thus, since we want something that’s going to give good coverage without needing an uber thick coat, we turn to a nice grey.

I think this is resolves of a lot of grief that people have with painting whites, especially over other colours (or even a black undercoat). The grey gives a very solid, unblemished base to work on top of.

Now that we’ve clearly delineated the are that’s going to be white, it’s time to add a little more depth. It’s not really dark in the cracks, so a simple black wash takes care of that.

Once that’s dry we can finally crack open the white paint. Mine’s a rather thin mix, and for once in our lives, in spite of the general tendency to use shortcuts wherever possible, we’re going to remember that several thin coats will generally give a superior coat to fewer thick coats.

This is where we play a little with the properties of liquids. I’m sure I’m going to use the wrong terminology here, so all you fluid dynamics experts out there can feel free to be nice and not correct me unless it’s a really horrid error.

Dipping my brush in my water first, I then get some paint from the lid of my pot – you’ll remember, I already stated that it’s a thin mix. I then paint this onto the model, pushing it close the edges of the plate but not obscuring the dark grey provided by our wash earlier. That’s going to give definition to the edges of our plates.

Continuing, once again water -> lid -> model, more thin white paint.
I’ve found that if I’m careful, the water in the paint will flow and for lack of a better term, form a lip at the edge of where I painted previously, taking the pigment with it. I want to say surface tension keeps it from flowing over into the crack, ruining our edging.

By grabbing some more pigment from the bottle lid, I can swoosh (technical term) it into the paint/water currently on the model, and it’ll provide a stronger white. As the pigment-laden brush pokes into the low-laying layer of water on the model, the paint flows out of the brush and makes its way to towards an even coat of white.

By putting on more watery white layers while the previous layers aren’t yet dry, I’ve found that the pigment evens itself out somewhat, doing wonders to give a nice solid layer of white, while also not having any evident brushstrokes as might be found if we were working with a thicker coat of paint.

On a surface like a warjack carapace, I’ll usually do this process up to half a dozen or so times - thin layer by thin layer until it appears decently white, let it dry, and then again thin layer by thin layer. The end result is a warjack completely lacking any evidence that it’s been in a fight, or even out in the mud.

A nice clean white finish.

So there you have it, my certified not-that-hard-to-pull-off method for painting white surfaces. I hope you’ve found this little tute helpful – after all, there’s nothing stopping you using the same method for any other colour you wish to use if you’re just looking for a smooth, solid colour.

Happy painting.
Chris

I have completed my third tournament.  It was a great format.  We broke out that oldie but goldie, the escalation tournament.  For those of you who are not familiar with the format, I recommend you check out the blog of my buddy Dallas at Trollblood Scrum!!!  He has the full rules posted over there, but quickly…

Round 1: 350 Mangled Metal / Tooth and Claw

Round 2: 500 where what you ran in Round 1 has to be in the list.

Round 3: 750 where what you ran in Round 2 has to be in the list…and if you caster has an epic form..you MUST run it.

There were some time constraints and such, but that was details.  The hardest thing about this format is the first round.  Many casters who rock the house at 750 can struggle hard at MM.  I AGONIZED over this decision.  I consulted with everyone I know and I drove poor Gdaybloke nuts with my constant emails.

I had so many choices between the two factions I run.  Do I run Protectorate (my home faction and my most familiar) or do I run Khador due to their perceived better tournament performance.  I feel like I had something to proved with Protectorate.  I love my Menites, and I know that they can win.  Long story short…here is where I netted out…

Harby…Crazy powerful…NOT a jack caster…limits the choices of what you can afford at the 350 level.

Kreoss…The traditional choice with the old POP n’ DROP.  It ranks high in the cheese factor.

Severius…Lots of focus to drive jacks…kinda fragile…epic form is a complete mystery to me.

Feora…Very compelling choice….feat in the first round is iffy at best…Epic form is one of my favorites.

Amon, Reznik, and the High Reclaimer either suffer from too low of focus or real issues with viability at the higher point levels.  I really hated not being able to get the ToM on the board, but I had to be realistic…I need to get out of round one!

