Saturday 19 December 2015

Glacier Queens

A few weeks ago, I received two Glacier Kings. This is my story.

The Kings were a blast to paint but not the best to put together - who knew? After playing about 10 games with them I now feel it's time to discuss them properly. 


I have been running them with Doomy3. Mainly for the point reduction and feat. 16 points of ice seems legit. My first three games with them came at a local event. The 16 point steamroller went reasonably well. Paired with Runes, I came third and only lost on scenario after getting my opponents caster down to 1 wound.

The Kings were glorious in the first game against pigs. Running 16 inches first turn due to the tier benefit and Rush was bonkers. The feat made them unkillable the next turn and I removed any threats. 5-0 to me.

Then came cryx. I knew going into the event that this would be a problem. Cryx like to munch on armour. Armour was all I was bringing. The game started well for me, I got up the table and began scoring/ piece trading. I didn't go for the assassination until turn 4 - a costly mistake. However, the biggest mistake was stupidly activating one King and advancing out of Doomy's control. If I had been able to boost I think I would have killed the caster. Instead, I left him on one and he won 5-3 on incursion. 

Then came the glorious moment where I assassinated a caster top of two with trolls. With ret, this was a common plan, but in trolls I have looked for the long game. To put it simply, my opponent didn't realise the Kings had rate of fire three. Abby died after one King had activated.

So that was my first event with them. They did well, were fun and great to see on the table. I have since played a few more games and used them in a mangled metal event yesterday. Yesterday didn't go too well but I had fun and learnt a lot.

So, here is the thing about the Kings and Doomy3. You will catch people out win ROF 3. You will feel great feat turn. You will kill jacks and beasts with ease once you get to them. But, and it's a big but, their relatively low wound count and def 9 mean they can be easily killed after feat. Not only that, but having two means you don't have much of a screen or other pieces to continue the fight once one is removed. Doomy3 also seems to struggle late game if your opponent has been wise and not fed you his army. In short, with the way the meta currently looks to deal with armour (thanks MMM) I  think they will need some rethinking. Maybe they need Gunnbjorn.

 I loved painting them. I'm happy to see them on the table. They are so, so much better than the Mountain King. For now at least I will give them Christmas off. Doomy3 will also have an Xmas break to rest his weary head. 

Next, I feel Calandra, croaks and the knot need to be tested. Puppet stringed Croak raiders under her feat sound OK don't they?

Saturday 17 October 2015

Makeda1 - Goddamn Bugs whacked us, Johnny!

Morning and Salutations to my fellow Tyrants, with an apology for being away so long. It's been a busy few weeks since my last entry, including two local events, and the UK Nationals.

Are any of you still out there? Anyone? Ah well, looks like I'm back to mumbling to myself again.

So first up, results of the aforementioned events.. well, I won both of the local events. More through luck than judgement? Absolutely. I love playing Warmachine, and that genuinely is my approach to playing any game. I'm always surprised when I do well, when half the time I eschew the more powerful options for models which I haven't used in an age, or I like the look of. 

Perhaps I do well from the dark horse choices? Especially in the cold, hard, post Devastation light, who plays Skorne anymore, eh? Just kidding. But I bet that the guys that do wouldn't field three Rhinodon, as I have on occasion.

 Ah, the noble Rhinodon. Forgotten hero of the Skorne Empire.

Overall, if I'm honest, I'd call any success that I enjoy more luck than fine judgement of how to play my opponents. Moving on, and I went 4-3 at the Nationals, including a very brutal game in which I was schooled in two turns and learned a very important lesson about large battlegroups and their vulnerabilities.

No more playing the bully for me.

If there is any interest from the say, one of two of you that are still interested in reading this, I can talk about that - but for the moment, as promised, I thought I'd share my Makeda1 list that I mentioned I was working on a while back, and that I took with me to the Masters and both events.

The List..

Armies of the Western Reaches (Tier2)

Archdomina Makeda
-Aradus Soldier
-Aradus Soldier
-Scarab Pack
-Scarab Pack
-Scarab Pack

Venator Reivers (Leader and 5 grunts)
-Officer and Standard UA
 Venator Reivers (Leader and 5 grunts)
-Officer and Standard UA
Praetorian Keltarii (Leader and 9 grunts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 grunts)

Its an ADR list (at time of writing) so for the Masters I was able to add a sideboard of

Saxon Orrik
Titan Gladiator
Basilisk Krea
Venator Slingers (Leader and 9 grunts)

I don't use this guy, barely at all, in any list. Sorry buddy.

..I know. I'm a special snowflake. So the big question is the record I guess; thus far it's managed 5:1 (2:1 at the Masters), which I'm fairly happy with. My one defeat was against Xerxis1, in a game which I didn't want to drop it, but was forced to in the face of the Xerxis2 pairing I'd also brought being such a poor match.

What does it do well you might ask at this stage. I'm not 100% sure to be honest. It feels nice to play certainly, with a lot of interesting elements that I don't typically field; combined arms, recursion, and a tricky jam unit for denial work. That said, it doesn't feel terribly toolboxy either. It's a 'soft' attrition list, with a no nonsense build. Not many tricks to it.

Typically, the two Venator units advance down either flank, using their minifeats to fire into the enemy ranks early, and then keeping up the barrage of supporting fire throughout. The Keltarii are my Defenders Ward targets - reaching a healthy DEF15/17 and immunity free strikes - Reform lets them jump into the enemy to slow their advance considerably. In the middle. The Scarabs are a strong denial element - my opponent has to think about managing 40 boxes of damage per turn if they want to stop the little suckers from returning under feat. The big bugs are there for the heavy lifting, and to offer another potential +2/+2 for the Scarabs.

Did I ever mention how much I love these guys?
So what else can it do? Well.. that's just it. It's relatively tanky against guns, with Cover, Blade Shield, Defenders Ward and Carapace Armour keeping me smiling. I'm currently toying with the idea of finding space for the Aradus Sentinel in the mix, but in truth I know from experience it really wants the heavy hitters. An early game was against Runes, and that was a real struggle. Another good choice would be breaking tier, losing one unit of Venators, maxing the other and trying to fit in Zaadesh to run the little bugs. Gang would improve their effectiveness drastically; they're made for Tag Team, even at a cursory glance.

I feel that there could be real mileage here - although since I started writing this I realise I'm not seeing table time with it - because I'm all in on playtesting Zaal2. I'll have to come back to it therefore. Coming up this tomorrow I have another local event, and then the following weekend a mini Masters which I desperately need practice for, not to mention a Journeyman at my FLGS where I'm fielding Farrow...

Any week where you have too many games to find time for a new list because you're busy playing others can't be bad.

Until next time, fellow Tyrants.






