The Forge

My friend and I have been discussing the new edition of Warhammer 40,000 quite a bit , and I decided to join the Facebook group for the gaming group at the new game store - Forge26 in my home town.
I also popped in to meet everyone and have a nosy at the games going on on Wednesday which is their late night opening for gaming, and what i would probably be going to after 8th :)

The guy that runs the store was great, and the atmosphere was really friendly and no one seemed to mind me wandering round listening and watching what was going on. I spoke quite a bit to the guy who runs the store, and pre-ordered the books I need to use both my Space Wolves and my Exodites when the new rules are finally out.

I've asked a few people in a few places what I should be trying to assemble my marines as in order for them to be most likely to be useful in the new edition and most people have recommended to hang fire until the rules are out for certain. For the time being then I'm going to either be trying to get either my Waveserpents finished, The Thunderwolf Lord conversion progressed, or painting Malifaux. No rush for anything. It isn't like any of it is going anywhere soon. I would like to be able to play Space Wolves pretty soon though ;)

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

Steady

Just on the train back from the Thursday night meet up in Leeds, so I thought I'd do a write up.

I lost versus a Runes doom shaper list. Unsurprising maybe for my first game in 3 years, however I knew what list I was facing in advance, so if I'd bothered to read up on it I'd have known that Barny's feat was useless vs all those steady Runeshapers...

Ah well, it was fun getting models to table and rolling dice again. Mark also mentioned a kind of slow grow type league which a lot of the local competitive players aren't interested in, so its really good for me as I don't know every rule of everything I might potentially face, like most would.  I tend to play for fun more than anything and if I'm honest I'm not a fan of the competitive play mentality that some people seem to have. To each their own of course though.

I need to find some way of stopping magnetic models sliding over the smooth baking trays though. Maybe some mesh material fixed to them. Strong magnetic hold, but no friction whatsoever. Successful test run of the case however :)

I also got some work done on Rask yesterday (who would have stood a far better chance this evening, ironically). I'm trying really hard with thinning paints and highlighting not drybrushing. I still struggle with hand shakes though, and I don't know what I'm doing wrong with my wet palette butnit doesn't seem to be doing what its meant to :(

That's it for now, thanks for stopping by

lofty

Opportunity In The Community

Time for an update

Over the Xmas/New Year period, I had been planning to replace my old rickety (falling apart) desk, and once I'd finished emptying it out, I realised just how much I had been missing all the hobby stuff I 'didn't have time to do anymore'. A combination of getting home relatively late, and then cooking and washing up etc and having pesky inquisitive cats meant that the goal of a new desk would have to be easy setup/pack away again to maximise time actually spent hobbying.

What I ended up with, I think allows me to do this effectively. I won't go into massive detail here, but perhaps I'll outline my new setup in a future post.
Looking through my many and varied 'to do' piles not only allowed me to put a load of older stuff away (with a view to sell hopefully at some point) but also made me want to get some use out of it all, so I messaged my friend & Pressganger in Leeds, and asked about their regular meet ups.

I mentioned briefly that I recently moved to a new team in the new year, 1st week of January, in fact. I have a lot in common with my new team, having known them for a while before moving, and some if not all of them play either roleplaying games, or online games or both. They are definitely not the kind of people who would give a second thought to me carting around a case of toy soldiers to go gaming with every other Thursday, so it's a great time for me to start again :)

I actually ended up playing Malifaux at my first time at the club, I had mentioned this to Mark (Pressganger), who arranged for me to get a starter set game in with his regular Malifaux opponent.
Not only is it always good to make new friends in the hobby community, but I've had the Guild's Justice box set since my birthday in various stages of WIP, as well as having made some good purchases on a Facebook trading group for a couple of the Malifaux books.

I had a great time learning the game with the starter crews, and very much enjoy the card mechanic in place of dice. My wife and I have been admiring Malifaux models for ages, and I've ordered the starter set for us to start getting some games at home too.  I've had a gaming table for a couple of years so all we need really is a 3*3 playmat and some mdf buildings or similar and we should be set without a great deal of expense.