So I was agonizing and agonizing.  I play tested probably 9 – 10 games all at the 350 level…and then fate conspired to help make my choice.  I have owned the parts to the Harbinger for months…and I have NEVER assembled her.  Then my friend Shaun made a deal with someone on Bartertown.  He made a major major haul on Cryx…and much to his surprise and my delight…it contained a fully assembled Harbinger.  She was a bit of a beat up girl missing her arm and flag, but she was close enough to field.  I tested her once and fell completely in love.

She was everything I ever wanted in a caster.  Mad focus at 10.  A melee beast capable of killing ANYTHING it gets within 1/2″ of.  She has amazing spells.  The only problem…107 pts.  That meant that I needed to limit my jacks.   I knew that anything I put on the table would benefit me if it had Relentless (Fire of Salvation and Avatar).  I also knew that having range would be a big bonus.  The Avatar was out due to its point value.  Those two together would put me at 254 pts.  That meant that my choices were down to lights or a Crusader.  I didn’t like that.  With the FoS, I had the mighty Reckoner as a choice.  The Reckoner is far and away my favorite non-unique in the faction.  The crit on the gun is magic, and boost to hit and you are doing some major damage 44% of the time.  Get within charge range and you have Assault.

So my list would be:

Harbinger

Reckoner

Fire of Salvation

Do you notice what is not there…a Devout.

But that is what my next post is all about…

I had booked the day off work today so that I could be on Dad Duty while Gdayshiela worked a wedding… and I ended up spending most of the day keeping a very sick Gdaygirl company in the hospital until she could be discharged, while Gdaysheila tried to get some rest after being with Gdaygirl throughout the night.

All in all a pretty sucky leadup to Canada Day.

Leave it to Privateer Press to counterbalance the stress and worry of the last 48 hours with a double dose of sheer awesomeness!

Let’s start with the lesser of the two… Mittens!

For a while now I’ve been waiting to see who the mysterious gauntleted dude from the cover of the Retribution book was; turns out he’s a House Shyeel Magister.

What the smeg’s that, I hear you say?

“Battle mage magisters manipulate invisible energies to tear an enemy limb from limb or to haul weighty machinery around like pieces on a game board. The massive arcanika gauntlets they wear not only serve as conduits for their powers, but can deliver tremendous crushing blows and send opponents flying.”

So… we have a mage with all sorts of telekinetic functionality, channelled through oversized fists. Wheee! Of course, now we know why the Retribution Myrmidons have such small hands – House Shyeel’s bogarting all the large ones!

I can totally picture the kids of House Shyeel growing up…

Kid, after opening Elfmas gift: “Hulk Hands? Again???”

How will this telekinesis be represented in game? Ability to Push opposing models? To move friendlies up to X inches? From the description, I could even see these guys having telekinetic Reach…

And now, on to the main event…

Hot. Freakin. Damn!

I make no bones about it, I loved Blood Bowl. I had every single metal model made for the game, right back to the very first, before I immigrated to Canuckland. I loved that it took the combatants of the Warhammer world and brought them into a sporting environment, and that games *mattered*. Wins and losses affected team budgets, experience levels, injuries, skills, etc.

When I first heard about Grind, I thought “Oooh…” and then I found out that no-one was playing it, nor had any real burgeoning interest in doing so (with the exception of a few hardcore nutters on the forums).

Now, with PP having established its plastic manufacturing skillz, they can produce a boxed game with cleaned up rules, and I can relive the joys of Blood Bowl, but in the infinitely cooler Iron Kingdoms!!!!

Huzzah for:

• The box comes with two teams – 6 runners, 4 crushers. That translates to three lights and two heavies per team, I would think.
• 32 interchangeable weapon arms. Oh… Oh my… even if you find a couple of configurations you love and want to stick with, you’ve now got an abundance of bitz for conversions! 32 arms is enough for 16 jacks, and there’s only 10 in the box…

Boo for:

• The official website launches July 3rd. I don’t wanna have to wait! Teases!

Uh… for:

• Uncertainty. Hopefully when the site launches we’ll know if there’s going to be an established league system et al.
• What about existing models? Can our faction figures be used in the game, or are we stuck with the generic plastibots that come with it?  Can we expect rules for Warbeasts as well?

Hopefully all will be revealed Friday!