Sunday 4 October 2015

Fluff.

Evening!  

So to take a break from painting my second Shepheard and Deathstalker I thought I'd talk fluff. 

Coming for a background rooted in GW games I've had nearly 25 years of a world to immerse myself in and enjoy. I feel like I've walked the streets of The Empire and trod the trails through Athel Loren. As you might have guessed- to me, fluff is important. I need it to 'live' the game. I want to feel the that I know what my characters are going through etc. Lame?  Maybe, but it's what I enjoy. 

As such, I've started to immerse myself in the world of WMH. Initial thoughts?  I'm liking it. It feels like PP haven't just taken all the paradigms of fantasy or sci fi and slapped their own branding on the top. Yes there are good guys and baddies, references to the real world and elves- but the meld and lack of realiance on one particular genre works nicely. 

So i throw it open to the floor- do games need the fluff, the back story and the cannon?

Saturday 3 October 2015

Kromac, Champion of the Wurm - Now with added play experience!

Hey all, It's Aaron Wilson here / PGSadPander on the forums! I'm back with another post about Kromac2. My last blog broke him down, his spells, his feat and what I thought my list might look going forward. Well I'm now 7 games in with this guy and I thought I'd share my experience with him so far and what I've learned.

I've paired Kromac2 with Kreuger2. The list I've been running for Kromac2 is as follows -

Kromac, Champion of the Wurm
Druid Wilder
Ghetorix
Warpwolf Stalker
Pureblood Warpwolf
Lord of the Feast
Blackclad Wayfarer
Blackclad Wayfarer
Shifting Stones
Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones
Druids of Orobos
Druids of Orobos Overseer.

Out of the 7 games I've played I have l won 4 and lost 3, the best thing about the losses is I know why I've lost each time. I may have been too cautious with the feat and held it for too long, or like in my first game with Kromac2 popped it way too early and didn't quite hold it until it was relevant. I'll break down the list for you guys so hopefully you get an idea why each model is in it.

Lets start with Kromac2, well boy this guy is baller to play, our first proper front line warlock and he does it well. I find my self having the choice each turn of casting Carnage or Primal Howl after I've upkept Awakened Spirit. Generally if I'm feating and going in deep primal howl is what I'll look for here. The feat negates a little of the need for Carnage and on the feat turn you're not looking to drop high defense targets, rather the low defense meatier ones. Primal howl will keep Kromac2 alive in isolation in most instances under feat turn against living model melee assassinations. If you're pressuring scenario by keeping Kromac2 in the zone primal howl is normal high on the priority list to cast. If you're not in any immediate danger and you're not pressuring quite so hard, carnage is never a bad spell to throw down.

The wilder is pretty key to the list to help the fury management and I've found best run as a module with the Pureblood Warpwolf. If you're playing a spread out scenario having these two waddle around as a pair is ace, a fully boosted spray each turn for 0 fury is a amazing piece of kit. If you're not spreading out, she's still amazing and the best fury management outside of stones. I often find my self either stripping fury off a beast, or throwing a lightning strike onto ghetorix.

Ghetorix, do we need to say more?

Warpwolf stalker is amazing (Durr, who knew eh?) give him awakened spirit and let him berserk under carnage until his heart is content only to sprint, so far spending 0 fury! This guy under what Kromac2 offers is just the ticket.

Pureblood, well the more I play him the more I love him. As you will notice I have no gorax in my list so I have no primal. The Pureblood animus therefore is double important as in some cases (Fortify, Arcane shield, ect ect) Wraithbane is as good (Or better) then a primal. Not only that but the spray is so solid, warp ghostly, walk out spray that Eiryss, Gorman, Anastasia ect in the back lines. In a list where it's hard to get those annoying solo pieces this guy shines. That's on top of his solid animus, and the ability to bring serious pain under the feat also.

Lord of the Feast, well I'm being quite greedy here. This guy is essentially the gorax slot, but I've playing greedy and taking LotF instead and I'm really glad I am! This guy is a machine, which we all knew. He will either buy you a whole turn by engaging a unit and forcing them to take him out (An example being I charged two Dawnguard Sentinels, cleared up both, shot another and killed 3 more and the unit then had to vengeance to remove him). He's other primary role is getting to the real back support pieces (Looking at choir, beast handlers, ect) or at the very least run to engage a unit (Gun mages, Stryder Rangers) force a CMD test and engage the unit. Overall I'm always glad this guy is in my list.

The double blackclads, I think we all know why we love the blackclad. A 2" threat extension, a solid spray or rapid deployment.

Double stones, again no surprise here. Fury management, in a list where you want to brick more often then not they let you break from the brick turn after without worrying about charge vectors, ect.

Druids with UA. I know druids are 50/50 with circle players, some people dislike them and think they don't do enough, some people adore. I adore them, counter magic, elemental protection, people ALWAYS having to worry about me going fishing with force bolts for free trades as well as the clouds to finish the brick off. Under a druid cloudwall and primal howl Kromac2 can be looking at 18/18, or under feat 18/20 with 19, that's ludicrous stats. Oh and to top that all of, you can't cast spells at me. 

Over all I love how the list plays, though a lot of this comes down to Kromac2. He is an amazing warlock and a real breath of fresh air to the faction, never have I been able to feat, charge and one shot a raek, just with my warlock! He's play a solid scnenario game in a non control way, mroe in a "I'm probably going to eat if you're close" way?. Drop him in a scenario zone and your opponent has the question of feeding him, or not contesting. Under the brick the assassination attempts should look very bad for the opponent. With the stones and druids you still have circle movement shenanigans paired with models to get to the back line / remove key solo and support pieces.

Well, that's my run down of Kromac2 so far. How are you finding him so far, whether it be playing against or with him?

Friday 2 October 2015

What a difference a day makes - Devastation and the Thornfall Alliance

Thursday 1st of October and the Thornfall Alliance is downcast and grumbling with only the Warlord spoiled so far and he is "Situational" at best and terrible at worst; over costed, over abundance of conflicting abilities and over here... All is not well.




Friday 2nd of October and all hell has broken loose! Chain Attack have an early copy of the book and have posted up a fair few spoilers about upcoming releases, some are good, some are great and some are amazing... but as a primarily Farrow player i don't really give a stuff about the other bits haha.

Thankfully PP has seen fit to provide the Alliance with several awesome new tools of warfare to crush the armies of man:


The Battle Boar

First mentioned in Helga's fluff story i believe, its stats are identical to its cousin the gunboar, but this brute has lost the cannon and gained rabid(!) and snacking as an animus.. oh and its a point cheaper to boot!