When I arrived at the gaming space, pretty much the only thing going on (I think there was also a Warmachine game being played) was Guildball.
This is something I was aware of when it kickstarted, but ignored purposefully as I had no-one who would have been interested in playing, despite the models looking great. After our Malifaux session had ended, I loitered around a bit and watched some game play, and asked Mark a whole raft of questions after I had left to get the train. I didn't think much more of it to be honest as my head was full of Malifaux, and what I wanted to get done next towards my Gators/Skorne, and then out of nowhere someone posted on Facebook a Brewer's Guild team for a handsome price, and I snapped it up :)

Which leads me (around the houses) to my hobby plans for the year.
I had originally planned to keep going with Skorne and Minion Gatormen, and possibly branch our into Trollbloods after seeing some really great painting threads, and being on the fence about them for years. That's still what I intend to do, but I will of course now be playing/painting Malifaux (mainly Guild) and Guildball.
I also want to revise my miniature catalogue which has miniatures listed by stages of completion etc, and add to this what paints I own. Just as a reference more than anything , and to stop me buying duplicate colours.
I have no aims for completion of x number of miniatures by y date, but I do want to have my Malifaux ready by the next time I play, and similarly with Guildball.

I'm back at the club on Thursday, facing down a 50pt Runes of War list with Maelok. I had intended to use Barnabus, but I have no confidence in doing very well in my first game so I thought I would try and learn a caster I've not used before and just re-learn all the things I've probably forgotten :)
Time depending, I may also be getting a Guildball demo, but this isn't quite so likely and if not, I will try and watch some of the guildball action to learn what it's like to play.

For the foreseeable future, I'll be splitting my time at the Thursday night gaming between Warmahordes & Malifaux, more than likely Guidball will feature soon too. This week, is Hordes as mentioned, which means that next time around it'll be Malifaux.

Hope you guys are looking forward to this year as much as I am.
Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

Brawlin' - The aftermath(pt2)

As promised, here's my photodump from the BCBtourney at the weekend along with a brief write-up of the day as I remember it.

Professional badasses before the first game

I took a single turn in the first game against Tony Moore's Legion. I moved Barny quite far forward in swamp pits to protect from (what I thought would be inevitable) sprays/assaults. turns out eThagrosh's feat turn was more than enough to do me in. Short but sweet






Guess what mistake I made in the second game? Yes I am that stupid, Simon's Angelus applied liberally to Barny's face, again, I played a single turn.

Third game was versus Trollbloods, controlled by a chap called Chris.  I got a second turn assasination after a posse took down the sons of bragg, and the feat removed Rok's melee range allowing them to charge Borka for the win. Nice chap, good chat, good game.

Final Game was against a friend of mine from the club I used to frequent on Mondays.  Very enjoyable game proving how tenacious Gators can be, with Barny surviving multiple rounds against (epic I think?) Vlad.  In the end though, I couldn't hit the guy, and If Vlad hjadn't done for me, Drago would have obliged I'm sure!

On with the photos!

One of the few (only) Ret' armies in our meta

Showdown!

Aftermath...

Pink Merc's!

Some Very well based &  Painted Cygnar

Brawlin' - The aftermath(pt1)

A very brief update today just to say that the Breast Cancer Brawl event (pictures incoming I believe) run today by LeedsWarmachine was a blast. I've some pics, and a more full write up on the way, but just wanted to check-in and say that it was a really good day, and a lot of effort was put in by the organisers, so thanks for that, ans thanks as well to everyone that took part and raised so much! (I'll let LeedsWarmachine reveal donation totals).
For my own self indulgence though, I won best single pink miniature for my Thrullg which was rewarded by a Warmachine MK2 poster signed by the Privateer Press staff. I also snagged the pink Bloody Barnabus card for best in faction (I was the only minion player!) a £20 gift card for the LGS hosting the event, and a Minions coin unclaimed after the domination event which I bid for.  On top of the pink PP bandana that everyone got (and cupcakes!) and the wooden spoon from the Domination event which was a black PP bandana). What I was by far most pleased with though is that I got a lot of kind comments about my painted miniatures, which really made all that effort worthwhile!