It’s common knowledge that many people do not enjoy playing against Legion. The nickname Legion of Evercheat refers to the consistent way the Legion ignores half the tenets of the game, and the inability to counter Eyeless Sight and Flight really does generate a lot of seething animosity for Thagrosh’s posse.

Me, I don’t mind. I’ve had just as many wins as I’ve had losses against the Legion, so it’s just another game to me, albeit one with half of the models on the field ignoring half the rules.

So when TheUltimate (Paul) asked for a tabletop tussle for CTA, I had no objections…
… but I did have some serious pondering to do to decide just what to field.

I’ve been trying to get a feel for Reznik lately, but to face off against Paul I knew I’d need to figure out a way around the high DEF values, Legion being glass cannons and all that jazz.

Three possible solutions came to mind: AoE the snot out of ‘em, Set ‘em all on fire, or to sling Ashes to Ashes repeatedly.

From that, three possible warcasters came to mind: Kreoss, Feora, and Severius.

Kreoss: I’ve played a grand total of one game with Kreoss. Not for lack of love of the character, but when you’re running three armies, and you only really get to play once (maybe twice) a week, some things get left by the wayside. However, when it comes to AoE’s, Kreoss is the go-to guy for the Protectorate, thanks to the incredible functionality of his feat. Blessed with some of the longest ranged attacks in the game, Deliverers are the bane of low-armour troops everywhere – they’re just inaccurate as all heck. Kreoss circumvents that by dropping the targets on his feat turn, clearing lines of fire and making the targets nice and easy to hit. In the interim he screws with opposing spellcasting, immolates, and packs his own 4″ AoE for good measure.

Feora: Yes, there’s a 33% chance the fires will do nothing… but being able to simultaneously set fire to every enemy model within 12″, combined with two sprays and Engine of Destruction, Feora’s an awesome offensive model. Packing one of the highest armour values among the Menit warcasters doesn’t hurt either. I’d need a Heirophant and a Wrack to pull it off, but being able to fire Blazing Effigy twice in a single turn could also cause a lot of grief, since once again it gets around the high defense values of the Legion. Run up two warjacks into the opposing line, have an arc node following for extended range, and there’s a whole lot of POW14’s melting Nyss armour.

Severius: I’ve had more experience playing the grumpy old man than any other Menite warcaster. Ashes to Ashes, especially when slung through Blessing of Vengeance, wreaks all sorts of havoc, and I giggled like a fiend while contemplating an Allegiant buffed by Holy Vigil. Def19 (21 with Shifting Sands), and the Nyss archers wouldn’t be able to CRA it at all… all I’d need is an arc node within range of Severius to pump the Holy Vigil through after the Allegiant had moved. Stealthy Daughters with Def18 could also potentially cause a lot of grief, leaping through the ranks to Assassinate all and sundry. Ashes to Ashes has generally served me well, unpredictable as it may be. Also, Eye of Menoth makes everything better.

Each of the three has fun options, it’s a tough choice… but in the end I think I’m going to go with some popcorn action, if only because I can pack in a heck of a lot of AoE’s

So…

Kreoss
- Fire of Salvation
- Redeemer
- Heirophant
Deliverers (9)
Holy Zealots (8) + UA
Choir of Menoth (4)
Sunburst
Vassal of Menoth
Saxon Orrick

498/500

The idea is to have a forward squad of the Zealots, supported by Fire of Salvation and Saxon, while a rearguard acts as a firebase, with the Deliverers and Redeemer unleashing a steady stream of AoE’s. The Sunburst is specifically there to provide a little armour punching if needed, since it’s a higher POW than the Skyhammers.

The Choir and Vassal stay back to increase the Redeemer’s effectiveness, while the Fire of Salvation takes advantage of its affinity with Kreoss to roam forward, happily shielded by otherwise out-of-range upkeep spells.

So… which Legion archetype will Paul assemble? How will the Kreoss list fare?
Stay tuned to find out!

Or don’t… this was written on Monday, with the intention of playing Paul at CTA night at the FLGS, with a followup battle report to go up on Wednesday morning. Instead, I spend Monday night at the hospital with my daughter. Therefore,  no battle took place… but I thought my readership might enjoy my ramblings regardless.

