Daily Chronicle: 'New Painting Workstation'

With the move to a new place coming in the next 2-4 weeks (keys in 2 weeks, but have 4 weeks till we are out of the old place), I thought it would be a good time to think about a new painting workstation setup. I have been using the original Citadel Games Workshop mdf painting station for the last 13 years, and thought it was time for a change. I wanted something that will easily display my paints and brushes.

 

Originally I was just going to replace what I had with the newer black plastic Citadel painting station, but just recently found out they have discountinued that product for just a hobby box (too bad, I liked the look of the plastic station), so I spent some time googling wargaming painting stations and came across quite a few different options. A lot of them were made in mdf with some really cool setups (magnetic connections and such), and then I came across a company from Austratlia called Back 2 Base-ix and they offer an acrylic painting modular painting station that you can pick the pieces that you want. Coming from Australia, shipping was going to be pricey, but if you take there pre-designed 'Rack Pack' they offer free shipping, you can also slightly customize the 'Rack Pack' adding a few options along with what color you want your rack to be.

 

Back 2 Base-ix Rack Pack

Back 2 Base-ix Tool Rack

So I went ahead and ordered the 'Rack Pack' with a black color option and I added the Tool Rack to hold my brushes and water cup.

 

My total price came out to about $261 Australian dollars and converted was about $192 US.

 

I am looking forward to putting this together in a few weeks and will write a post/pics of the finished setup.

 

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Daily Chronicle: 'Updated Painting Queue'

Now that my son and I have comitted to playing in the Las Vegas Open in February 2016, it was time to priortize my painting queue.

 

All my Warhammer 40K projects will be sliding to the back burner, and my Warmachiine Khador models will slide up front.

 

Hopefully my new models will arrive sometime next week, but I do have some already to get started on so they are at the top of my list.

 

It has been a long time since I painted a Warmachine model, I can honestly say that I am really looking forward to getting back to painting them.

 

Hopefully this blog wont be quite and you'll start to see weekly upgrades on the progress that has been made.

 

Here is my new painting queue that needs to get done for the LVO.

 

• Lady Aiyana & Master Holt
• Winter Guard Infantry x4
• Winter Guard Rocketeer x1
• Winter Guard Officer & Standard
• Forward Kommander Sorscha
• Sylys Wyshnalyr
• Conquest
• Great Bears of Gallowswood
• Gobber Tinker
• Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters x10
• Koldun Kapitan Valachev

 

 

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LVO 2016 February 5th-7th: Warmachine

In 2016, the Las Vegas Open (LVO) will take place the weekend of February 5th-7th at Bally's Hotel and Casino. This event is still in it's infancy, but has become a staple event for the West Coast. The event mainly started out being for Warhammer 40K, but each year has added more and more events. This year they have even added an X-Wing Tournament on Friday/Sunday and Magic The Gathering on Friday night. Tickets for the event officially went on sale August 28th and the Warhammer 40K Championships has already sold out. 286 players.

LVO also offers Warmachine and Hordes events over the 3 day weekend. Here is the list of the Warmachine/Hordes events for 2016:

Friday:

• Open Play all day: starting 10 am
• 8 Man Scrambles: available starting 10 am.

Iron Guantlet

• Check In: 10:00 am, Start 11:00 am
• Playing till we have 4 undefeated. Cutting at that point and those 8 play the Guantlet round.
• After this cut there will be a break and the team tournament will start.

Warmahordes Team Tournament:

• Check In: 5:00 pm, Start 5:30 pm (estimated start time)
• End ~1am
• Formant:
• 50 points
• 2nd List Optional, No duplicate casters on teams.
• 3 Man Teams (WTC Style pairings)
• We can help make teams for people that are looking for a team at the event.

Saturday:

• Open Play all day: starting 9 am
• 8 Man Scrambles: available starting 10 am.

Warmahordes Masters Qualifier Tournament heat 1 (Players are randomly assigned to heats):

• Check in : 8:00 am, Start 9:00 am
• End: ~7:30pm
• 64 Players cap
• 50 points
• 2nd List Optional, D&C 1, ADR
• 5 rounds
• Top 8 qualify for Sunday Masters

Warmahordes Masters Qualifier Tournament heat 2 (Players are randomly assigned to heats):

• Check in : 8:00 am, Start 9:00 am
• End: ~7:30pm
• 64 Players cap
• 50 points
• 2nd List Optional, D&C 1, ADR
• 5 rounds
• Top 8 qualify for Sunday Masters

Spell Draft Tournament:

• Check in : 8:00 pm. Start 8:30pm (or after end of 50 point Tournament)
• End ~1am
• 35 points
• 1 List

Sunday:

• Open Play all day: starting 9 am
• 8 Man Scrambles: available starting 10 am.

