A Challenger Appears

I've registered to be a Henchman for Wyrd Games. Being a Henchman includes the responsibilities of running demos for new players and events such as leagues and tournaments. Our FLGS Pandemonium in Garden City has a very strong retail presence for the game (they stock EVERYTHING), and a fledgling gaming group, so they have relaunched Malifaux Mondays.

As a Henchman I will be running open demos on Mondays from 6:00pm to 10:00pm with 4 different starter crews on hand for people to use, as well as my Terraclips board. In honor of getting accepted last night, I speed painted up this full Seamus starter box in 4 hours while watching the Olympics last night!

Here is a link to the event:
Malifaux Mondays on the Wyrd Forums

50 points of Warmachine

I got a game in for the first time with a "full" Warmachine army after playing the Beastmen this weekend. I have been wanting to play at this point level for a while and had only ever even played one game at 35 before, so the size was a little daunting as a new Warmachine / Hordes player. I was able to get another game in against Adam, who seems to be my most regular Warmachine player with my epic Madrak list. I should play with some other casters, but I really have been focusing on eMadrak as I learn the game. We played a scenario where you had to control the two zones once each to score 2 points and win.

I brought:

eMadrak
-Dire Troll Mauler
-Troll Axer
-Runebearer
Full Fennblades
-unit attachment
Full Pyg Burrowers
Full Long Riders
Fell Caller Hero
Trollkin Champion Hero

The idea of the list is tough cavalry and reach to go along with Madrak's "thresher" feat. Not too hard to grasp. I basically charged right up front and try to smash face (The "Axe to Face" Troll Strategy!). And it worked for me too, even though I got shot up as I advanced and lost my Fennblades, Adam focused hard on my left and I got in his grill on the right.

I was able to get +2 attack on the Pyg's and Blood Frenzy on the Long Riders and get into range to start chopping. Things ended when a Long Rider charged through two infantry with impact hits to get to Adam's caster and roll 6/6/4 for damage (with -4 dmg from armor), and then my Axer putting +2 move and Pathfinder on himself to get in range, make the final attack, and also roll box cars for damage to kill the caster for the Assassination.


It was a lot of fun playing at that level, and really makes me want to finish painting up my Trollbloods and start playing in more events. I'm pretty busy with the Skaven, but I see a lot of more Warmachine on the horizon for this Fall/Winter.

Universal Battle game.

This weekend I also played a big 3k game on Universal Battle with Grant Fetter. It was another Screw City practice game, as I try to get as many games in as possible with the Bell before lists are due (and make lots of little changes here and there to test things). Grant's list was a very cool, non traditional Ogre list with 2 Giants and 2 big gribblies with a Thundertusk and a Hunter riding a Stonehorn. Also lots and lots of Ogres.

After a first turn of solid shooting and magic, Grant could see how things were going and need to get stuck in fast. He charged into my Hellpit and I did 12 or so wounds in return to crush the Ogres on the left but they held Steadfast. In the middle my magic and shooting chopped down the Ironguts to a non-threat fast, but they still marched forward. A Skitterleaping brass orb scatted back and only killed 1 Mournfang, but also killed the lobbing Warlock.

The Beast Butcher got away and never did get finished, as Grant used his Thundertusk with great success to give my HPA always strikes last and charged it with a Giant, who killed the HPA. In the end though the Doomwheel was able to steal some points and kill the Giant in return with lightning bolts. In the middle the Ironguts waffled a bit before getting into the bell, but eventually stuck in. The Mournfang started charging all of my outlying units and wiping them all off the board.

In the end the Bell still stood and I finished off the BSB, General, and Gut Star with the Bell unit. They have been performing so well, but I still have not played them against a serious artillery threat which will spell the end of their great run, I expect. The game ended with me only winning by 160 or so points, which will probably be a draw depending on the Screw City GT rules, but Alex has been known to only require a win by 100 points.

Exalted Vermin Lord

I have had the Exalted Vermin Lord on my bench for a while now, on a 60x100 base for the official Storm of Magic monster. But I've been thinking of playing a game or two with a regular Vermin Lord in my regular games lately, especially with Midlands coverage in the UK, where they have a Best Vermin Lord award! Ben Johnson, formerly of the Bad Dice Podcast, altered his Exalted Vermin Lord to fit a 50x50 regular monster base and to be used as a regular VL in tournaments... so I thought I would do the same with mine!

Hordes of Beastmen vs Bell

Spending some quality gaming time this Saturday, I got a game against Beastmen for the first time in a while, and finally got around to playing Michael O. from Fresh Coast 40K. I was playing around with my Bell list again, and he brought hordes and hordes of Gor, along with a load of magic support and a few gribblies.

Assassin comparison.

Small hobby update today. I put together a new assassin today and was able to compare first hand the difference between the old metal and new Finecast Deathmaster Snikch models. I'm hoping to paint these guys up soon to mess around with in Fantasy, but taking a look at the models themselves, the Finecast version IS a bit of a disappointment compared to the old metal. It is so fragile in the thin areas it feels like it will snap with a stiff breeze. It also had a lot more work needing to be done to clean it up and I felt again like I would break it, and also had to remove some detail on the cape in order to get rid of some thick flash.

On the positive side, what detail is on the model IS more crisp and does look better. I do prefer Finecast over metal to have lighter models. I know some people love the weight of a metal model, but I am the opposite. I prefer plastic and finecast for the weight. Also, it is super easy to do conversions, which I may end up doing to the second assassin for when I ever use 2 of them.

More up tomorrow. Off to the hobby store to pick up the new White Dwarf with new Daemon rules inside, and to play a game of Fantasy and a game of Warmachine.

Necron Debut

Had my first game with Necrons this week, and I had a blast. I played with the 1000 points I have assembled against Tau. My list was an Overlord with warscythe and res orb, Destroyer Lord with warscythe and 2+, 10 Warriors with Ark, 10 Warriors, 3 Wraiths, and an Annihilation Barge. We rolled up a scenario with 5 objectives, which meant we had a little more room to move around with only 1000 points on the board, but we still ended up playing for 3 or so objectives.