Hopefully I’ll be able to coordinate a game with Paul in the near future when I can try this list out, but for now, I have important daddy things taking priority.

… Oh, and for the record: Only in New Zealand would an all-nude Rugby game be interrupted by a fully clothed streaker.

With the Mage Hunter Strike Force reminding me strongly of Cygnar’s Gun Mages, what with their special ammunition being utilised for a variety of effects that screw over warcasters and warjacks, is it any wonder that the Mage Hunter Commander (above) makes me think of the Gun Mage Captain Adept?

“Slipping past the outer defenses of an enemy base, they fire bolts through intervening walls to kill without a trace.”

Huh. So, here’s the question: How long will the Dude remain the Dude, when ole’ Patchy here is all dynamically posed and fulfilling a similar role for the Retribution?

For the record, I really like this model… I can totally see him whipping around for a shot, sword held out for balance.

This blog has detailed the work that Gdaybloke has been doing on Kriel Ta-Ta in preparation for Breast Cancer Brawl.  To my knowledge, my FLGS is not doing any events in conjunction with this effort, but I am planning on heading up to Boise, ID to participate in BobaFerrit’s event.  To that end, I need me some pink minis!

I am not near the prolific painter that Gday is, but I am going to do one unit in Breast Cancer pink…and I have chosen the TFG…or as they will be known…the TTFG…The Ta Ta Flame Guard.

I will be doing the paint scheme in whites and shades of pink with some ribbons added for good measure.

I am proud to have the Protectorate of Menoth well represented in this great event.  More to come with time.

Neil the Axer joins the Ta-Ta Kriel, showcased (including alternate views) at Project: Paint Pink

Disclaimer: This post has nothing to do with gaming, and is pretty much just a rant on my part. 

I consider myself to be reasonably well educated, and while I may not be the most loquacious of individuals, I consider that I’ve got a decent vocabulary. Maybe it’s just that I was brought up in a different country, where naturally the ‘norm’ differs from North America, but still…
… random profanity really bugs me.

I’m not much for obscenties one way or another. I’ve uttered them from time to time, but they’re not part of my standard speech, so every time I hear someone randomly inserting f-bombs and the like into their sentences I’m reminded of a scene from a movie or tv show (don’t remember which one) wherein a girl swears in front of her father, and he drags her into her room, slams the door shut, sits down and explains to her that the only people who use profanities are people too stupid or too uneducated to know alternatives.

Now that’s a blanket statement that can have any number of holes poked in it – s’why blanket statements aren’t a bright idea, kids – but I can’t say I disagree with some of the thinking behind it.

If you’ve had a reasonable education, if you’re comfortable with the language, why devolve into profanities when you could be being so much more creative with your wordplay?

The point of all this is that I received a new iPod Touch for Father’s Day, and I got all excited, and next thing you know I was downloading apps and geeking out, and I thought to myself, Self, I thought, Why don’t you download some tunes on this nifty little wireless toy while you’re at it?

I’ve been enjoying a particular song that’s been receiving heavy airplay on the radio lately, it’s had a fun rhythm, the kids like yelling “boom boom” in the back seat of the car when it’s playing, so I thought, Self, Let’s get that one, and I responded, Mm’kay, and I paid my $1.25 CAD to iTunes and downloaded it without a second thought.

Then I listened to it.

I admit it’s my own fault for not checking to see if there was an explicit tag on the particular track I was downloading, but seriously 8 completely pointless excremental references just inserted into the track. They add nothing whatsoever to the song, and call me a prude if you like, but there’s no way I’m playing that track while my kids are around.

The radio stations have been giving the sanitized version of the track serious airplay, and because of that I was keen to purchase the song for my personal enjoyment – and instead I get an insulting attempt by the band to appear more edgy through uncreative lyrics.

Frankly, I’m very disappointed with my purchase.

As it turns out, at age 41, with two kids, a great wife, two dogs…one of which we just got, a cat, three fish, a job that is pretty demanding of my time…AND this pewter addiction I apparently have…keeping my own little corner of the blog-o-sphere up and running was more than I could do.  I had become somewhat of a slave to my blog.

