A little painting update

Pictures in the last gaming write-up are so atrocious in quality that I needed to quickly make a new blog entry with better photos to push the horror down.

Well, not really.

Rather, I'm trying to motivate myself to paint just a little bit more actively now. I finished painting two gaming pieces, well, technically yesterday.

They're Sara the Bright Witch and Jack Fellows the Privateer for A Touch of Evil.

This time, though picture is sharp enough, it didn't focus right. But I guess it still shows the most important thing: these gaming pieces are finished from toe to hair.

Now, there is something else in the picture.

Years ago (almost ten years, actually. Damn time flies!) I bought Games Workshop walls for terrain. They've been in extensive use during various times in my career as a wargamer.

However, when I got my filthy little hands upon the plastic walls & fences terrain set, these wall pieces dropped out entirely from gaming boards.

First, they're BIG. For linear obstacles at least. Linear obstacles you can get from "new" plastic set are so much better for Warmachine/Hordes, because there is next to no attempt to balance models on the scenery pieces base. And that is good, it's clear to everyone that "no, you can't stand on top of this fence". These old walls are all clumsy and awkward.

Second, they're a bit out of place. Most of these old walls have either something iconic (imperial eagles on ammo crates) or too science fictionish elements going on. For a reason it bugs me.

Third, they're "ugly". By ugly I mean that they have a dull palette, and because there is pre-glued grass in there it creates the feeling that they're "ready to use". And as such they're a bore.

Some unknown impulse struck me a while ago, and I picked up the two wall pieces from this particular set that had no problems mentioned in second pointer. Then I painted them to break the monotoneous colors, removing much of problems mentioned in third pointer.

By making some of the reinforcements to appear wooden (though their texture looks very much metallic, but hey... it's what you paint it to be, not what it looks like to be without paint) I attempted to make the walls fit a little bit better to Iron Kingdoms. At least I find it unlikely that there would be SO much refined scrap metal pieces around to construct improvised full-metal walls.

Ah well.

Oh, and the third wall piece in picture is a non-retouched wall piece from same terrain set, just for comparison.

Now I understand the Agonizer love

Again, about a week ago I played some Warmachine.

It was my Skorne against opposing Legion of Everblight.

And, uh, somehow I thought it was a VERY GOOD IDEA to take pictures without flash with only inside light. So upcoming are the VERY WORST pictures from games during the whole history of Every one of them, and that really is something!

Anyway.

It was a 35 point game with supposedly the steamroller 2012 Killbox going on, though I cannot be sure, because it didn't affect anything.

My list:

Lord Tyrant Hexeris
- Bronzeback Titan
- Basilisk Drake
- Basilisk Krea

Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen + Unit Attachment
Venator Flayer Cannon
Minimum unit of Paingiver Beasthandlers
Minimum unit of Farrow Bonegrinders
Paingiver Master Tormentor
Extoller Soulward
Ancestral Guardian
Agonizer

And opponent had:

Saeryn
- 2x Scythean
- Angelius
- Shredder

Striders + Unit Attachment
Shepherd
2x Spell Martyrs

... which comes out at 36 points! Well, mistakes like that happen. I know I've made them, too.

I won starting roll, and first picture is taken from the end of my second turn, since nothing important happened during first round (I guess that was because none of our armies were well-versed when it comes to ranged potential).

Death March was on Praetorian Swordsmen and Soul Slave on Bronzeback Titan. Respawn was on Angelius.

Well, next opponent started to use Saeryn's feat.

Scythean runs to engage Bronzeback Titan and Angelius charges Basilisk Drake. Because of somewhat sub-par roll on the Armor Piercing attack the froggy is left alive with less than 4 hit boxes, don't exactly remember if it was 1, 2 or 3.

Shredder runs to Praetorian Swordsmen. Being fixated totally on Saeryn's feat and how to navigate it next turn I'm thinking: "Cool... I don't know what opponent is trying to do, but I guess it ain't bad if Shredder ONLY engages a couple of swordsmen."

And just a little while after that I remember that yeah, Saeryn actually does have other things except her feat. Like, you know, Blight Bringer. Bam, bam, bam, about 5 dead Praetorians there and officer down to one or two hit boxes, thanks to a really crappy damage roll on 'Bringer.