This is a big deal, this beast provides the alliance with a solid platform of cheap, melee light beast that the many and varied buffs available in faction can bring:

  • Lord Carver: Where to start haha; Mobility for SPD9 with Rabid, Batten down the hatches for ARM20, Quagmire for effective MAT7, the feat for 4D6 damage rolls. With Carver i plan to treat them like Heavy infantry and run a pack of 4/5 of them and smash into my opps lines with ease.
  • Golden Horde Tier: Again Lord Carver but the T4 benefit of advance move on battlegroup means that going first you can be knocking on your opponents AD line - 7"Deploy + 5" AM + 18" Run/Rabid/Mobility. Also in this tier is cheaper lights for Rorsh but this is not the one for him...
  • Dr Arkadius: The usual benefits of Forced Evolution and Crippling Grasp with the crazy feat for some silly movement.
  • Mad Science: Doc's old tier is still a fav of mine, and remember what the BBoar can do with Golden Horde, well look at Mad Science for some speed: 7"Deploy  + 18" Run/Rabid/SPD + 12" Feat Charge to get into the opps deployment zone on turn 1... unlikely but possible haha
  • Nature of the Beast: Ive not played this enough to decide if the beast is better than losing the free Razorboar, only time will tell on this.
  • Midas brings calamity and his tier allows masses of bonegrinders and a dead beast for them to start spaming an animus... not this guys but the next beast hehe
  • Sturm n Drang are beast casters through and through so; Drang bringing the amazing combo of Pack Hunters/Goad/Killing ground for +2MAT, free charges and extra movement!
  • Helga: The First Lady of Pigdom brings us Gang fighter for extra hitting power, and her funky slam time feat for more shenanigans. Helga's armies often feature a lot of slaughterhousers as she doesnt do much for brigands and reach gives more flexibility on the feat. The BBoars will love the abundance of reach infantry to trigger gang fighter haha.


The Splatter Boar


A total new one for us, a giant piggy Assault Kommando with a mortar strapped to its back hahaha whats not to like! Gun Boar stats with a different ammo type gun as listed above.

It could be argued that this gun brings to the Alliance what Rask's brings to the luggage crew; Corrosion bombs for murdering chaff, fire for hardier targets and triggering the prowl on the Warlord(!) but his best is the psycho gas...

Hit your own troops who will largely be fearless and get the enemy to run away, or better yet hit your own beasts for a frenzy move... Farrow now have fury management!!!!! Outside of Dr A's feat we have a way to relatively reliably deal with an epic turn of destiny and not pay the piper for it in the next turn.

Midas and Helga love this guy, Midas in tier has a good spamable animus for all his bonegrinders to dish out and |Helga has a powerful gun to make use of her slams.

Sturm n Drang love this guy as he can provide a cloud for them to hide in/behind and shield their medium base asses from enemy fire.

Carver loves this guy for further increasing the damage output of his new Battle Boar brute squad and could attach one to Rorsh to provide cheap covering fire and fury management without taxing him.

Dr A loves him in Mad science for sure, but again is he worth losing a free razor boar in Nature???? 



Lynus Wesselbaum & Ebrea Lloryrr (Minion Character Unit)


Pendrake's assistants from the Novella are now gracing a tabletop near you! Less useful than the pig beasts but still having something to offer the Alliance, Collaboration  provides another way to buff the spell warded Maximus and trying to avoid that critical miss on his first attack roll derp.

Ebrea can bring an extra magical attack to use against those dastardly incorps or Paladins etc, and her wind barrier brings shooting protection to the unit which makes them pretty tenacious compared to their 14/12 stats would suggest.



So there we have it, an old Farrow generals outlook on our newest recruits... i cant wait for the releases and to start terrorizing the local tournament scene... who knows, if they are out by smogcon you WILL see them in the Pit!!!!!!   


Thursday 1 October 2015

Entering the fray

You know the score, long time gamer picks up new system, dabbles and then when it inevitably feels wrong eBay is reached for.  I had thought that this would be my experience with WM/H having been a drum beating, fun loving GW fan boy since the age of 12.  I bought some Legion, basing my decision entirely on the look of the models and set about learning the game.

"Its a steep learning curve" they sagely opined.

"You'll loose a lot of game first" many a club member informed me.

"Play one list and stick with it" was a mantra I heard many times.

Pah!  I've played for Wales at the 6 Nations!  I've painted more Skaven than Matt Ward's had bad ideas I thought.  

How foolish I was, as it seems that all of the above was entirely true!  I could feel the urge to sell coming on fast, thinking of all the new Warriors or Orcs I could buy with me coin.  9th edition was fast approaching and with rumours of being allowed allies I was happier than a Welshman at 'Twickers' last week.  Then Age of Sigmar arrived.  I won't dwell on the genuine upset I felt over this, rather the opportunity GW unwittingly game me to give WM\H a chance.

So I bought a ticket to a one day event, borrowed me some Ravagores and decided that no matter what happened I was going to get stuck in.   For me, organised play is always the best and I suppose the thrust of this post is recanting my first event experience and offering my tips for the other 'noobs' out there.

So - Round 1 against Trolls.  After my oppo did all the setting up (I hadn't.....haven't got a clue) it struck me that I had no idea as to what his toys could do.  "Look at his cards" you say?  Well, on the clock and conscious of not spoiling the event for him its easier said than done, as he had a LOT of cards.  This would be my message from this round.  You are not going to know what he can do - so make sure you know what yours does!  Pick any two units from WFB and i'll tell you how each can deal with each other.  Here I was lost, playing blind.  So, deal with it on a case by case basis.  Activate - target and then ask.  It keeps the game flowing.

Round 2 taught me about 'feating'.  I was using Epic Lylyth, and looking forward to Decimation.  The game rolled on and it occurred to me that if I didn't feat soon it wouldn't happened.  You can see where this is going.  I needed to get my head out of the 6 turn, slow burn approach to gaming and play the situation.  The fact was that my list was all about the feat and I squandered the opportunity.  Be brave I say and feat when the opportunity arises - not save it for a later that may never come!

Round 3 was a little different as the chap I played made it more of a training game.  This match up tight me about, how to put it, gaming detritus?  I was spewing out lasting fireballs and had nothing to mark them with.   Fortunately my oppo did and all was well, but look at your list and think about what you need to play the game effectivly.  A good measure, enough tokens and effect rings.

Round 4 was against a PressGanger who let me win it but had the good graces to make a show of disguising it!  This gives me the opportunity to discuss my final point.  Its quite clear that WM/H is designed to be played in a competitive spirit but that doesn't mean it can't be fun, civil and sporting.  I must have played near 100 event games of WFB and can count the number of bad games on one hand.  I hope for the same with this system and would encourage any other new players to adopt this attitude.  Its toy soldiers after all, and you can't get angry with dice.