I had developed a neat little following and I really felt like I needed to post something EVERY DAY.  It started to get to be too much.  I took my old blog Getting Small and blew it up.

I don’t miss it…at all.

Gdaybloke and I have been going back and forth over the last few days, and a few folks had asked what happened and all that stuff, and pretty much it was just life.  Nothing bad…at all!  Just busy.

Gdaybloke offered me a contributer gig on Lost Hemisphere today…and I couldn’t pass it up.  LH has a long and rich history, and I am happy to be part of it for as long as they will have me.  I won’t be writing every day, but I will contribute…and I know what my first blog post will be…”Why doesn’t the TFG UA get a mini-feat like everyone elses UA gets a mini-feat.”  Ahhh…a good old fashioned rant.  Should be fun…

Until then…If you are a Heretic…burn…if you follow the Word of the Law…may the Creator of Man look kindly on you…for today.

Like many of you, I was greatly saddened by the sudden disappearance of Getting Small’s CerealJohn. His bloggery rivaled my own for quite some time, daily striving to have something nifty for you, the WarmaHordes blogosphere reading public, to enjoy over your cheerios.

I’m here to report you can stop your mourning. Douse those black candles, take off the armbands, take the red lantern out of the window, and stop leaving flaming bags of doggy doo on the doorstep of that crotchety old dude down the street.

CerealJohn is gone… but MenothJohn lives on.

The vagaries of Real Life  are a constant wall against which bloggers hurl themselves in order to make their own self-imposed posting schedules, and John fought the good fight as long as he was able before being borne down under the weight of reality. Not one to allow such a travesty, Search and Rescue teams from the Lost Hemisphere sought out the floundering John and dragged him aboard.

With that, I would like to officially welcome MenothJohn as a contributing author here at the Lost Hemisphere. No posting schedule for John is being enforced, but I’m sure you’ll be pleased to know that you can expect updates on the PKA and other such wackiness as John’s schedule allows.

Let there be much rejoicing.

Knowing how quickly I paint (it generally takes me a week to get a warjack or solo done), I’m rather sensitive to the timeframe for this year’s Breast Cancer Brawl. I don’t know if our organisers are planning to run at 500 or 750pts, but I have my work cut out for me either way.

This will mean that my Menites are only going to be putting a token appearance on my painting desk for the next few months, while I try to get the Ta-Ta Kriel up and running. This also means that I have to be a lot more selective about which models I purchase, as I’m not going to have time to paint models that I don’t intend to actually use.

To help me make those decisions? Playtesting!

I already know I want to use Grim Angus as my primary warlock, so no worries there – but how many beasts do I run with him? Which infantry units? Which solos? Online research will only go so far…

I know Grim’s fairly atypical as far as Trolls go, so this week for the CTA I tossed together 500pts with no KSB or Champions.

Grim Angus
Blitzer (name pending)
Vivian the Impaler
Rick the Impaler (name under review)
Neil the Axer
Pyg Bushwackers (8)

Across the field was Hobby Kingdom regular and all-around great guy Scott M (Killraven), who will be featuring in the followup to the WarmaHordes Challenge, as soon as we can get it off the ground. He brought with him a bunch of Menites.

High Reclaimer
- Castigator
- Revenger
Vilmon
Rhoven
TFG (6) + UA
Zealots (8) + UA

I’ll confess to being surprised by the absence of a Choir, but with the High Reclaimer’s strength being in Infantry rather than Warjacks, it makes some sense that Scott opted to pick up extra troops instead.

The vagaries of the CTA gave us each a sniper in a tower, but considering how little impact the snipers had on the game, I think there’s no real need to mention them again.

Scott had first turn; Vilmon did the Impervious Run towards my Pygs hiding in a forest, the Zealots moved around the terrain on one flank, and the rest of his force advanced behind a screen of ash clouds thanks to the High Reclaimer. I responded by giving casting Cross Country on the pygs and letting them take a potshot at a shieldwall’d TFG trooper through the smoke. Nothing very interesting; my three lights moved up a little with Grim, while the Blitzer moved to the flank towards the incoming Castigator, heedless to the danger posed by the Zealots moving up on the same flank.

