Julys painting shelf

So here is Julys painting priorities.

Warhammer 
 drummer and 3 hand gunners

Warmachine
Finishing off the 2 gunmages and the Vanguard.

If I get a chance I have promised my brother I will make a start on his Viking Bloodbowl team and Stannis is looking tempting.

Targets;
Priorities
7 miniatures

Secondary targets;
3 miniatures

MC Pendrake. Warmachine Monster hunter

After his sterling effort against the Trolls on Friday I decided to finish up Pendrake in the shop yesterday.

As soon as I looked at the glasses he looked familiar and then it clicked.

Remember this bloke

And so MC Pendrake was born...

I figure his duck ability will be due to his nifty footwork.

Please Pendrake DO hurt them

and finally

Painting inspiration. Getting a wiggle on!

A couple of fellas at the MEGC were asking me how I am managing to pump out the mini's so consistently?
Especially with regards to the "4 Gamers".

I honestly think part of it is my "painting shelf".

Pendrake, 2 mages, a knight and a command group are the current priorities!

Basically it is a small shelf I have set up in the kitchen with my priority "work in progress" minis and some of my better examples of painting on.

Be warned having minis this close to booze is NEVER a good idea

I have deliberately set it up in the glasses and drinks cupboard so everytime I go to get my self a drink I am reminded what I need to get through. 

It acts as a real spur, as I now get to regularly look at nearly completed works in progress (so close the little voice says......... so close) and it is nice to see the number slowly diminish as the minis are completed and stored in the relevant KR case.

The two big dangers!

One is having nearly completed minis REAL close to booze. I have caught myself a couple of times, worse for wear from booze and reaching for a 90% complete mini and thinking "I could just give that a quick 10 minutes now!" (God knows what the results would have been), and 

Two the Misses cottoning on to just how many minis are being cycled through that shelf. (Thankfully at the moment they all look the same to her!).

Warmachine. 20 points of Troll hunters for hire

Popped into the Miniature Empire for a pick up game today.

Both Ed and Damon were in attendance and were just finishing off a 25 point game.

Ed won.

With only 1 and a half hours left on the parking ticket I naturally asked to play Damon at 20 points.

My Force list is;

Ashlynn (+6 warjack points)

Mule 8 pts

Mule 8 pts

Gun Mages 6pts

Pendrake 2pts

Gorman 2pts

Damon wins the roll and sets up first with Trolls. He then makes the first mistake of the game by giving me a full run down of his new Sniper unit.

Not surprisingly I set up like this..........

you can see his snipers in the far corner if you REALLY squint!

Yes it makes me a dick but he normally plays Cygnar and I'm a bit bored of being shot off the board in the first turn.

And I have spent ages painting these blokes........

I have decided to go to town on the back of these fellas as it all I get to look at

I figured they might run away so put some effort into the front as well

Damon brings all his forces into the middle of the table and I run off the hill, casting "quicken" on the mages so they fully clear the Jacks. Gorman pops smoke to screen Ashlynn from the snipers.

The Trolls finally get to charge in ........

............. and proceed to pull my Mule (the wild rover) limb from limb!

Damon is very impressed with my special effect detachable weapons!

Its time to go nuts. Ashlynn charges the Trolls and pops her feat. Here come the criticals!!!!

Ashlynn leads by example and misses her charge attack on 4 dice!

Despite Ashlynn missing her charge attack she slashes and shoots left right and centre. Finishing off one Troll and severly hurting another. "The wild Rover" head butts another unconscious and the Mages go nuts with critical brutals! Pendrake knocks down one of the last remaining Trolls with his Bola, Gorman kills off the Troll Snipers with an acid attack before they make any real contribution to the game and my 2nd Mule "Old Smokey" sends both the Troll Warbeasts for a flying lesson with a critical hit!

So much for tough

The only down side is my Gun mage leader manages to hit my own jack and send it to the scrap yard "Thats coming out of your wages" Ashlynn shouts over her shoulder.

Damon uses his Fury to shake off the knock down and charges in with one of his warbeast. Thankfully with the feat up he can't hit a barn door and I am yet to take a casualty (except for the "blue on blue" I inflicted on myself)

The Trolls try to stomp Ashlynn but again her feat saves the day and with riposte and weapon master she soon removes them from the board.

