Taking a Break

Hey guys,

I'm going to take a couple of weeks away from gaming and hobbying.  I just need a break from things.  I'll start posting again in about two weeks or if I see something worth talking about.

See you soon!

Ironjawz Kryptboyz Painting

Painting has occurred.  It's a pretty dark color scheme, so I decided to jazz up the bases with bright green slime.  The Ardboyz in particular look pretty plain from the front.  They're much better from the back.  You can see quite a bit of additional blue.  I'll probably go back and fill in some additional detail in terms of hatch marks and maybe some checkerboard on the shoulderpads.  Depends on how much work I get done on the rest of the army.  It's playable now, but only these 10 guys are painted.  I'd really like to have the entire army painted by 11/12.

I still need to paint the one cloth banner and the skulls on the other banner.

Ironjawz Kryptboyz Incoming

I've finally decided on a paint scheme.  I'll be going with GW's official Kryptboyz color scheme.  I think I'll be able to pull it off before 11/12 despite it actually having a ridiculous number of steps.  Seriously.  The official schemes are easy to replicate and always looks great, but have soooooo many steps.

Fortunately, the majority surface area of most of the army is black armor.  In this scheme, the black armor is primed black and then highlighted with Stormvermin Fur.  There isn't much to it.  Most of the steps come into play with the details.  The Ardboys are going to be pretty easy to burn through.  I need to come up with a scheme for painting the banners, but otherwise I have the paints all worked out.  The paints in red are the ones I need to buy.  I'll be doing that later today.

Ironjawz Priming

I got some priming done.  Lots of priming actually.  It's amazing how much free time you have when you don't have to go into work.

This is what 1,500 points of Ironjawz looks like minus three Gore-gruntas and a Warchanter.

Safety first!  Seriously, if I don't use this gas mask, my allergies go crazy and I start sneezing black goop.  It's pretty revolting.

I know I've posted this before, but this is how I prime.  I used a ghetto old lazy susan I bought at IKEA and just keep rotating it on my deck's railing.  It's pretty effective and let's me get all angles without having to move around.

Now I just need to decide on which color scheme I'm going to go with.  I'm leaning towards the Kryptboyz...  or maybe the Asheater Boyz.  Ugh.  I have no idea.  They're pretty similar.  It's really an issue of whether I'd rather have red/white highlights or tan ones.  I'm not going to go with the Skyslasha Clan.  It's too much metal.  I have an entire Necron army.  I'm not sure I could stand painting another full army of metal dudes.

Ironjawz Color Scheme Decisions

I've almost decided on a paint scheme for my Ironjawz.  I want something dark and relatively easy to paint since in a perfect world I'll be painting 1,500 points before my November 12th tournament.  I bought GW's How to Paint Ironjawz ebook for some inspiration.  There are lots of cool color schemes, but only two that I think I could reasonably have fully painted 19 days from now.  They're the Asheater Boyz and the Kryptboyz.  There is a third clan that I like a little better, but don't think I could paint in time.  It's the Skybasha Warclan.

From a background perspective, they're all pretty cool.

First up is the Asheater Boyz.  Their armor is predominantly black, darkened with the smeared on soot from Sylvaneth tree gits who've been set on fire.  I like the imagery of my buddy's thrice damned Kurnoth Hunters being the primary ingredient in my Orruk's armor paint.  The bits of red and white would give the army a little more variety.

Next up are the Kryptboyz.  This clan hangs out in the realm of Death and spends their time fighting a variety of undead (and fully dead) opponents.  This color scheme appeals to me because another of my buddies plays a Flesh-Eater Courts army.  I like the idea that my Ironjawz have just been giving his army grief forever.

Last up is the Skyslash Warclan.  I like the color scheme, but the background is a little weird.  It says that these Orruks like to fly through the sky in their cobbled together "scrap-crafts".  This sounds weirdly like a 40k sort of thing.  I'm honestly not sure.

In any case, I need to choose quickly.  I'm on vacation this week and want to start painting tomorrow.  I have MOST of my 1,500 points assembled, but they're not primed at all.  The only thing I have left to assemble are three Gore-gruntas and a Warchanter.  Everything else is ready for priming and painting.

Vacation

I'm on vacation this week, so updates may be a little spotty.  I'll try not to have that happen though.

I've been working on a piece of software which will be a combination list builder and campaign tracker for Age of Sigmar.  More specifically, I'll be designing it to work as a tracker for my War Bands Campaign rules.  I spent part of yesterday typing all of the General's Handbook tables for Destruction into an Excel spreadsheet and then importing them into a database.  I also added all of the unit Keywords.  The end goal is that you'll be able to sort units by their keywords, letting you pick, for example, an Orruk unit to be compatible with a certain ability.

We'll see where it goes.  This is the sort of thing I do where I work, so I know it's something I can do.  It's more an issue of time and motivation.