The next round set the turn for the remainder of the battle – Vilmon slammed into the Pygs, but despite his awesome destructive capability, I made tough roll after tough roll; it sucked that the offensive capacity of the Pygs was hampered by being constantly knocked down and tied up in melee, but the little buggers basically held up Vilmon, Rhoven, and one side of the TFG for four turns while Grim and the warbeasts went to work.

I don’t care that they only killed a single TFG all game, those little dudes were awesome.

The Blitzer also performed admirably – Grim Locked the Castigator so it couldn’t hide behind the smoke, Baiting the Line; Neil the Axer told the Blitzer to Rush, and next thing you know the heavy warbeast is barrelling 12″ on the charge, tearing both arms off the Castigator while the madly cackling Pyg Ace sprayed bullets uselessly in every direction.

The other “Way cool!” moment was when Grim lined up a shot on the Revenger hiding behind the TFG, and Vivian slammed a dirty great spear into it, sending it flying over (through) the High Reclaimer for 5 damage to the warcaster, and some severe damage to the warjack.

In the end we had to call the game due to time and at that point I was in the lead on VPs, but the game really could have gone either way based on a good (or bad) dice roll. One way or another, it was a sterling gaming experience with a wonderful opponent who displayed excellent sportsmanship throughout, despite his fires going out all over the place without doing anything significant.

I tell ya, the quality of players at the Hobby Kingdom – I’m not talking about how good they are at the game, I’m talking about the level of sportsmanship generally displayed – is something to behold. Tis awesome.

More often than not I get a guilty twinge when I win, simply because I know I just beat a really nice guy… except for Spud, he’s a jerk

Things learned:

• Remember the basics – knocking down a target with Mantrap is counterproductive when I’m shooting for the over-the-caster Impaler slam.
• Troll warbeasts can soak up a surprising amount of damage, and still be quite effective – especially when the faction bonus for the week means your Blitzer’s ignoring lost aspects (we’re in wk4 of our CTA).
• Blitzer’s Push animus is nifty for opening up firing lines. Grim may still have been in melee with the two TFG, but he could see to cast spells at the High Reclaimer. If they hadn’t had Reach, he could have just opened fire.
• Forgetting to use your feat can result in being charged by Vilmon.
• Vilmon’s not *quite* as dangerous when you’ve got three fury for transfers from that Impaler that Rhoven’s boys killed.
• There’s no substitute for good dice. I made about 80% of my tough rolls. About 80% of the time I had to make a fire roll, using the same dice, it went out. While I made some abyssmal to-hit rolls, those tough and fire rolls went a long way to making the game more fun and unpredictable.

The list needs tweaking, but I’m happy with the balance; since Grim’s not much of a spellcaster normally, I found that four warbeasts was dandy.  I only had to do frenzy checks twice, with 1 FOC left on the beasts each time. So no shortage of fury, but not an overabundance either, so I wasn’t risking losing control all over the place.

Major props once more to Killraven for an excellent game.

Well, how about that for twelve shades of awesome? Other than mirroring the art as we’d seen it, Privateer managed to spit out a model that’s pretty darn close to the raw awesomeness of the art we’re seeing on the cover of NQ25!

This is the kind of niftiness I’ve come to expect from Privateer’s scultping crew – somehow they manage to sculpt up the amazing art so darn well. I confess I get kinda disappointed sometimes when the sculpts aren’t direct reflections of the art, but then they come back around again and bring us something as awesome as this.

Brava, Privateer, Brava.

I spun the 360 out of interest to get a look at the back of the model, and was interested to see this picture.

What immediately struck me was the two glowy bally knobby things near his right shoulder.

While Iosan warcasters clearly don’t rely on the same armour conventions as those of the Iron Kingdoms, I have to wonder of these two spheres perform a similar function to the warcaster furnaces… or maybe they’re just aesthetic.

Still no explanation as to what happened to his other shoulderpad though

Another warjack done, this time the much-maligned Repenter. I’m really looking forward to seeing the finalized Mk II Repenter, I have visions of running him behind  a unit of Cleansers and just spraying to my heart’s content

This one was painted as part of a joint project with Getting Small and Ghettokore Studios – more news on that when everyone’s ready to roll.