Warmahordes Masters Finials

• Top 16 players qualified previously
• Check in : 9:30 am, Start 10:00 am
• End~ 6pm
• 50 points
• 4 rounds
• WMW Qualifier* (We had one last year and should have one again this year.)

Warmahordes 35 point Who’s the Boss? Tournament:

• Check in : 10:00 am, Start 10:30 am
• End~4:30pm
• 35 points, one list. Make a list without a warcaster/warlock assuming +5 jack/beast points
• Who’s the Boss point scoring, Death clock timing.

Closing ceremonies and prizes 6:30-7:00 (at the end of Masters)

First, you must purchase a Convention Badge to partake in any event. You then need to purchase a ticket for which day you would like to play in. For $75.00 you can also purchase a 3 day Warmachine/Hordes pass.

Earlier this year I had thought about attending LVO 2016 for Warhammer 40K (seeing how I missed on it this year, also at the last minute was not able to attend Kingdom-Con). But now with my renewed interest in Warmachine/Hordes, I decided that for 2016 that my son and I will be attending to play in these events.

Part of the reason for attending this event is that I own a timeshare in Las Vegas so I will not need to spend the $400-$500 on a hotel room. The drive is not too far (5 hours / 1 tank of gas). So the real cost for us will be the actual tickets and food for the weekend.

We had thought about just signing up for 1 day (Saturday's 'Masters Qualifier Tournament') and just do open gaming on Friday and Sunday. But we elected to purchase the 3 day pass instead. We are planning on just open play or possible get in on one of the 8 man scrambles on Friday, the Masters Qualifier Tournament on Saturday and on Sunday we will be playing in the Who's the Boss Tournament. The evening events also look to be fun, but I also want to enjoy my time in Las Vegas and just relax in the evenings.

For me, this weekend will be about just having a good time. I have not been a 'tournament' player for years, win or lose, I dont care. Let's just throw down some dice and I hope to learn from old my mistakes.

With saying that, let's move onto the list I am thinking about playing in the Master's Qualifier Tournament. In this event, your 2nd list is optional, but if you do decide to bring one, you must play it in at least 1 game. Seeing how I am just getting back into Warmachine, I'll stick to just bringing 1 list and learn from that.

I of course will be playing with my Khador Faction. I have a tendancy to always play my Butcher 1 Warcaster, but I think for this event I will be going with a Sorscha 2 Gunline list. I really like the feeling of this list and the Conquest Warjack will be bonded to Sorscha.

Sorcha 2 [Effigy of Valor]{Conquest Bonded}

Forward Kommander Sorscha - WJ: +6
- Sylys Wyshnalyrr, The Seeker
- Conquest - PC: 19

Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich - PC: 2
Gobber Tinker - PC: 1

Winter Guard Infantry - Leader & 9 Grunts: 6
- Winter Guard Officer & Standard - Winter Guard Officer & Standard 2
- 3 1 Rocketeer's: 3
Great Bears of Gallowswood - Volkov, Kolsk, Yarovich: 5
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters - Cylena & 9 Grunts: 10
- Koldun Kapitan Valachev - Valachev 2
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt - Lady Aiyanna & Master Holt: 4

I am sure when Steamroller 2016 gets released, the 'objectives' will be different and I will need to look for a replacement for 'Effigy of Valor'. For now this will be list.

Like I said I am going to have fun. I have never played with a Colossal before, so let's go for it.

Unfortunately I do not own many of the models for this list, so today I had to put together an order with Discount Games Inc. This will be my first time ordering with them and they offer 30% off MSRP for Warmachine/Hordes. We'll see how good there service is.

With having to about 90% of this list, that means I have a lot of painting to do. The next 5 months will be a very busy time getting these all painted. I am going to have to sit down and put together a painting schedule/timeline to get this all accomplished. The good news is that I paint fast when I have an event to attend.

So tonight we will start working on our 'painting queue'.

 

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Battle Report: WM 9/5/2015 Khador vs Cygnar (15/25)

This past weekend was Labor Day Weekend and also on 9/5 was my oldest son's 20th birthday. SO he had mentioned that he wanted to spend the day out going to the shooting range and getting in a few games of Warmachine.

 

Since the other night was my first time playing Warmachine in 3 years, we were still keeping the games small and going through all the phases slowly. It is all starting to come back to me.

 

For being the 'Birthday Boy', his dice were not with him today.

 

We started with a 15 point game follwed by our 25 point game.

 

I am not much for remembering all the details of my games, so this is more of just a quick summary along with a few pictures.