Death in the Family

We'll return to our regularly scheduled hobby talk on Monday.  I'm taking a few days off from thinking too hard.

More Ironjawz Tournament Prep Work

I'm pretty sure I mentioned it, but if I didn't Showcase Comics in Swarthmore, PA is throwing a 1500 point Age of Sigmar tournament on November 12th.  I've decided that I'll be playing Ironjawz and have finalized (sort of, see below) my list.

Here it is...

Leaders
Orruk Megaboss (140)
- General
- Trait: Nothing Left Standing
- Artefact: Battle Brew
Orruk Warchanter (80)
- Artefact: Talisman of Protection
Orruk Warchanter (80)

Units
Orruk Ardboys x 20 (360)
Orruk Ardboys x 10 (180)
Orruk Brutes x 5 (180)
Orruk Gore Gruntas x 3 (180)
Orruk Gore Gruntas x 3 (180)

Batallions
Ironfist (60)

Total: 1440/1500

I've gotten quite a bit of the building done over the last several days.  Life has been...  well, life has been unpleasant lately and this has been a nice escape.  I'm always most productive when I have too many things on my mind.  I guess I have a lot on my mind right now.  All of this has been built within the last week or so.

All I have remaining to build are the three extra Gore-gruntas and the other Warchanter.  I'm debating replacing the second Warchanter with a Weirdnob Shaman.  I think it would be nice to have some magic, but I also like the idea of dual Warchanters egging the 20 Ardboys on to a 2+ to hit, 3+ to wound.  That's a lot of attacks.  I'll probably decide at the last minute.  The decision will likely come down to how much I want to spend an extra $30.

Ironjawz Orruk Megaboss Conversion

I decided that the leader of my Ironjawz war band would be an Orruk Megaboss.  The offical model is definitely nice looking, but doesn't wow me.  It basically looks like a slightly upscaled Brute.

Enter this guy...

He's the Green Goblin model from Disney's Infinity video game thing.  I've used a Hulkbuster Iron Man from the same line before to act as a Tau Empire Riptide.  I know you can't tell the scale in the above photo, but this guy fits on a 60mm base, same as the Megaboss, but is about twice as tall.

I sifted through my bits box and came up with a ton of bits that I thought would work.  I think when  I get some paint on him, he'll fit right in with my war band.  The barrel in his hand represents the Battle Brew artefact.

Upcoming Age of Sigmar Tournament

On November 12th, there will be a 1500 point Age of Sigmar tournament at Showcase Comics in Swarthmore, PA.  There was a 1000 point list there about a month ago and it was a ton of fun.  I'm really looking forward to playing 1500 points.

I've decided on playing Ironjawz.  The list will be as follows...

Leaders
Orruk Megaboss (140)
- General
- Trait: Big and Brutish
- Artefact: Battle Brew
Orruk Warchanter (80)
Orruk Weirdnob Shaman (120)

Units
Orruk Ardboys x 20 (360)
Orruk Ardboys x 10 (180)
Orruk Brutes x 5 (180)
Orruk Gore Gruntas x 6 (360)

Batallions
Ironfist (60)

Total: 1480/1500

All of the units are a part of the Ironfist, which allows them to move an extra D6" in the hero phase, assuming whichever model was designated as the battalion boss is still alive.

I still need to pick up another Start Collecting box to finish off the army.  Most of the rest of it is assembled.  I also need a Megaboss and Shaman, but those are 10 minute builds.  The Start Collecting box is on order at my local store.

I'm tired and have had a particularly shitty week.  Goodnight for now.

Yup...

Hobby ADD strikes again.  These Black Orks...  err, Ironjawz Ardboys hold up surprisingly well considering how old they are.  It's amazing how some of the old Fantasy units can have lots of character when you're free with posing due to not having to rank up models.

Ironjawz War Band?

Yeah, so everyone else has taken a mulligan and reworked their war bands.  I'm seriously considering doing the same.  I like the Skaven I have, but they just can't compete with my opponents.  Kurnoth Hunter ad Crypt Flayer spam just can't be overcome with a ragtag band of rats with fancy guns.

EDIT...

Yeah, just deleted a bunch of stuff and just went out and bought an Ironjawz Start Collecting box.  The shop also had some old Black Orks and I was able to get a bit of a deal given that I had some credit.  This gives me a Warchanter, 3x Gore-gruntas and 30x Ardboys to get started with.

I'm sure I'll be posting pictures soon.

My god...  my hobby ADD is terrible.

Kurnoth Hunters can Suck It

My friends and I got together last night to play some more of our custom War Bands rule set for Age of Sigmar.  I was paired off against my buddy Chris.  Chris is a nice guy.

Let me repeat that.  Chris is a nice guy.  I needed to say that twice, because I'm about to go off on a tirade that characterizes him as a living breathing asshole.