A couple of Striders come and shoot the Master Tormentor down, too.

It was a pretty devastating turn, which could have been a lot worse if there weren't a couple of bad damage rolls involved. But that's a sort of beauty in Saeryn's feat. Even if you have a dice screw moment, opponent is still going to have a really tough next turn.

I opt to do awkward things. First Bronzeback Titan runs off to get its channeling ability to bear. Not as in ursus, but to bear. I was thinking of using Hexeris' feat and casting Obliteration on Striders (turned out I was engaged to Scythean. From Scythean to Scythean, Bronzeback always falls for the same type, type that will eventually only tear its still beating heart through its chest... such is love, I guess.) Free strike did hurt, though.

But then Extoller Soulward and Venator Flayer Cannon with a lucky 3 shots punished the first Scythean close to my lines. Extoller rolled really badly for its damage, but I really cannot complain, since not a single one of flayer cannons shots rolled less than 8 for damage, and I think there were some 9 or 10 added into the mix, too.

A special mention goes to Farrow Bone Grinders. They shoot down Shepherd who gained both elevation and cover from the terrain piece it was standing on. That must've been more than the piggies ever did for me in any game.

And now, looking at the picture, I realise both of us forgot all about Saeryn's feat then when Paingivers were activating. I mean... they came and took melee pot shots at the beasts, heh.

Luckily there was no harm done, because I actually helped opponent. I started stripping down fury from enemy beasts, because I didn't realize shredder was on full Fury, too.

Praetorian Swordsmen charge Striders, though only two actually get to charge, rest have to run. They kill one strider and the extra spell martyr.

Next round was again very depressing.

Scythean eats up Basilisk Krea. Another Scythean eats up Bronzeback Titan. Angelius eats up the remains of Basilisk Drake. Striders throw their teeth at Praetorians and eat up them, too. Everything... gone.

Well, my warlock did what a warlock without beasts must do. Full aggression without any regards to personal surviving.

Beast Handlers line up to Angelius, and this time doing it right, filling the beast up with Fury. Also blocking Angelius' Line of Sight to Hexeris, who runs to middle field with the four little pigs.

Ancestral Guardian kills Shredder.

And here is where a deep affection for Agonizer was born. It released the agony that gave -2 threshold to nearby beasts.

On opponents turn every single beast at opponent's disposal fail their check, essentially giving me another turn to play. That pesky 2-point model was the key piece that still had me in this game.

Scythean close to Skorne side of the board beats up Angelius a little, and Angelius kills a single Beast Handler. Middle field Scythean kills a Strider.

Then comes Skorne's harsh payback turn.

Flayer Cannon softens up Scythean a little, and then Hexeris activates, uses his feat and charges the aforementioned beast. He kills it, and Scythean strikes Angelius to back arcs.

Then Hexeris continues to buy more attacks, and finally manages to kill Angelius, which triggers Respawn.

Obviously the snake respawns to Hexeris' back arc.

But I still had Ancestral Guardian left. It took +2" movement with a soul token and charged Angelius, killing it once and for all.

So suddenly playing area looked a lot less threatening, though Hexeris was still playing without beasts. Agonizer had a couple of fury on it, though.

Because Scythean was facing in wrong direction, it couldn't charge and finish off Ancestral Guardian (and everyone complains about the Guardian. Heck, almost in every game I've used it it does not warrant the title of 'paperweight'). Advance + reach wasn't enough to get those claws scythin'.

On my turn I guess it wasn't impossible for Ancestral Guardian, Hexeris and Flayer Cannon to destroy a big beast that was, though, largely left undamaged.

Wrong.

I don't remember how many boxes Scythean had after all of my army had mauled it, but there it was, still very much standing, and on top of that next to my warlock.

GG, right? I was sure next picture would be the last one from this particular game.

Wrong.

Scythean missed around 75% of its attacks (I don't remember the exact allocation of additional attacks and/or boosts), and landed only one solid enough hit that actually hurt. One damage roll was something like 1,1,2.

Saeryn activates next and misses around 75% of her attacks. Granted, there wasn't too many of them, since she had had to heal Scythean a little.