Now the sneaky bit. By not moving my mages and granting them "beast lore" via Pendrake I manage to hit the Warbeast thats in Melee and push it out of combat. This leaves the remaining Mages free to open up on the warbeast. A number of critical brutals leaves the Warbeast looking like road kill.

This leaves Gorman to get into range and hit the remaining Warbeast with "Black oil". Thankfully the Caster is also within the AOE and is blinded as well!

"Old Smokey" charges in (JUST!!) and smashes the last remaining warbeast into a bloody pulp. 

"Hang on, can't we talk about this!"

With only his Caster left Vs my starting force (minus one Mule) Damon concedes and we shake hands on a real fun fast paced game.

LESSONS LEARNT

1) Timing is everything when it comes to popping your feat. I timed it just right. If had waited another turn I do not think there would have been much left to save after the Trolls had got to work!

2) Black oil is just as devestating against casters. It left Damon pretty much powerless for one turn. I must keep Gorman alive for as long as possible.

3) Stationary Mages have a pretty good chance of hitting most things and anything I can do to add an attack die is worth it. Must remember Trolls are NOT warbeasts when using beast lore from Pendrake.

4) Knock down can really hamstring an opponent and this army list seems to have a lot of that ability. Mules (critical), Mages (critical), Pendrake (with a bola). On a feat turn there should not be a lot left standing.

Warmachine. How does 15 points take 3 hours!

Play Ed............. thats how!

So popped into the Mini Empire for secret Sunday gaming club. I was at the dump at 8am this morning and also cleaned the car inside and out so I figured I deserved it.

Ed was in attendance with his Retribution forces and I had never played against them so we set up 15 points.

I go with what I think will be my core force from now on.

Ashlynn,

Mule

Vanguard,

Gun Mages

Gorman or some other 2 point solo.

Ed set up his bits and pieces opposite.

I cast Quicken on the mages and race them into the woods. I figure they have half a chance on defence 19!

Ed's Snipers on the right start to plug away at the Mule's steam cannon.

I move Gorman up to protect the Mule from further damage. And make my first mistake. By placing the mule within the cloud effect the snipers are still able to pop him off! I should have left it completely on the other side. I wanted to force the snipers out of the woods and make them a more viable target. Maybe next time!

With the Mules gun disabled, both my Jacks charge Ed's heavy Jack and proceed to whale away!

My Mages break cover and I hope to roll some Critical brutals!

No such luck this time but the Light Jacks move across to help out in the various combats. In order to preserve my Jacks and put some pressure on Ed's caster I pop my feat.

we see you!

 Both Mage open up but only one scores the critical. My dice rolling has been atrocious throughout the game! I decide to follow this through, when the die do not go your way, just keep rolling!

We can't hit a barn door, but at least we look cool!

Gorman lets loose with the black oil. My mule gets wrecked and my Vanguard goes for a flying lesson! 

But finally Ashlynn gets stuck in.

The Vanguard recovers and wrecks the Retribution light Jack. The retribution snipers finally break cover and Gorman gives one an Acid bath while Ashlynn pops off the other one.

 

  I decide to run Ashlynn out of combat and try to coax Ed into finishing this once and for all. He opens fire with his heavy Jack and then his Caster to finally end the pain.

the blur in the photo was just me losing the will to focus!

So game over (finally). Believe it or not that took 3 hours of game play!

LESSONS LEARNT

1) To benefit the full effects of a cloud effect you need to be on the other side of it. This would have meant my Steam lobber would have lasted at least another turn and offered me some other options tactically.

2) Gorman is a vulture best left in the back and popping out to snipe away at targets before you hit them with the big hitters. Loved to have seen what would have happened of he had lasted long enough to hit Ed's caster with Black oil.

3) Black oil is a nightmare for my opponents and I need to make more use of this!

4) I need to focus throughout the game. Not everyone plays at the same pace. Ed is obviously more of a thinker then me.

5) Ashlynns "quick draw" is best suited against Jacks as it does not take effect unless she hits the target.