As I get more games under my belt i'll be back with more musings.  Having just secured a ticket for the Welsh Masters I have some work to do!

Tuesday 1 September 2015

Time to talk ADR.

This weekend I took part in a Steamroller event which had the ADR variant from the Masters Rulespack - this weekend coming I take part in another, and next week I'll be heading to the UK Masters to play two ADR Warlocks. Earlier this year, I played two Warlocks from Season One ADR in the Welsh Masters. 

Love it or loathe it, the ADR is certainly popular, and now for me at least seems a good time to discuss my experience of it.

Season One.. and how the hell did Mordikaar make it into the mix?!

I think that more than anything else, the defining characteristic of the first season ADR Warnoun selections was that they were (and still are) perceived to be the bottom end of their respective factions. Now.. don't get me wrong, before we go any further. I should probably qualify that remark. There were obvious exceptions. Using the Skorne as an example, Void Seer Mordikaar for example is widely regarded nowadays as one of the strongest options available. But he is in with strange bedfellows here. Both Naaresh and Hexeris1 are not considered to be strong tournament pieces. Morghoul2? Well... if I understand what the internets tell me, he was terribad to begin with in Mk.II, became amazeballs once Hit Squad landed, and then plummeted back into oblivion after being hit by the nerf bat in the recent errata. 

Sigh, those kids and their strange ideas. I could talk for hours on why I don't agree with near any of that, but I won't bore anybody reading this unless prompted. I will say that my choices for this season were Lord Tyrant Hexeris, and Master Ascetic Naaresh. 

Firstly, Hexeris1 is an excellent Warlock in the right circumstance. His feat can break the back of an entire army in a single turn against the right opponent and build, but even so, he brings tools for almost every occasion. What hurts him in my experience is that you rarely get the ideal match up for him. Any player with a list that doesn't want to see their own models eat into their comrades or be removed from play en masse will simply drop that second list. Suddenly, your infantry annihilating machine sputters, and realises that it doesn't have a feat any more, or worse yet, any heavies to face down the inevitable beef across the table. ADR is absolutely the answer for this. I was able to drop Hexeris1 without  that issue, knowing that I could simply substitute models for the best mix against my opponents list and Warnoun. Being able to so acutely build a list focuses him nicely. and really plays to his strengths.

Naaresh is another matter entirely. I play Naaresh at Tier four, and with probably the simplest battleplan the world has ever known, charging headlong into the opposition. If I'm entirely honest, the only reason I took Naaresh is that I love using him, and he was great armour breaking skew to fit alongside Hexeris. That said, there was some level at which he benefited from ADR; dependent upon my opponent, my two Rhinodon could easily become Archidon as needed.

My experience was that ultimately, although both Warlocks received a huge boost in competitive play as a result of a list sideboard (even more so in games where my opponents played a static list), ultimately they couldn't quite compete at the highest levels once the draw took me closer to the top tables and the established lists that you'd expect (despite a Runes victory for Hexeris, and a Saeryn victory for Naaresh along the way).  

So is season two any different? You bet.

Season Two - more bang for your buck.

The season two Warnouns are, continuing with the established conventions that players worldwide clutch to with an alarming regularity (if you hadn't guessed, I'm all about the individuality, man...), the middle rank options. I'll keep the same disclaimer as before, although I'm not sure that you see it in the Skorne lineup - there are a handful of exceptions, such as Father Lucant, or Vyros2, but for the most part there are none of the power pieces that you see proliferate at the top level. 
But the difference is that this time around, the Warnouns are more able to compete with the big boys. Play experience has shown this player at least that often the sideboard is enough of a little push to maximise those lists and cut out the elements which you need to include as an answer that might not be needed (take the Baslisk Krea as an example, suddenly pointless if you find yourself against an army with no guns), and ensure that you've wrung every available point to get the most favourable match up possible. Does that guarantee results? Of course not. But its a big step in list equality.
My choices here are Xerxis, Fury of Halaak, and Archdomina Makeda. Why? Well, Xerxis2 is flat out fun. He's also doing a very similar job as Rasheth and Morghoul1, but has the advantage of suiting how I play better. Time has shown me that I prefer a Warlock that can get work done in the end game if necessary, and that absolutely is the big lad on the rhino. 

I'm using Makeda1 to test elements I don't usually take or are new to me - Venators, Aradus, Scarab Packs, Keltarii. Being a Tier2 Armies of the Western Reaches theme force, the essential core of the list are two min units of Venator Reivers with UA attachments, which can never be switched out via ADR, along with the Praetorian Keltarii which I am very reluctant to remove - with Defenders Ward, they become an extremely capable jamming piece which has proven their worth to me time over in the few games I've used them. The remaining pieces are a little more flexible - but the base point is three units of Scarabs, and two Aradi Soldiers. These can be switched around slightly if necessary to make way for the reserves - Saxon Orrik for pathfinder where needed, a Baslisk Krea to make the list really tanky against a gunline, and a max unit of Slingers for those occasions that you wish Cryx would just spend their time melting into the floor in front of your eyes.

I cant promise that list especially will produce many results over the coming weeks, but it certainly does underscore the premise that ADR allows you to optimise your lists again - especially with the addition of new pieces like the Gremlin Swarm and River Raiders, pieces which you'll find absolute game changers in the rare situation, but worthless outside of that. Plus of course, its a lot of fun. 

Especially if you're a Starship Troopers fan.

This is literally how facing three units of Scarab Packs and two Aradus Soldiers feels apparently.

I'll keep you all in the loop - watch this space as results come in. Last weekend managed a tournament victory, although I seriously doubt I can keep that up!

Until next time.

 

Monday 31 August 2015

Hello devout readers, just a quick update from me. Back from my honeymoon today.

Im feeling really upbeat about warmachine at the mo. Zerkova for my Khador pairings, Ace for Caine, Hurricane for Nemo and Haley, secret squirrel project for Stryker 3, Some crazy ideas on how to play Haley 3, plus two fluff legion lists for some 4tk event. Tons of lists to try, tons of enthusiasm, tons of events lined up. Good times are here. Even a new shirt to represent in.
Will keep you posted.

Paul.

Friday 21 August 2015

..unleash the Siege Animantarax!

The title says it all. After far too long in the shadow of... well, everything in the entire game, the errata of yesterday has made significant steps to salvage the noble Siege Potato. And, as one of the few, proud and the brave to have (extremely foolishly) built lists prior to this with not one, but two of the lumbering beasts, I find myself in a good place to discuss the changes, and what they might mean.