My war band remains my Warlock Engineer, Warpfire Thrower Weapons Team, 2x Rat Ogors and a single Stormfiend.  The army I went up against was a Branchwych, a unit of 3 Kurnoth Hunters and another unit of 1 Kurnoth Hunter.  Oh, and the ever present freebie Wyldwoods.

Fuck Kurnoth Hunters.  Seriously.  What was GW thinking when they wrote these rules and priced out this unit?

They cost 180 points for three models.  Given that you get free Wyldwoods, any half decent player is ALWAYS going to have them standing in magical Sylvaneth cover.  This means they have a 3+ (4+ plus cover) save and 5 wounds.  Oh, and did I mention that they have an ability that lets them re-roll saves during the combat phase?  Yeah, so a re-rollable 3+ save can EASILY become a re-rollable 2+ save.  These things are damn near impossible to shift.  Combine this with a very good 2 attack, 4+ to hit, 3+ to wound, -1 rend, D3 damage missile attack and they can just stand around and take pot shots.  Did I mention they have a 30" range?  In a game where 12" missile ranges are more common, 30" is ridiculous.  They don't deal much damage in melee, but they don't need to.  They just need to stay alive and fire their bows.

It's so frustrating.

And the trees...

Any decent Sylvaneth player will have his Kurnoth Hunters standing in these trees.  Standing near them when magic is cast can cause mortal wounds...  unless you're Sylvaneth and then you're immune.  Charging across them can cause you to lose entire models on a D6 roll of a 1...  unless you're Sylvaneth and then you're immune.  Sylvaneth players get one free Wyldwood to put ANYWHERE on the board before either army deploys...  and one Wyldwood is three bases.  The Branchwych has an allegiance rule that allows her (him?  it?) to drop another Wyldwood in the first hero phase.  Oh, and all the Sylvaneth units can teleport between tree bases.  AND a unit can be held aside and deployed with no real risk of peril to any tree stand on the board during any movement phase.

Sigh.

Between the Kurnoth Hunters and the Wyldwoods, his war band feels ridiculously overpowered.  I know that things will end up balanced as we have a built-in balancing mechanism...  but I'm just not sure how long that will take.

Chris is literally hovering over me as I type this.  He's asking me to remind you all that he's a nice guy.  I'm pretty sure I saw him drowning kittens earlier today.  Might have been someone else, but it was probably him.  Just sayin'.

Come back tomorrow when I rage some more.  Ten bucks says I'm at the gaming store purchasing some Ironjawz.  They have a fun ability that lets them destroy terrain features.  Yeah...  that sounds good.

Magnus the Red, Daemon Primarch of Tzeentch

Holy Crap!!!  New stuff inbound soon.  Someone leaked a torn up box showing a plastic Magnus the Red.  The internet screamed fraud and then GW released a video hours later showing the actual model AND mentioning both plastic Rubric Marines and plastic Sisters of Battle.  Very exciting stuff.

Silver Tower

I got an opportunity to play Silver Tower over the weekend.  It was fun, but the game doesn't have much depth to it.  I'm getting my notes together and I'll post something a little more in depth over the next day or two.

More Painting!

I sat down with a friend this week and just muscled through the Warlock Engineer.  I'm really happy with the results.  I kind of winged the paint scheme to a certain extent.  The base isn't done yet, but the rest of the model is.  The base will be getting a glowing green slime treatment as well as some dead looking grass.  I should have pictures of that up pretty soon.

EDIT...

Finished the base!  I'm so happy with the look.

Painting Happened!

I played the first scenario from the Zombicide Black Plague core box last night.  It was a ton of fun.  I had previously played the tutorial mission.  The tutorial was a little boring.  This was a nightmare of zombies coming out of every room.

I also got some painting done on my rats.  I'm using the paint scheme from Duncan's WarhammerTV channel from when he painted Thanquol and Boneripper.  I like the results so far, but man is this tedious.  I might shift up a little and work on the Warlock Engineer tomorrow.  I still need to do the reddish puckering around the branding wound.  Really, only the skin on the back is done.

War Bands - Priming has Occurred

I ran out of primer almost immediately upon starting to prime these guys.  What a pain.  Turns out I had something like 10 empty cans of primer.  Evidently, throwing out empty cans so that I know how many spares cans I have isn't a skill I've mastered yet.

I had to make a side trip to Walmart to pick up more.  Man, that place is a nightmare scenario of bizarre people.  I picked up 10 cans of black primer, a Plano 732 that was on special and a can of Pringles.  The Pringles were an impulse purchase.  I went home, ate a few and then threw out the rest.  I haven't eaten them in a long time and it turns out that they're sort of gross.