All in all, very pleased that I went and that it was so much fun, and I'll be adding a more thorough write-up & photo dump at some point in the coming week

Thanks
Lofty

A lesson lived

Is indeed a lesson learned. Won one game with Rahn, and was making ridiculous mistakes with Vyros and lost to a model. Last game was a loss with Rahn. Was a great game though. We were against the clock, as the store needed to close, so we (my friend from the club on Monday) were making some snap decisions which led to a very close game with Stryker on 6 health at the end

Another fun day, I'm just gutted that I was so careless in my Vyros game, else it could have been very different

Cheers
Lofty

An an eXerxise in pain

Why do I insist on trying to be witty with blog titles?

Friday night gaming in Leeds last night, and it was a blast. I lost my first game to a chap who had never played WM/Hordes before. Stop laughing, he was being helped by the PG and three other guys :P

I wasn't taking it too seriously, and took the opportunity to hyper aggression my Bronzeback half-way down the field from his Widowmaker/Winterguard shots. Just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should :)

The second game was against someone who has been playing a little longer, and who I had previously faced in a very close game with my eMakeda v his Baldur in the Genesis event, which was a very close game indeed. He played pHaley this time with stormy guys (halberds and swords). I was really very please with how my list performed, Bricking down the centre, using Martial discipline to devastating effect with the Nihilators moving (polarity shield or some such spell denying charge) through the shield wall with Press Forward from Xerxis. Berzerk is a very useful ability, especially with reach, and with good positioning, it can be ended quite effectively when they have to attack a shieldwalled, defenders warded Cetrati. The kill came from the tyrant of tyrants himself, who Overtook his way through some grunts straight into Haley's grill on feat. I stupidly then decided to cast fury instead of buying attacks, and of course missed. I awaited my demise.

Of course Haley 'ain't no thang' in combat, so Xerxis survived, cut for 5 and ended Haley.

Thoroughly enjoyable, even when awaiting my demise at the hands of my opponent. I still seem to be too careful with my heavies, and certainly need to get my caster stuck in more, and I'm constantly searching for stats on my cards :P

One thing about the list that I will be dropping is the Tyrant commander and standard. The plan was that the Nihilators would either berserk themselves, or get killed and make tough rolls, and the Tyrant can then stand them up next turn. This strategy of course depends on me actually making a tough roll, which I am only able to do when it means Haley can move away once the guy is knocked down... Coupled with the fact that Xerxis has both of the other orders that the Tyrant commander has, his points would be better used elsewhere.

On the whole I'm happy with the list and the way it performs. When I eventually get order of activation down pat, I'm sure I will make better use of it :)

Thanks for dropping by

Lofty

Pop n drop

Another great game today. Only lost as I really underestimated the acrobatics of daughters of the flame. I left Makeda 'somewhere safe' and she got swarmed. This made me commit to defending Makeda and I lost my tyrant (to their anatomical precision), who was my only comeback vs Kreoss' feat. Which saw Makeda getting wailed on by a Templar.

Praetorians performed well again though. Denying any use from a unit of exemplars by running at them, getting killed under Makeda's feat, and mini feating the knights to death.
And of course powering the soul factory ;p. Marketh will love those guys!

Turn two wouldn't been very different if only I hadn't rolled snake eyes vs a slam of a Templar toward Kreoss, but I get far too carried away to think about averages vs def etc and whether I need to boost :p

I'm still really enjoying Hordes however, and far prefer the mechanics to Warnachine. I need to field another light beast though I think, as I run the beasts up front and then struggle once they go down. Perhaps I'll drop the swordsmen to minimum...

Something else I struggle with is order of activation. I always have a plan in mind, but i often struggle to execute it in the right order, or I get too eager and activate key units too early. Again, practice will overcome this I guess, and practicing will be fun!