 Coming back to a Tabletop near you in Fall 2015.. The Mighty Siege Potato

Firstly, lets look at the changes. They reads simply enough - When this model is damaged by an attack, it gains one rage token ... during its activation, this model can spend rage tokens to boost attack or damage rolls.

So, the change is twofold. Firstly, friendly models can now generate rage tokens. That's a pretty big deal. One of the biggest issues facing the Animantarax prior to this was that unless you took Siege Column or Footsteps of Giants, the creature would only ever generate rage tokens the turn your opponent decided to kill it - meaning that it could never truly benefit from the ability. Even then with one of the two lists mentioned, the tokens were a one use item, with you spending them once it arrived in melee and then exhausting your boosts for the game. No one ever attacked an Animantarax for a couple of points, generated a token and then left it alone. Now that Beast Handlers can add tokens to it every turn, this is a much better and more reliable mechanic, offering three boosts a turn, and not a passive ability which requires your opponent to help out.

The second change is what makes this work though. Previously, all boosting was limited to the tail - now, with the text stipulating any attack, the Animantarax becomes a much more interesting piece. The most obvious change is to the spears, which can start at POW13 / POW12 and then both be boosted, going some way to closing the disparity between the POW of the spears and tail. But better yet, the gun goes from something which you can reliably improve your chance to hit. The piece can charge a target, attack with all three melee ( benefiting from the +3STR) on the attacks, then shoot at secondary targets, using the tokens to boost the mediocre accuracy. 

This is a big deal. Previously, the guns had been a dubious afterthought, even against Trollblood or Khador Warjack DEF.

So the next question would be who does this benefit the most I guess.

The obvious contenders remain the three best lists to run it in from before. The changes are good, but simply don't go far enough to make this a strong addition without a little extra help, and the points reductions from Siege Column, Footsteps of Giants, and Armageddon are all extremely welcome. Starting with tokens is now less useful (translating into +3 Boxes) of course, but two 9pt models for 16 points or better yet, 14pts is a definite step in the right direction, and difficult to ignore.

Of course, its a dubious question how well any of those lists support it otherwise. Makeda3 and Xerxis2 can do some good for the Animantarax via Vortex of Destruction and Ignite / Hand of the Ancients respectively, but then so they can do the same with these abilities for everyone in their army, and both crucially want an extremely Warbeast heavy build, reducing the potential points to sink into a Battle Engine, even at a discount. Siege Column fares a little better; Plague Wind offers it a little survivability (especially when combined with an Agonizer and/or Dimish), and Blood Mark and Plague Wind stacked offer a solid -4ARM to most targets which can really ramp up the effectiveness. 

Outside of those three, and at 9pts, the Animantarax becomes a model that is useful only in its newfound self sufficiency for the most part. Most Warlocks will be able to leave it alone on one flank to be able to take care of itself with a little help from the whips, and offering a flexible alternative to a Warbeast for those at Fury5 and Fury6 that might not want to run too many beasts. There are even a handful of spells that can help - Fury, Defenders Ward, Vision, Road to War et al. However, special note probably has to go to Hexeris2, whom is really the only Warlock to step up to the plate, rubbing his hands together with glee. 

Why you ask? Black Spot.

Black spot effectively enables a bonus three shots with the newly useful gun, for something which is relatively easy to pull off on the table. With boosts, you can now be sure that they'll hit too, or at least half of them will. Remember that because of weapons platform you can both types of Initial attacks, so its perfectly legal to trigger a ranged attack with a more powerful and accurate melee attack. Add in the Croak Raiders and a unit or two of Cataphract Incindiarii, and you've got yourself a real infantry spam clearance list...

So, the obvious question now is.. will I run them? The answer is yes. I used to before, and this really just makes them more useful. I think I'll focus on Makeda3 and Hexeris2 for my fix initially, but we'll have to see. Maybe one day I'll find the love for Rasheth that I've sorely missed throughout my entire Skorne career.


Some would question why I use Anchorman pictures so much. They would be missing the point.

So my hat off to you PP once again, you managed the impossible, you magnificent bastards, in a way that almost seemed elegant. Back next time fellow Tyrants, with hopes and dreams for that magical dream entry we're all hoping that will catapult Zaal2 into the 'usable' category.

Wednesday 19 August 2015

SYNERGY DANCE OFF

Its Grandad here with an Imperishable Dominion battle report. Myself and Dan from this blog decided to bring eVyros and Bradigus together to have a synergy battle. We both decided to take it to tier four for both casters.
Dans force was pretty straight forward, Imperatus, a unit of Sentinals, a Destor Thane, couple of arcanists, an Aspis and a load of Griffon's.
      
No Dan, its Incursion
My force was a straightforward tier four wold war list the only thing I tried out different was putting in the Woldwrath.

Turn one: Retribution ran everything forward, Vyros cast Synergy and then popped feat. Circle ran forward mostly, took a few pot shots with Woldwatchers and the Woldwrath which mostly missed and the Manikin line went forward and exploded into forests (yes, I know birds eye and pathfinder made this largely ineffective but it would slow the Sentinals). Bradigus cast synergy and the Woldwatchers hunkered down, the dance off was on.
The thin, green, useless, line

Turn two: Dan was expecting a bit more from the Circle shooting (which was mostly misses) so the feat was (when a friendly model dies and friendly model moves) a non-event. Vyros cast deflection, a couple of Sentinels and a couple of Griffon's ganged up to nearly kill a Woldwatcher. Tired of dancing round each other Bradigus feated and went in, also casting mystic wards. The Wolds started to build up a synergy chain, taking out a few more Sentinels and three Griffon's. Sadly for Bradigus the move back on the feat just moved him back 1/2" to far which left the stoneformed Woldwatcher who was 5" from Vyros out of control, meaning mystic wards would not work.

Turn three: Dan started sweating at the thought of not being able to upkeep synergy, but he had gotten away with it. The Retribution launched their counter strike, the Thane galloping around to try and get involved (Dan had forgotten about him and left him on the extreme flank) Vyros went to hide his giant armoured horse behind a small wall (that's right, you cant see me) and Imperatus and the Griffon's built up enough synergy to smash two Woldwatchers to pieces. In response the Woldguardians pounded the rest of the Sentinels and two more Griffon's to dust.
Your on a warhorse son, get involved

Turn four: Vyros had to move and recast synergy due to mystic wards, killing a Sentry Stone in the process, the other Sentry Stone was taken out by the Destor Thane.Imperatus bagged himself a Woldguardian and an Arcanist ran to score a control point (Dan could see his army buckling and had to try and apply some pressure).The second Woldguardian cleared the way forward, taking out the Aspis.The Woldwrath charged Imperitus, having a + 4 from synergy, I was confident that even with the stupid Phoenix protocol, my MAT 10 P+S 23 gargantuan should be able to remove the Retribution heavy from table. Stupid distances, the Woldwrath failed the charge by millimetres. Imperatus lived and Dan could stop holding his breath.
Stupid distances....