The Plano 732 is so that I can re-organize my Star Wars X-Wing collection.  It's a game that involves about a million little pieces, so it's important to have a good organizational scheme.  The larger Plano cases are perfect, what with all the little plastic subdivided trays.  I have a similar one I'm using for my Star Wars Armada collection.  I might end up getting another one for Descent: Journeys in the Dark.

War Bands, Week 2 Expansion

After finishing our first week of War Bands gaming, we all rolled off for additional points.  The way we do this is as follows.  We roll a D6 and add 1 to the result if we have more victories than losses.  On a 1, you get 50 points to add to your army.  On a 2-5, you get 75 points and on a 6, you get 100.  If you have more losses than wins, you get a bonus D3*10 points.  The idea is that if one army keeps losing, it should keep getting a few bonus points each week to try and balance things out.  If the army starts winning, it stops getting bonus points.

I had more losses than wins, so got the bonus points.  I rolled a 6 for the first roll, giving me 100 points.  I then rolled a 3 on the second roll, which is a D3 result of 2 and got another 20 points.  120 points is a fantastic result.  From week 1, I had 20 points 'in the bank', so this gave me 140 points to spend.  I decided to spend 100 points on a Stormfiend equipped with Warpfire Throwers.  The remaining 40 points went back 'in the bank' for week 3.

The Stormfiend is a spectacular looking model.  I never thought I'd be playing an elite Skaven force, but here it is.  My plan is to try to get these models painted up in a relatively short period of time.  I'm not sure how I'm going to paint them yet.  I'll probably spend some time researching Skaven paint schemes.  I'm just not sure how best to handle the skin and fur.  I'm good with human skin, but not animal skin.

Also, this weird little stunted rat in a harness on the Stormfiend's back is super weird.  Reminds me of Total Recall.  OPEN YOUR MIIIINNNNNDDDDD...

War Bands, Week 1

My friends and I met up for our first test run of our homemade War Bands rules.  I'll give the conclusion up front this time...  it was a huge success!  First, the quick build rules...

• Build a 300 point list using the General's Handbook points.
• Your general can't be more than 150 points and can be any solo model with the Hero, Priest or Wizard keywords.
• There are no Battleline, Leader, etc. requirements.
• Units are purchased per model with no minimum unit size.  You just can't start a second unit of the same type until the first has grown to minimum size.  In other words, Plague Monks are 70 points for 10, which works out to 7 points for 1.  I could buy 6 Plague Monks for 42 points, but then I can't build a second Plague Monk unit because I'd have two below 10 models.

The four of us went with the armies we're most familiar with.  Jon picked Flesh-Eater Courts, Dmitri picked Khorne Daemons, Chris V. picked Sylvaneth and I went with a variety of Skaven clans.  I'll post the lists a little farther down.

We decided to play a multiplayer mission called "Fog of War" from the General's Handbook.  Essentially, each player rolls off for an order and then deploys in one quadrant of a 4'x4' board.  After everyone has deployed, we rolled off to see which two players were paired up on a team.  After that, it was go time.

Round 1...

We all ended up deploying more or less close to the center of the board.  That ended up being something of a mistake for some of us as it ensured that combat would occur immediately.

The Khorne Daemons crashed into my rats and shockingly, broke upon the bulwark of two Rat Ogors.  I was shocked.  The Rat Ogors are significantly more effective than I thought they'd be.  The undead ran straight for the trees.  The trees turned out to be remarkably resilient.

Round 2...

Round 2 was bascially combat time with all models locked in combat.  My Skaven cleared the Khorne models off the board.  The Sylvaneth continued to be nearly impossible to shift.

Round 3...

In round 3, the Skaven finally died to magic and shooting, with some of the wounds coming from within.  The Warp Fire Weapons Team attempted to super charge their fuel and exploded, causing 3 mortal wounds to themselves and dying in the process.  The Sylvaneth continued to be impossible to shift.  Their saves are insane.  A re-rollable 3+ save gives them a roughly 90% chance to ignore non-rending wounds.

The game ended in round 4 with a major victory for the Sylvaneth/Khorne team.  It was a good game and really highlighted how durable Kurnoth Hunters can be.  I think we may have actually played a few rules wrong, especially as relates to mortal wounds.  The trees might have actually gone down more quickly if we'd played correctly.

After the game we sat and talked for awhile and made a few tweaks to our armies.  Then we rolled for extra points for our week 2 expansion.  Overall, this was a ton of fun.

Here are the armies we used...

• Skaven
• Warlock Engineer
• 2x Rat Ogors
• Warpfire Thrower Weapons Team
• Sylvaneth
• Branchwych
• 3x Kurnoth Hunters
• Flesh-Eater Courts
• Haunter Courtier
• 3x Bone Horrors
• Khorne Daemons
• Herald of Khorne
• 3x Bloodcrushers
• 3x Flesh Hounds