Managed to grab an earlier train today too so i'll get plenty time to finish my Bronzeback assembly, the last three Nihilators, rethink my list and level up my DnD character. Good evening all told!

Thanks for dropping by
Lofty

White noise

First game with Xerxis this week which was unfortunately a loss. Mohsar managed to lock down my cetrati with well placed pillars of salt every turn. Frustrating, but it certainly did the trick!

I love the way the tyrant and standard work with the Cetrati though (Xerxis ain't too shoddy with battle plans either mind) and having troops move through each other with the brick type if set up is a dream.
I think I'll be shunting the totem hunter for a tyrant in my usual 35pt pMakeda list for sure.

Highlight of the game was a furious Xerxis charging though the brick, and combo smiting a Gnarlhorn, ignoring the swordsmen engaging it and almost destroying it with his feat up. It was a last ditch effort on my part as I had almost no other options. Fun though ^_^

Good game, might save Xerxis till he and the Cetrati are painted so I can have a bit more of a think on how best to use him.
Tips are always welcome :p

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

Titantastic

Great game at the club today against a beast heavy grim list.

Star of the show have to be the praetorians who combostriked a mauler to death, and minifeated a unit of kriel warriors pretty much in half.

I don't remember why grim couldn't transfer(I think I had just killed has last non maxed beast) but a Titan gladiator to the face really didn't really help him.

Despite getting the caster kill, the assassination run was clumsy. I had my totem hunter in the way of a slam, and only in reach range, so it could all have gone a lot better.
Really pleased though, as I'm enjoying Hordes a ton more than Warmachine, and finding it a lot easier to boot.

I had planned to play Xerxis today but I didn't manage to get the tyrant and standard bearer pinned in time for tonight. I like the way Makeda works though, savagery on Cetrati is a ridiculous first turn, coupled with a switch to def ward next turn Being a real headache. She even made it into combat this game, albeit I did test her out on burrowers, just to make sure before I take on bigger game :p

Praetorians certainly went up in my opinion today, even more so as they are souls after all their effectiveness as well. One flank with swordsman, AG and Extoller is really self sufficient, especially with ranked attacks from the UA to help out the guardian. It also means the other flank is beasts and Cetrati which isn't too shabby at all ;p

Won't be too much time to paint this week unfortunately but hopefully I'll get a fair amount done over the weekend.
Until then,

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

Grand Slam

You'll have to forgive the brevity of my last post, I was crammed onto a train home from Leeds after the tourney, and only just had room to get to my phone (Sunday+Bank Holiday engineering works make for busy trains).

I've been away from the blog for a while due to lots going on at work, and at home weekends away, my 25th birthday, social life (yes it's true) and I've found little time for gaming unfortunately recently.

I promised myself that I wouldn't miss the Genesis event however, and I ordered a new aluminium double case for my Skorne out of my recent bonus from work. I also spent most of the evenings in the week running up to the tourney preparing my Skorne for the day. The last work I did to them was to paint the desert bases that I had made based on this thread on the PP forums (thanks again), but since then I haven't had chance to paint the miniatures. So with heavy heart, I began to get ready to spray the Praetorians and Cetrati and pin undercoated black miniatures to painted desert bases. Yes I know it's silly, and yes I know it's going to be a nightmare maintaining the base while I paint the mini's.... But at least I don't have anymore Cetrati flags to replace (love the unit, don't talk to me about those flags). Speaking of flags, the Skorne I got from my friend were mostly flagless, so at a later date I'll be posting mini's and asking for opinions on custom made flags or staying flagless...

I digress, month's without the blog have led me to ramble. On to the point -

A write up of my first win in a PP game, here it comes.

It was versus a Strakhov list including a Beast'09 and a Spriggan, and some assassins (I can't think of the name) and the seemingly obligatory man hunters

Game started pretty uneventfully with me shuffling my Forge of Souls (spot the reference, win some kind of baked goods) down the left (I of course mean my praetorians with Ancestral Guardian and Extoller), and the Cetrati under Savagery and Shield wall down the centre. Next turn the man hunters and beast have made it up into my grill and Beast is trying to pull apart the shield wall, but defender's ward is laughing at him. My titan comes out from the cover of the shield wall, and is promptly engaged by a man hunter, who funnily enough is dispatched quite quickly in subsequent turns.

