Star Wars Armada Fleet Commander Contest

FROM THE BEARD OF DOOM

The window on the FFG Star Wars Armada Fleet Commander Contest closes today. I haven’t submitted my list, because I can’t decide which list I like best. The contest has sent me into a frenzy of list building exercises. The next two waves are going to rock the game to its core in the best possible way.

Wave 3 will introduce the flotillas sooner rather than later. But Wave 4 isn’t out for another sixths months. If you haven’t seen the Wave 4 ships, they are the Interdictor and the Liberty. Very smartly, FFG decided to preview the ships and upgrades. While the mystery and dream phase of the release may be over and gone, the much more interesting “Wow, it can do what?” phase has begun. The contest is designed to make everyone consider what options the next two waves can bring to various strategies and tactics.

As I see there are three major shifts upfront.

1) Flotillas will obviously change squadron activation options for both sides of the Galactic Civil War, but they also offer an interesting no squadron option. This tactic works best for Rebels because they have the 18 flotilla, however, either side could easily mass three or four flotillas and use them for anti-squadron fire. The weight of constant dice might be more than most squadrons can handle.

2) The Rebels need to fly even better. The Rebellion’s front arc is a nice addition because they give the Rebels another bruiser without compounding the Ackbar issues. It also makes the Nebulon-B a more plausible option without a title. For some this feels like a departure from the Rebellion’s general flavor. I disagree. The Liberty and next two Commanders offer the Rebellion more interesting movement focused options. The fleet already about going fast and juking around big front arcs will now add pointing a big front arc to their list. It’s going to be tricky to balance a mindset that can move side and front arcs together effectively. It’s going to be interesting to see how Rebel players respond to the new dynamic later this year.

3) Finally we come to my favorite: control Imperial. The empire is going to have an alarming amount of bullying tactics to chose from, most notably deciding their opponent’s speeds. The Empire will be lining up their best kill shots on ships they can actively stop from moving or limit their movement. This is tactic I’m most excited for, but most concerned about in terms of sportsmanship. After all “Mother May I” might be a fun thing to play but might not be a fun thing to play against. So, we’ll have to wait and see how well these upgrades and options are balanced this fall.

I’ve been swept up in the Warmachine and Hordes Mark 3 release, so I haven’t had time to test these ideas yet, but I’m excited to see what they can do. But Vassal looks more exciting by the day.

I hope this was fun to read as well as somewhat helpful and informative. Until next time—She’s Got Admiral Ackbar Eyes.

LEGO Descent: Journeys in the Dark Character Dashboard

Hello all!  This post is a little stranger than most.  I've been playing a lot of Descent: Journeys in the Dark ever since the Road to Legend app came out.  For those of you who don't know, Descent is a cooperative dungeon crawl board game where the enemies are controlled by an Overlord player.  The Road to Legend app eliminates the need for an Overlord player and allows you to play solo or with up to three other friends.

This is one of those FFG games with a ton of cards and tokens that are hard to keep organized.  I've seen a couple of people online who built organization dashboards out of card stock, laser cut acrylic, etc.

Hey, if they can do it, why can't I?  Of course, I don't have a laser cutter or a 3D printer or any of the other fancy tools one would use to really manufacture something.  I do have tons of LEGOs though.  Hence...

Works great, keeps my table organized and was free!  Boom.

Enter the Archangel

I stopped by my buddy's house on Wednesday for a recurring homemade dinner/board game night with friends and got a huge surprise.  Here's a hint...

Evidently, he bought this back when he was playing a little bit of Warmahordes.  This guy is the Archangel Gargantuan Warbeast from the Legion of Everblight Faction.  It's sort of a hybrid between the coolest looking Tyranid Hive Tyrant you've ever seen and a roughly humanoid dragon.  Poor little Thor Steinhammer and his really sad looking flame thrower are there for scale.

The Archangel is sitting on a 120mm with raised markings denoting facing.  Unfortunately, he's sitting back a bit on the base and facing way off to one side.  The "front" indicator is actually facing directly to the left of the picture.  I should be able to pry him off the base with no problem, right?

Nope.

Yeah, so that happened.  Awesome.  It's cool.  I've trained for this my entire life!  I've got plastic card, glue and a Can Do attitude!  Plus, cork and sand.  That stuff hides more mistakes than a wealthy Republican family.

This is going to be a super fun model to work with.  In terms of playing the actual game, I have no idea how it work.  It's roughly the same points value as two of the larger, non-Gargantuan Warbeasts.  I might have to give this thing a try.

Here he is, now properly facing forward and with a significantly more textured base.  Now for hours and hours of painting!

Holy Zealots and Monolith Bearer

I just won an auction for a unit of 10 Holy Zealots and a Monolith Bearer for $27 on eBay.  That would normally be $61.98 retail, for a discount of 43.6% off retail.  Not bad.  They look to be in pretty good shape based on the below auction photo.  The Monolith Bearer looks like it might need a little work, but that's sort of a hobby non issue at this point.

This purchase leaves me with the Flameguard Cleansers w/Officer and the Vassal Mechanik yet to purchase.  Full retail is $97.97 for those, but I'm definitely not spending that much.  Full Retail for the list is $311.91.  I've spent $66.99 so far.  This has been fun with numbers.

Here is where I am with the 75 point list as of today (assuming the auction comes in the mail ok).