Turn five: Vyros gave out all is focus to the lone Griffon and Imperatus before claiming the far right control point. The Griffon charged Bradigus for little effect whilst Imperatus killed the second Woldguardian. A Woldwatcher takes out the Thane whilst the Woldwrath makes a meal of taking out Imperatus, running out of fury, allowing the Retribution heavy to come back to life after being pulled apart. Sensing the dance is over and being on + 2 synergy and 5 fury whilst Vyros has no focus, Bradigus gets ready to end it himself. I measured control and Vyros is just millimetres out of Bradigus 10" threat, damn distances, again! To rub salt in the wounds, the three rocks he chucks at Imperatus fails to finish the Jack of.
Imperatus is still there, why wont you die?

Turn six: Vyros fills up Imperatus, casts easy rider so Imperatus can skip over the left overs of all the light jacks and goes to dance with Bradigus himself (here I have made a cardinal sin, I left my warlock without a transfer target) and Imperatus ends the game.
Bye Brad....

Conclusions: Dan  is a pretty decent player and well experienced with his Retribution. He followed his battle plan, which was swarm the enemy with Sentinels and Griffon's, build up synergy and employ Imperatus (easily the man....jack? of the match) as his finisher. I felt that I had control of the tempo of the dance and felt comfortable going towards the endgame, just a couple of bad manoeuvring errors and then getting carried away and failing to leave a transfer target sealed my doom, against experienced players that is just a gift. Great game.









Thursday 30 July 2015

Zaal2, Back in (Obsidian) Black...

Greetings Pop Pickers... it's Gencon, and what does that mean? Why, for the first time since Master Ascetic Naaresh there is a Skorne Warlock convention pre-release. And boy, has he generated some heat online.

So gather fellow tyrants, so that we can lament our latest triumph of Skornegy, and have the same conversation as everyone else is presently, starting with 'What the actual fuck were you thinking PP?'


First, because its how we roll over here at Imperishable Dominion, the most important thing is to discuss a little background for a second. What made our man Zaal go epic? Did he maraud across the land, murdering entire armies in the name of his ancestors? Perhaps he achieved a position of ultimate mortitheurgical and spiritual power? How about rising to command the armies of the western reaches?

Nope to all of those. Zaal became epic, because he bought the farm. Shed a tear for our most famous of Extollers. Only one though - in the Skorne Empire, as a wiser man than I once said, death isn't the handicap it used to be.

In game terms therefore, Zaal2 is an Ancestral Guardian now, with an impressive(ly bad) statline to match. At least he kept FURY7.

SPD4 - now, everyone who has ever played against Skorne will tell you that the SPD stats in the faction are really just for show. They're not really the right numbers. Except in this case, it kinda is. More on the one SPD buff he has later.

STR8, MAT6, 1x P&S14 Reach Magic Weapon - well, the POW and the Reach are to be honest fairly standard within Warlocks of the faction. What's particularly exciting is MAT6. Again, more on that later.

RAT6 - Fairly confusing why this is so high, considering he doesn't have a gun anymore.

DEF10, ARM18, 18 Boxes - hot damn, now we're talking. Two approaches to this. First one tells you he's awful. Easy to hit, and DEF+ARM 30 is not setting the world on fire for anyone. The second, and the one I subscribe to is that he's going to get hit by an opponent who wants to make sure it happens really; if Morghoul in his tee at DEF17 can be hit with worrying regularity, then Zaal certainly will. Therefore, I'll take ARM18. It's not the best, but its tanky enough.

CMD8, Construct - really interesting that he can actually use this. I'd have thought he couldn't talk, like his Obsidian buddies. Perhaps the big disk on his back is an electrostatic loudspeaker.

+6 Warbeast Points - kinda feels like he should have more, but its not bad, not good, just somewhere in the middle.

Nothing that's going to set the world on fire there then. Has he got some interesting abilities to go with them though? Sort of. Still feels a little shy of what you'd hope for.


Zaal2 kept Direct Spirits from his prime incarnation. This is actually pretty cool, and certainly plays into his other main abilities in a big way. Sucks to be you Cryx, although you probably won't like playing Testament much. Reclaim is what takes this ability and industrializes it though, offering Soul collection within his entire Control area of 14". Essentially, Zaal2 is a walking Soul battery then, whom can either farm out boosts / attacks to his Ancestral Guardian friends, or picks himself up a whole bunch of extra Fury each turn. 

Steady - always useful, especially meaning that he'll always be able to move around at the start of his turn for..

Righteous Vengeance. Now, this is a good ability on Hakaar the Destroyer, because that lad has MAT9, like an old, dead Butcher. For Zaal, MAT6 really isn't making this a reliable attack method, and its more a movement buff. And lets be realistic, if Zaal is within 5" on models that are being destroyed... well, you probably have some issues.

Finally, the imaginatively named Obsidian Staff has Silencer. Meh. You really don't want to have to be using this.

Now, let's talk the spell list, and the feat.


Annihilation - it's got to be a contender for one of the most extravagantly expensive to cast versus end result spells in the game. Have you ever seen Terminus, the original owner, use it? If this was a used car and Zaal picked it up from the Liche Lord, its a battered old Morris Minor. Remove from play is nice, and if you manage to actually kill a model with it, then the Soul you'll hopefully pick up effectively sets you up for a less expensive shot again in the next turn. I might get behind it, if it could be either cast by Marketh, or it was AOE4. Alas, its neither.

Mage Sight - situationally nice at most, this will at least help your beasts pick out that model hiding in the woods with the bears, or make up for when you left your Extoller at home. There's perhaps a little jank to this, but you really have to look to see it.

Sunder Spirit - boom, its the shitty nuke (tm). This one isn't awful, RNG10 and POW12 works, especially at cost 2. There's even a little bit of denial built in, stripping the animus of a Warbeast which it damages.

Transference - and this is going to be his big thing. With Reclaim, Zaal potentially has a whole bunch of boosts to chuck out here, especially helpful to the Immortals he'll want to run, or to allow the Ancestral Guardians with him to use their own Souls for exclusively buying attacks. How good is this? Well, it's downfall will be that to get the most out of it, he'll need to see a lot of his guys get killed, much like Zaal1's feat - thus making it a careful balancing act.

Vision - a spell which essentially lets you ignore a freestrike, as any player with any experience will easily remove from your crucial model before they go to kill it.

Now.. the feat, and I'll admit, this is a hard sell.


Strength Eternal.
All Friendly Faction Constructs gain +5 ARM, boosted attack rolls, and heal D6+3 damage.