The assassins make some mad movement buff's (mini feat?) and miss my stupidly exposed Makeda by a ridiculously small margin, and content themselves with back-strikes on the Cetrati. Meanwhile Strakhov is hiding behind his Spriggan and I'm desperately trying to find my friend from my local gaming club to ask if slams can go over walls, to which he of course replies that they can't. I sit down dejectedly just as he says “unless they have pathfinder”. So my turn comes round, I start the timer, make my upkeep's, cast carnage and move Makeda into cover behind a building, also casting rush on the Gladiator, who proceeds to slam the Spriggan into Strakhov, and follows up with 4 fury to spend.

And that, as they say, is it. Needless to say I was stoked about the win, I apologized I don't know how many times to my opponent for the high fives with my friend, and excessive jubilance, and I explained that it was my first ever win.

The next and final game was pretty good too, a Baldur list with lots of girls with javelins (again I'm sorry I can't recall their name) long story short, I made it into a position where the Titan was whaling on Baldur (after a failed grand slam on his swamp gobber buddies, literally by a quarter inch ;_;) but I hadn't twigged that he was sitting on full focus for a reason, and he transferred it all to the new shield guard wold guy. Forest creation/teleportation shenanigans later see Baldur back-striking Makeda for the win.

I feel like after just two games with the Skorne (my first two Hordes games) on Vassal the night before the tourney, I have a lot better grasp of the mechanics than I do with Warmachine. For example, I load up my Phoenix with 3focus regularly only for it to be sitting on one or two focus at the end of the turn because I haven't thought it through.

There are of course things that I need to get used to, like watching casters fury before I attack, and of course not only do I need to leave fury on my caster for transfers, I also need the 'beast to have fury spare to receive the damage.

Practice right?

I think that's all I have to say right now. Feels good to be back on the blog, and back in the gaming world again,. Built Xerxis today and a Drake, which I may just try out next week at the club, but I'm sure I'll be blogging again before then, so until then -

Cheers for dropping by

Lofty

In the club

That's right, it's time for another exciting instalment of "I've just left the gaming club"!
It went very well this week, believe it or not I got a Vyros charge off on eStryker. I made a bad decision on how to use focus in combat, and missed by one point. Then went on to miss with my final two focus bought attacks. Too confident.

Great game though, I was quite confident going in, and managed to fall 4" short on a griffon charge with mobility and fleet going. Right idea, wrong timing. I'm going to buy another griffon though. If I've learned one thing in all my games, it's that Vyros rocking flank can really hit hard. I would just take a second Phoenix for the reach but in 35pt games that feels silly. I'm going to run some vassal games with a mix of two Griffons, versus Vyros running just a Phoenix, an a Scyir with the griffin. I think I'd like the griffon on big V for the feat however. Once again lots to think about :)

Got my bases made and pretty much finished for all my medium based Skorne, and just need to sand and prime the small bases for next weekend. I've never spent so long painting just bases! It should look pretty good though when base+mini are finished.
Still struggling with a scheme, but I do know that I want to use a pale bone/stone for the armour, with a dark cloth/second colour. I've primed one praetorian so far who will get his fare share of paint this week I imagine :p will hopefully have a scheme settled by the weekend for photos.

Thanks for stopping by
Lofty

Morphing into Primal

Just left this weeks club, where I was beaten by a Kaya list. I put up a fair fight though with Vyros. Going first left me doing a lot of manoeuvring with my sentinels, and Phoenix.

I was pretty chuffed with the MHA on turn two though who hit a feral warpwolf, but then went on to roll a one(above armour) for a doubled damage of two.... Couldve been nasty though.
Man of the match is the Phoenix however, who took out a lot of infantry and put the hurt on a second warpwolf before being eaten.

My problem is no longer remembering the rules, but thinking how to apply them. Vyros' feat and flank being the main contender. I find it difficult to decide the activation order of models to make them work together best.