Name	Points	Owned?
Malekus, the Burning Truth	-30	Yes
Repenter	8	Yes
Revenger	10	Yes
Castigator	12	Yes
Vanquisher	17	Yes
Vassal Mechanik	1
Choir of Menoth	6	Yes
Exemplar Cinerators	16	Yes
Flameguard Cleansers	15
Flameguard Cleanser Officer	4
Holy Zealots	13	Yes
Monolith Bearer	3	Yes

Planned Menoth List

I picked up the Protectorate of Menoth Mk3 Starter Battlegroup yesterday.  It seems like the local community is going to be playing at the 75 point level.  Given that I already have access to some Menoth stuff, it made the most sense to just stick with that and expand.

I actually like the sample list in the Introductory Guide that came with the Battlegroup, so I think I'm going to work towards building it.

Name	Points	Retail Price	# Needed	$ Needed
Malekus, the Burning Truth	-30	39.99	0	0
Repenter	8	0	0	0
Revenger	10	0	0	0
Castigator	12	0	0	0
Vanquisher	17	34.99	0	0
Vassal Mechanik	1	7.99	1	7.99
Choir of Menoth	6	31.99	0	0
Exemplar Cinerators	16	44.99	0	0
Flameguard Cleansers	15	74.99	1	74.99
Flameguard Cleanser Officer	4	14.99	1	14.99
Holy Zealots	13	49.99	1	49.99
Monolith Bearer	3	11.99	1	11.99
				159.95

I only need to purchase five things, with a full retail price of $159.95.  I'm sure I'll be able to negotiate a decent discount by shopping around and checking eBay for deals.  I'm still going to stick with my Mercs/Rhulic idea, but that will top out at 10 points, which I already own.

Since everyone likes pretty pictures, here are all the models that make up the Menoth force I'm putting together...

General Ossrum

I was out of town this past weekend for a family wedding.  While there, I happened across a small game store in Niles, Ohio called the Crystal Dragon.  It was pretty nice.  I ended up finding some Rhulic stuff for Warmachine and picked it up.  I haven't had much free time to hobby, but I did get General Ossrum assembled.  I'm pretty happy with these models and can't wait to get the rest assembled and then throw down some paint.

This batch gives me a 10 point Rhulic army.

Warmahordes - Protectorate of Menoth

My friend found out that I was going to be playing Warmachine and told me that me might have a couple of models hanging out.  Turns out he had a full 50 point Legions of Everblight as well as a 34 point Protectorate of Menoth list.  I've decided to work on the Menoth list first.

I'm still learning the game and the units involved, but what you see above is what I have to work with.  The first order of business was to snap the larger models off their bases and do a little basing work.  I like the rounded lips of these bases and think they lend themselves to scenic bases more so than the GW bases.

Here are some of the models rebased...

...and primed.

The list, in case you are wondering, is as follows...

Protectorate of Menoth - 34 Points

High Exemplar Kreoss - WJ: +29
- Crusader - PC: 0
- Repenter - PC: 0
- Vanquisher - PC: 6
Vassal of Menoth - PC: 3
Wrack - PC: 1
Wrack - PC: 1
Wrack - PC: 1
Choir of Menoth - Leader & 5 Grunts: 6
Exemplar Cinerators - Leader & 4 Grunts: 16

More Warmachine Mercenary Goodness

I got totally motivated and did some painting.  I knocked this guy out in about 3 hours or so.  I used the old 'Eavy Metal Painting Masterclass article from one of the White Dwarf mags from back when Assault on Black Reach came out.  I've always been a fan of the way they did leather straps and yellow armour, so decided to try and replicate the effect.  I'm pretty happy with the result.

Warmahordes - Rhulic Mercenaries

You might want to sit down for this...  

ACTUAL HOBBY CONTENT

As I mentioned yesterday, I got a little bit of free time to assemble and prime the Thor Steinhammer model.  It was actually a pretty easy model to work with.  There were very few mold lines.  I probably spent only about five minutes total prepping the model.  I went with a pretty basic cork and sand basing scheme.

Here are a couple of pics showing assembly and priming.  Once the primer coat is fully dry, I'll start painting.  More pictures coming soon!

Warmahordes Decisions

It looks like my local community is more or less officially moving away from 40k for many of the same reasons I talked about on Monday.  The decision has been made to move towards Warmachine/Hordes, which I will probably end up referring to as Warmahordes.

To participate, I'm going to need an army.  I went through all the various starter sets for all the main factions and none of them jumped out at me.  To properly enjoy the game, I need to like the models.  After all, I'm going to be spending a lot of time assembling, painting and playing with them.

Given that none of the factions caught my eye, I was beginning to get a little mopey about the prospect of enjoying Warmahordes.  And then...

...I noticed that there are actually a number of pretty well fleshed out Mercenary/Minions sub-factions.  I took a look through the gallery of models on PrivateerPress.com and ultimately decided on the Rhulic Mercenaries sub-Faction.  They're a sort of steampunk dwarf faction.  I think I'm going to enjoy them.  I ran out to my local shop and picked up the only Rhulic dude they had in stock...  Thor Steinhammer.  I then literally headed straight home and assembled and primed.  I had forgotten what putting metal models together is like.  It's been awhile since I've had to file off metal mold lines or pin anything in place.  It was a weirdly nostalgic process.

I picked this faction partly because it'll give me an opportunity to paint some things I don't normally paint.  The Thor Steinhammer model I picked up has this cool flame effect that will give me a chance to practice a little object source lighting.

General Ossrum is probably going to be the Warcaster, or main leader dude, for my army.  Here he is, plus a small assortment of other units from the Rhulic crew...