6) As Lano said, Warmachine is a game for Dickheads! and Ed is a natural at the game ;0)

This Friday we are having a Warmachine night and a 20 odd point game of mangled metal is on the cards. I think we are going to have to put Ed on a timer!

Introducing the Rioteers!. 40K orks of fortune

Introducing the Rioteers.

A group of Fun loving, cut throats on leave from Algae world (but thats another story). They have spent all their teef on wine, women, song and regrettable tattoos. Now they need to earn their fare home before they are declared AWOL.

So a while back Damon set a challenge on the MEGC forum. 

Design a table top game which could be played within an hour using miniatures we can buy instore at the Miniature Empire.

I was inspired by an old 2000AD, Johnny Alpha story (possibly) called "The Killing".

Essentially it is a 5 man (alien, blob, droid, care bear) team game where several players play simultaneously and you collect bounties on each others players. One with the most cash at the end wins.

 

Anyone who has seen my Bloodbowl Team knows I love an Ork! I would love an Ork army (especially with the new codex) but the thought of them all falling out during a critical point in the game is just one heart break I could do without.

So with my prototype game in mind the first thing I did was reach for a box of 40K Ork boyz. I have always thought Orks are like those fellas you see on the BBC news in civil conflicts. They normally ride up on Toyota flat beds with a 50. caliber anti aircraft gun welded on the back, armed to the teeth with AK47's, machetes and all sorts of other weapons banned by the Geneva convention and proceed to rob the nearest UN or UNICEF food truck.

I was struggling for a look until I flicked through some old White Dwarfs and come across this.......

perfect!

The new Orks capture that quasi military feel perfectly. To emphersize this quasi military feel I copied the cover above and painted all the Rioteers in Khaki clothes and tan leather webbing. If I get time I will go back and add a tiger stripe cammo.

Their guns remind me of WW1 Maxim guns so have gone with more brass to accentuate this vintage feel.

The medic is a Kromlech sculpt and was an absolute pleasure to assemble and paint (I wish all resin minis were this nice).

The Grenadier is a simple conversion of a head swap from the "Storm boyz" box and a grenade swapped for a missle that was originally sticking out of the launcher. Stuck on the bag of grenades and a pistol / grenade combo onto the belt and job done. LOVE IT!

Why I will never complain about Games Workshop prices again!

So I bought my monthly quota of minis for June.

A box of GW 40k Ork boyz and a box of Privateer press Gun mages.

I guess the clue should have been the pirate flag on the Warmachine packaging as I do feel like I have been held up at gun point!

The box of GW Orkz RRP £18, minus Miniature Empire 20%  GW discount = £14.40. Then I sell the spare odds and sods on Ebay for a £5 return (after postage, final value fees etc have been deducted). So that works out at £14 - £5 divided by 10 = 90p a figure. Thats a cracking price!

The privateer press Gun mages RRP £24 divided by 6 = £4 per figure. There are no spares left over to sell on and as they will be painted in Highborn colours their resell value will be minimal!

If you want to be super beardy with your army list, then your going to have to pay through the nose for the privillage. But as the "4 gamers" has taught me, you can get really tactical, exciting, worthwhile games out of a core force which will cost you peanuts per figure.

Yes the PP mercenary Gargantuan has caught my eye but at 80 quid my question needs to be, do I really need it and do I want to play against someone who would field it in a 30 point army list?

Finally I have found a punishment worse then being a Warmachine player........................

.......................... being an England fan.

Nuff said!

Warhammer Empire 1500 points. Work in progress

Once again was up early this morning with the boy so set out my 1500 points to have a look at the army on mass.

Only a spearman command group, 7 hand gunners and a knight to go.

If I get time I will paint up a base for the cannon and a nice surprise for the other generals of the 4 gamers.

Heres Big Bertha the camps cannon (named after the camp prostitute), and the boom town rats.

9 of my 16 gunners done (don't look at the back rank0

could it be time for another rank filler?

Only the spearmen command group to go.

Would you charge these nut cases?

And once again the boys on mass.

And how it all looked a month ago

I am LOVING the "4 Gamers"

So close to finishing.................. So close