This will come with practice though, and above all else, the game is still a lot of fun while losing/learning.

Also - gotta love weapon masters on the charge :D

Cheers
Lofty

Stumble Con

I know there has been a lot of excitement about the 'con recently, and I'm pretty envious at all the guys who have been and enjoyed the event. But coinciding with this most prestigious of 'cons was my first game of Warmachine :)

First game was a game with the Kaelyssa battlebox, and a similar point Cygnar force led by Caine, and well... I lost :P

Second game was with my 35pt Vyros list, and the star of the game was easily the Magister solo, who I am now smitten with (geddit? smitten, mittens?...). But I still lost, and lets just say I hate gun-mages and long-gunners ;_; I had a plan to combust his infantry with my Phoenix, so I moved it up bold as brass, and then BAM!! CRA to the face... Meanwhile, the black thirteenth took care of my Invictors, and I somehow only managed to get 1 Sentinel into combat all game ;_; I am particularly proud of the Griffon who wrought havoc in the gun mage unit :) as well as my hydra who camped a ton of focus from attacks and threw a Cyclone and a black thirteenth :D

I enjoyed the entire game, and I think the early neutering of my Phoenix left me scared to get Vyros stuck in, and I only really got anything out of him in my last turn, where he wrecked Black 13th face. I feel like I learned a lot from the game, and I am looking forward, more now than ever, to getting Retribution on Vassal so's I can practice with the army I have collected, in the hope that I win a game at the club eventually :)

I also got quite a lot of attention for having a painted army, and a fair few compliments on the painting quality, which is inspiring me no end. I have just finished m Magister solo, and I'm so please with the way it has come out that I am re-painting parts of Rahn in an attempt to emulate the solo. I'm going to be posting a few WIPS pictures this weekend I hope. It is Valentines though, so I can't promise that I will have time :)

Next order of miniatures will be battle mages and storm fall archers. The mages to fill my new found love of telekinetic destruction, and the archers as they fill what's left of my monthly budget nicely with a couple of solos (another magister and a pair of snipers )

All in all, things are going great! stay tuned for moar!

Cheers

Lofty

PS - I did take pictures of my games, but my phone decided that they should be at a some obscure size, so I'm still trying to sort them out :s

Let the good times roll

I'm sitting on the train after my first visit to my now regular gaming night :) I had a great time. Met the local Warmahordes contingent and a few others, and watched a 50pt battle. Both players were nice guys, and watching them play left me kicking myself that I hadn't brought any minis. Not to worry though. I'll be cutting teeth with my 35points vyros list next week. Should be great!
Really pleased I messaged the guy and went along.
Cheers for stopping by :)
Lofty

Oh Happy Day

Oh Happy Day indeed! I finally found a wargaming club! It was a chance post that I spotted on the Privateer Press forums, made by a forumite who's location was listed as Huddersfield (the next town over from me) so I messaged the guy, asking where he gets his games, and he messaged me back with the best news I've had in ages - there is a club in Huddersfield, ten minutes away from the train station. Genius. We have exchanged a few emails and I'm meeting him there on Monday so I can meet the gamers.

I of course checked about Warmachine/Hordes, and there are four guys who play with various factions, and a couple more, not including me, who have shown interest in the Iron Kingdoms. To be honest, I'm chuffed to bits. After a few months of waiting for the Leeds PG to get time to sort out a venue in Leeds (to be fair I think venues are scarce) I managed to trip on the most random opening, and found one ^_^
Needless to say I will be keeping the blog updated with how it all goes, and hopefully getting some videos/pictures of battles. I've decided not to take any miniatures on my first visit, so's I can meet everyone and get used to the place before I start gaming, get comfortable, ya know?

In other news - I ordered myself a Miniature case from the lovely people at KRMulticase (a double aluminium case with custom trays) and I will be showing pictures off at the weekend along with my recent painting progress :)

It's another long post, for which I apologise, but this is massive news :D
Thanks for dropping by!
Lofty