Here's why this currently sucks. 

Immortals and Ancestral Guardians are not enough to make this work. Ancestral Guardians are not difficult to wipe out in one or two shots, or a dedicated attack. They won't get to heal, as they'll be destroyed the turn that they get attacked. Immortals won't heal - they have one box.  Ancestral Guardians at MAT8 don't need the MAT buff. Really, you're just looking at the boost for Immortals (although, they won't get the MAT buff on their vengeance move at the start of the turn..), and the ARM. ARM22 on a ARM17 model that shrugged off blast damage before and only have one box isn't the best. ARM23 on an Ancestral Guardian is nice I guess, but your opponent can ignore them for a turn, and then kill them the next.

At least Zaal himself might like it. 


So, time for the dojo.

Zaal2 is another Skorne infantry guy, like Makeda1, Makeda2, Xerxis1, Zaal1, and so on. His big problem is that for his feat, he wants that infantry to be constructs - for all of his other abilities, he wants them to be living. He's unfortunately not an Ancestral Guardian himself, so he'll want a couple of them at least along for the ride to get the best out of the immortals - the issue being that he then faces the choice of losing Souls himself to fuel Transference, or starve the other statues.

Sad times.

Beyond that, Zaal2 feels so directionless, that he could probably take anything in his battlegroup. There's an argument that an Aradius Sentinel or Cannoneer (people still take them, right?) will like Mage Sight, until you realise that giving out Eyeless Sight is not an issue. I'm also not sure how many points you'll have for the beasts. I've been playing around with lists, and by the time you've picked up two max units of Immortals, a couple of Ancestral Guardians and two or so units of Nihilators or Praetorians to make Souls.

His statline doesn't want him to be in melee at all, but Righteous Vengence does, to help him move around. If you keep Vision on him to effectively give him another transfer, then you'll be giving up on Transference which is absolutely his strongest element.

Looking forward, we'll see. He could have an extremely strong Tier. Devastation could also offer some more constructs, which could then give the feat more credence, or a UA for the Immortals. If we're making a wish list, lets have a tier that lets us make the Warbeasts count as constructs - imagine the painting you could do!

In short, at first glance, it looks like tournament play wont see this guy much, especially until Devastation comes out. After that.. well, that's going to depend on whats in the book.  I'd hoped that he'd be the control Warlock that the faction needs, which sadly he's not. In fact, he's kinda more of the same I fear, which is mildly depressing - when I saw Mage Sight, things seemed to be looking up..


But I'm still excited, and quietly confident. He can't be anywhere near as bad as he is on paper, right?








Preparing a Pairing: What's the trick!

Hey all, Aaron here! My posts have been few and far between recently, but I'm hoping with a lot of events coming up and it being the summer holidays in school (and me working in one) I'll have more time to write some thoughts on the blog.

Today's post is about list pairings, those fabled two lists (for the purpose of this post, I am referring to Masters and Steamroller events which run on a 2 list pairing system and not including Iron Gauntlet in the discussion) that will take you to ultimate victory, land you on bottom table or anything in between. The question is, how do you pick your two? I'll discuss a few methods that you can use to decide upon a two list pairing.

Method 1 : Scenario / Assassination

So one of the methods you could go down is building two lists designed to play the game depending on the scenario rolled. It may be Incursion, or Outflank where a kill box is missing and the table can be fully utilized in the spreading out of troops, using flanks and trying to pull armies apart rather than have you in the center as a brick (looking at you Runes, as discussed in the post below me). For this you may want to have a list in mind which can do the above, spread out and not require tight formations to be effective. This normally consists of more units and solos then it does warbeasts/jacks.


In this case, the second list may be more directed towards an assassination game in those scenarios in which the game is more centered, mainly the first 4 as they are kill box. In this list you would want some sort of assassination game plan, it may be a warlock/warcaster who is aimed at doing it or simply one who enables it via other means. Typically a list like this would be more focussed around a bricked force as you plan to play into those central missions in which you want to advance forward to maintain the pressure on the kill box / the kill on the opponents caster.

Looking at this sort of pairing for me, a Morv1/Braddigus pairing fits into it. Morv1 is very good at spreading as she plays to infantry's strength with Regrowth, and the feat is better with more things that can trigger it. She will typically not run beast heavy and enables the spreading out of your list with typically self sufficient units (Trackers, Druids, Skin Walkers spring to mind). On the flipside is Braddigus, who I think we all know plays an A+ assassination game, bricks in the center and does NOT like to be spread out in large area. This is for a few reasons, it means denying of LoS to the army is harder as it's less concentrated, you have few effective models to spread so contesting on things like Incursion could often be 2-3 models, as well as Braddigus's control area of 12" isn't huge in the grand scheme of things. All these reasons means he likes to play a centered game where he can always apply pressure for an assassination, which pairs with Morv1 very well.

Thinking hypercritically there are shortfalls to this pairing system in the sense your lists don't have much direction, they simple have to spread and stayed centered. This may lead to your lists suffering to extreme skews, for example in this case MMM can spread, and is an armor skew. Without direction my Morv1 list, which has a good chance of being paired into this, may suffer as my list was not prepared for the armor skew.


Method 2 : Faction Pairings

Another method which could be applied to creating a list pairing is having your lists directed towards playing specific factions as we all have a idea of the typical archetype for each faction. An example being, I would bet a pound or two that a Legion pairing may turn up with 3-4 Eyeless Sight warbeasts. I could guess that Cryx will turn up with 1-2 arcnodes, some tarpit units in the way of Satyxis and some hard hitters in the way of Banes. Using this knowledge you could gear two lists with a idea of which faction each list wants to play, trying to cover them all using the archetypes we know.

An example from myself, would be a Braddigus/Kreuger2 pairing. Braddigus, faction-wise has very few bad pairings. He doesn't want to see Vayl1 as Incited Scytheans are bad, he doesn't want to see some variations of Trolls and maybe some Cryx. With that in mind, creating a Kreuger2 list which does play into those things Braddigus does not want to see in a ideal world means you have the perfect pairing, doesn't it? Well sadly not. Why this pairing system may be the most safe way, it's not perfect, what happens when your opponent turns up with two lists that don't follow their normal faction archetype and you're caught unawares?

A long and tedious, though maybe most effective process in which you can test your pairing this way goes as follows: get your two lists ready, and then go through each faction, go through a few of their power pairings and ask yourself do you feel comfortable playing into those two?

An example being I have my Brad/Kreuger2, and I put my self against a Vayl1/Lylyth2 pairing, well Brad can handle Lylyth, and Kreuger2 Vayl1 (and who doesn't love list chicken). You can repeat these for each faction with a few pairings, if you're happy with 80-90% of the matchups you're golden!