Sadly there are no more sharper pictures from this fight.

Last two pictures are just for sake of completeness. Last turn basically went so that whole army minus warlock killed Scythean, and then Hexeris landed a couple of good hits from Gulgata through Saeryn's spine.

The game was insane with an ending no-one would've expected after the end of opponents second turn.

I guess this deserves the "epic" tag.

Found from the dungeons (Warmachine)

Oh wow, last game write-up was still in the draft folder and not published. Well, I got to fix that one now.

Some time ago, probably almost two weeks, I played this game of Warmachine/Hordes. I had finally assembled Scarsfell Griffon and almost painted it, and I wanted to try out Kaya1 for the second time.

This was an exaggerated "huge" let down on my standards of not playing with unpainted models. Oh well.

My 35 point list was:

Kaya the Wildborne
- Scarsfell Griffon
- Gorax
- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Gnarlhorn Satyr

Minimum unit of Tharn Ravagers
Tharn Bloodweavers
Blackclad Wayfarer
Druid Wilder

And enemy was playing with the epic Lylyth list familiar from a couple of last games. Except this time with more awesome paintjob!

I think first picture is from the end of my first turn, and opponent won the starting roll. This was one of the rare games where opponent didn't cast Shadow Pack. I guess he wasn't afraid of Spirit Fang which would drain 66% of Kaya's focus with full boosts...

Anyway, I was able to cloak all of my infantry under stealth with Occultation (as Bloodweavers have it naturally), so I just rushed them as far as possible. Either Striders would close in, or the big guys would unleash their AoE's upon them. Either way, it would hurt, but at least my beasts would be safe.

For some reason only the Dice Gods know, opponent pretty much failed to kill anything meaningful next turn. One Bloodweaver died and Blackclad Wayfarer was left with one hit box remaining.

Overjoyed by the sudden amount of infanty I had at my disposal, they all charged/ran at the front line of Raptors.

Spd 7 and spd 6 + reach was enough to get two Raptors engaged and dead. I tried to position my beasts so that coupled with Hunters Mark from Blackclad Wayfarer and Gnarlhorn's animus would be enough to charge something. Also, Kaya jumped to the roof area of that particular terrain piece on which Griffon is standing. After doing that I had already fallen in love with the beast.

I ended my turn, and was just a little bit afraid of the upcoming feat.

Combined efforts of last remaining raptor and Anyssa killed one ravager. Then Lylyth used her feat, and did something unspeakable.

Amazing hit rolls (and in one case a damage roll) killed four bloodweavers and one ravager. The ravager was one-shotted from full health to zero health. Okay, it was a ravager, but still quite an achievement from a single arrow.

Reason why it was actually amazing was the fact that most of Lylyth's targets were gaining elevation from hill, and some of them were even in melee. The lone bloodweaver even failed her command check.

That somewhat outrageous performance relieved pressure on Ravagores, so they took all their shots at Pureblood Warpwolf. And the three hits they scored was enough to kill the wolf. I did not find this hilarious.

Striders took a bit CRA at Gnarlhorn Satyr and rolled too much damage in there too.

All in all, it was a horrible turn for me as the Circle player. Had not Lylyth wrecked so much face in, I guess I would've had either more infantry alive or a 9-point beast still standing.

With spine crushed, Circle still had some teeth intact.

Blackclad Wayfarer advanced and cast Hunter's Mark on a Ravagore. Kaya activated, cast Gnarlhorn's animus on Gnarlhorn itself and Scarsfell Griffon. After healing Gnarlhorn with one point (I think Striders knocked off exactly Spirit branch with their CRA), used her feat, and healed Gnarlhorn even more and put up Occultation on herself.

Wilder ran so it might make Gnarlhorn's charge possible.

And then the beast charged. Damage rolls were slightly below average, but only slightly, so I cannot complain too much, especially when I would've needed slightly above average rolls to kill the target.

Ravagers charged, with unit leader trying to reach damaged Ravagore. Even with Hunter's Mark on the charge fell half and inch short.

Griffon went to tease Striders a little. Nothing else, really.

Opponent then destroyed Gnarlhorn as was to be expected, but it went down so easily that the painted Ravagore was able to charge my last tharn ravager on the hill.