Method 3 : Dude spam / armor 

The third and final method I will discuss in this post is designing two lists each to play a different sort of list. One to play a opponent who has lists with lots of infantry in and one designed to face armor of any sort. Personally, for me I don't like this method. I'll throw an example pairing of Kreuger1 and Kaya2. Kreuger1 designed to clear a lot of models, Kaya2 designed to crack armor.

Now, the weakness in this thought process is, my Kreuger1 will chew through a lot of single would, low armor models but what happens I play dude spam, but it's all high armor? Well you could say, ppfft easy play Kaya2 you fool! Very true, but my Kaya2 list does NOT want to spread, and sadly his dude spam drop does. This is where the weakness comes in this thought process, as playing against dude spam is great, but there is different archetypes of dude spam which you can't necessarily account for in one list as well as scenario.

So lots of way to design your own pairing, is any of it flawless? 

Well, we're in a great age of Warmachine, I myself have recently pondered my own two list pairings for my circle as I have a whole ton of events this year. I would happily take Kreuger2, Morv1, Morv2, Kromac1 ,Kromac2 ,Braddigus and Kaya2 to a event in a suitable pairing and feel confident. I have about 10 different pairing sheets which I could take to a Steamroller/Masters and still be undecided until I'm forced to choose one.

Is it because Circle have a hugely deep bench of warlocks to choose from and still compete? This does aid my quest for the Holy Grail of list pairings sadly, but that is not the reason. The reason is because you just simply CANNOT create a pairing which plays into every - single - possible - list you MAY see at a event. Each time I settle on a pair, I go "ehhhhh, but what if I bump into THIS list?" I've done this for the last 2 weeks, and it's become crystal clear that you just can't pair for everything any more.

This is fantastic for the game, it means the meta will never remain stagnant as tournament winners will always be different and different factions will rise and fall in the meta and power rankings with new release and erratas.

Ultimately, can you pair for everything? No. Take a pairing you enjoy, take a paring you're comfortable with, and take a pairing you have practice with.

Well thank you for reading, and I hope you liked the article. Please drop a comment and discuss how you designed your list pairing and maybe some new methods I haven't discussed here.

Monday 27 July 2015

Learning Runes pt2.

Won 5 lost 3.
Learning 'Runes' has been fun so far. 

Killing Caine2 twice in a row was awesome, struggling again Morvanna2 was not. Turns out Mulg is great with Goad and Fortune. He isn't great when you advance him too far forward and allow two legion beasts to kill him turn 2 (yes I fucked up).

I have recently been pairing with EE - original I know. EE is amazingly fun and was fantastic against Dave's Cryx. More on that later this week. 

What have I learnt so far with Runes? 

Well, where to begin. I love Runeshapers and find them to be essential at getting work done. They have cleared zones and destroyed objectives in most games, but importantly, they have knocked down some important targets with Rock Hammer. The Runeshapers with Jannissa make the lair in my opinion. Having four units of steady trolls at ARM17 with 5 wounds is back breaking against some lists. The Force Lock makes it even better, stopping Morvanna2 getting to Doomshaper on the final table at a recent tournament was the best moment of playing Runes yet. 


At the moment I am considering dropping the Mauler for an extra two units of Runeshapers. I haven't had to use Rage at all yet and feel the extra two units could get more work done. However, having three heavy beasts is a massive threat so I will keep playing but the list before I make changes. 

One thing I have noticed that screws the list is anti-magic. Druids' Counter Magic previously, and this morning having Bradigus cast Mystic Ward, was back breaking. Runeshapers really struggle to do anything worthwhile in those instances. If you want to deny this list, Counter Magic or similar abilities appear to be the way to do it. 



Thursday 23 July 2015

Painting Big B

Hi All,

So following on from the review of the Illumistation painting station I received for my birthday I decided I should actually paint something so here is a little painting review/guide for the real Khador big boy, Behemoth!

Behemoth from parts to powerful

Firstly came the bog standard filing of all mold lines and general first fitting. This led me to the conclusion that pinning was going to be a necessary evil. Although its an easy job (with a dremel and Privateer Press pinning kits), it is yet another job before the painting starts. As you can see below I have made the bold (not that bold) decision to swap out the original Behemoth legs for a bog standard pair of plastic jack legs.


Behemoth from parts to powerful


I think the legs take away the dancing, hops, skip and jumping weird look of the original sculpt. This does however add a more of a static feel, but I feel a little compromise here will both add to the over all menace of the sculpt and draw the eye up towards all the more interesting arms and bombards on the shoulders.

Behemoth from parts to powerful

A small amount of Vallejo model air black primer in the airbrush later and Big B certainly is on the way to looking like a badass.

At this point, before its onto painting proper I thought I had better sort out something a bit fun for the base before its too late. So I grabbed some plastic-card brick design template and a handful of these small bricks and got to work! After cutting out a suitable circle of the plastic-card I put the model on it to mark out where the feet are going to be.

Untitled

I then cut out the feet, stuck the card to the base as below 


Behemoth from parts to powerful

and then it was time to stick on the bricks to the base in a way that makes it look like the jack was so heavy the weight of a 6 ton jack would crush the bricks!

Behemoth from parts to powerful

This was done by using a scalpel to slice and break up the bricks. I then glued them in and undercoated them.  But I'm getting ahead of myself!!!

So its now time for painting time of Big B, so I just simply used some model air white through the air brush to add any highlights on the red parts of the amour as below

Behemoth from parts to powerful

then its time to spray on some red ink. This covers not only the white with a strong bright red, but leaves the black with a subtle dark red tint. Then I painted all the metal bits a mix of Vallejo steel and black. The black parts were painted black.

Behemoth from parts to powerful

Then it was time to paint the bronze parts GW warpstone bronze. That meant that all the base colours were completed and it was time to get my highlight on!

Behemoth from parts to powerful

So I kept the highlights nice and simple. Vallejo steel for the silver highlights, Vallejo bronze for the bronze parts, and a mixture of black, blue and green for the black highlights. giving a slightly cooler grey colour. 
The base was painted black and then 2 different shades of grey were applied to give a bit of texture to the base I stippled the grey on using an old medium size dry brush. Once dry, I applied a wash of Agrax Earthshade to the base to take the edge off the lighter grey. To mark the arc on the base I masked off the base with bluetac and used the same white highlight and red ink technique used on the armour. Then I just airbrushed on some matt varnish and the work was done.

Untitled


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I hope you enjoyed this little ramble. Please feel free to post any comments or criticisms. I'm looking to improve so any help is much appreciated. 

Stay Classy

Double Epic Tom