This time around Lylyth didn't perform so well, as she shot down her own Raptor by accident. I guess that's just Legion's way of saying "I like you".

Striders took a full CRA against Griffon, and when they reformed one of them decided to come and engage the lionbird. I hope they eventually reach marriage status. Oh dear, that was so bad pun again that I ask for euthanasia.

Well, then it was my turn to cope with two light beasts and two solos and a lone unit member against a 29 point army. Because all that has entirel died from enemy was the minimum unit of Raptors.

Kaya dislodged herself from the roof and cast Gorax's animus on itself, and Gorax charged Ravagore to back arc. If memory serves, the damage rolls were exceptionally good, the little beast was truly trying to make up for the failures of bigger guys. Alas, the Ravagore was undamaged, so nothing was accomplished, really.

Blackclad Wayfarer charged the damaged Ravagore and cast the stone spray spell, doing little to the hulk in front of him, but nailing down Blighted Nyss Shepherd.

Birdie beast killed a couple of Striders, and a round later I realised that I had had forgotten Pack Hunters ability from Kaya alltogether.

However, this particular melee was the only melee where it'd possibly have mattered, as one attack from Griffon was a miss. All other attacks made by my beasts were either outside of Kaya's control range, or were hits.

Funnily enough, opponent just couldn't take the life of poor Gorax on the hill. Looked like it's destiny would be to actually suffer the payback of Primal in the form of automatic frenzy.

Well, that was mostly because Ravagore on hill frenzied and had only one attack.

Striders butcher up the thing they had never seen before, but at the campfire mutually agreed that it tasted like chicken.

Next Kaya runs to the best safety there ever is against a shooty army - melee. Either something really out-of-ordinary should happen for me to get a jump at Lylyth, or I would lose very soon. Or hide all around the map for three hours, which didn't feel like a good plan.

Gorax frenzies and bites Ravagore a little.

Well, then it's opponents turn. Striders back away from melee, and Kaya kills maybe one of them. CRA deals something over 10 points of damage, so it's transfered to Gorax (who at that particular moment had 2 boxes left).

Then Lylyth activates and gets a caster kill.

Short and sorry (not a dwarf, mind you)

It's been over a week since this game was played. I wonder if me slacking on doing these write-ups is somehow connected to me registering a Steam account?

Anyway, it was a Cryx vs Legion of Everblight 35 point game with no scenarios.

My list was:

Lord Exhumator Scaverous
- Seether
- 2x Nightwretches
- Ripjaw

Maximum unit of Bane Thralls + Unit Attachment
Bane Lord Tartarus
Skarlock
Necrotech & Scrap Thrall

And opponent had following Legion list:

Epic Lylyth
- 2x Ravagore

Striders + Unit Attachment
Minimum unit of Raptors
Anyssa Ryvaal
Shepherd

I think I won starting roll, since opponent used Lylyth's feat on first turn. Templates all over Cryxian forces are scather templates from ravagores.

That was a horrible turn for Legion, though. Inability to roll 5+ on two dice or 8+ on 3 dice was... a hinderance, at least. Both Bane Lord Tartarus and Necrotech were left alive with one box remaining, and if memory serves, Ripjaw lost its weapon system. Two bane thralls died. And that was about all.

But what can you expect, when Lylyth misses 2/3 of her attacks, ravagore misses the critical attack to nail down Tartarus?

To add an insult to injury, my next turn went perfectly.

First Seether is allocated one focus, and Nightwretch one. Wretch runs close to Lylyth. Tartarus just runs "somewhere there". Skarlock casts Telekinesis on Seether.

Scaverous activates and feats out. He casts Ghost Walk on Seether, Telekinesis on Lylyth and Icy Grip on Lylyth just because he had the focus. And because he still had one, he cast Telekinesis on Bane Lord Tartarus to get Lylyth into Dark Shroud.

Seether then charges Icy Gripped Lylyth, claiming back arc bonuses while she was in Tartarus' Dark Shroud. GG?

Damn, it could have been a fair game if I would've had my share of dice screw in this one. Maybe I shouldn't whine about victories, but really, this just felt too unfair.

Ah well, I got another game in the write-up queue against the same opponent, which was pretty awesome.