 

Game 1: 15 Points "Mangled Metal"

 

Player: Dean

Faction: Khador

Orsus Zoktavir, The Butcher of Khardov - WJ: +6
- Berserker - PC: 6
- Juggernaut - PC: 7
- Marauder - PC: 7

Player: Dragi

Faction: Cygnar

Commander Coleman Stryker - WJ: +6
- Ol' Rowdy - PC: 9
- Hunter - PC: 6
- Lancer - PC: 6

 

This was a win for Khador. Stryker used his Feat a little too early and came charging into Butcher. His dice failed him and was only able to do 13 damage on Butcher. Now it was time for the mighty Khador to take revenge and demolish Stryker

Game 2: 25 Points "Break The Line"

 

Player: Dean

Faction: Khador

Orsus Zoktavir, The Butcher of Khardov - WJ: +6
- War Dog
- Destroyer - PC: 9
- Juggernaut - PC: 7

Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich - PC: 2
Yuri the Axe - PC: 3

Winter Guard Infantry - Leader & 5 Grunts: 4
- 2 1 Rocketeer's: 2
Winter Guard Mortar Crew - Leader & 1 Grunt: 3

Player: Dragi

Faction: Cygnar

Lord General Coleman Stryker - WJ: +5
- Squire
- Ol' Rowdy - PC: 9
- Stormclad - PC: 10

Journeyman Warcaster - PC: 3

Stormblade Infantry - Leader & 5 Grunts: 5

Once again another victory for Khador. The mighty Khador Warjacks were too much for Cygnar. Once they cleared the Cygnar Warjacks, it was time to assassinate Stryker3.

We were hoping to get in one more 25 Point game later in the evening, but with dinner and desert we ran out of time. We'd like to play our next game using the 'death clock' so we can practice our timed games for any upcoming tournaments.

 

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Battle Report: WM 9/2/2015 Khador vs Cygnar (Battlebox)

It has been roughly three years since I last played a game of Warmachine. Life gets in the way, and there were other games to be played. Recently my oldest son started replaying Warmachine with his RPG group and the little light bulb in my head turned on. As I mentioned the other day in my Daily Chronicle, a plus for me with playing Warmachine is the model count. I like low model count games (Skirmish) since they are quick to setup and cleanup.

This past Wednesday night my son and I hit up our lgs Empire Games for a quick refresher playing with just Battlebox models. This game was more about trying to remember the mechanics of the system rather than the tactics.

Player: Dean
Faction: Khador
Casters: 1/1
Points: 11/15
Kommander Sorscha (*5pts)
* Destroyer (9pts)
* Juggernaut (7pts)

Player: Dragi
Faction: Cygnar
Casters: 1/1
Points: 11/15
Commander Coleman Stryker (*6pts)
* Charger (4pts)
* Lancer (6pts)
* Ironclad (7pts)

I broke out my Khador army for this game and my son was playing his Cygnar army. Basically it was a walk them up the middle of the battlefield, get some shooting in, and get some melee in. The refresher was really good for me. My goal was not to keep away and be very tactiful, just needed to see how everything worked again.

 

Sorscha ended up getting shot to death, but we continued to play on. An onlooker offered a suggestion on how Sorcha could assassinate Stryker, so I gave it a shot and it worked. Stryker went down. Again we continued to play just not allowing spells from our Warcasters, just the ability to desiginate Focus.

 

After a few turns of melee, the Khador jacks finished off the Cygnar jacks. Mechanics started coming back to me and it was good to get this game in.

We'll be playing a few more games this Saturday, hopefullt some of the tactics will also start coming back to me too.

 

 

 

 

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Daily Chronicle: 'I Think I Feel An Itch'

I seem to always start off with "well it's been x months since my last post", it has happened again. It has been close to 6 months since my last post, and nearly as long since I played any kind of game. I have been really dedicated lately into my 'cycling' and staying in shape (lost 85lbs in the last year and I want to make sure it stays off this time). So with all my early morning bicycle rides, I go to bed really early and just do not then have the time to get any gaming or modeling in.

 

My oldest son's 20th birthday is this Saturday (9/5) and we plan on spending the day together. First at the shooting range, then at our local gaming store (Empire Games) for an afternoon of gaming. I asked him what he wanted to play. Originally he mentioned Bolt Action, but I noticed lately he has gotten back into Warmachine/Hordes with a weekly group. I thought to myself, it has been 3 years since I last played, why not give it a shot. So I started to get an itch in my arm and it's not from my fresh tattoo I just got 2 weeks ago.

 

OK, the real itch is really from my tattoo (it is in the peeling phase at the moment), but I am starting to feel an itch for Warmachine/Hordes.

 

The one thing I had always liked about WM/H is that the model count is farely low in games. We used to play 15/25/35 point games and there were not too many models so setup was nice and quick (yes, in the 50 point games there are a lot more models) but still not as bad as Warhammer 40K (and the old Warhammer Fantasy).

 

The game also has a lot of single models, Warcasters, Warjacks, Solos, and I enjoyed painted those one at a time instead of always just painting Units in other games. I felt like I accomplished more in painting when I saw the finished model.

 

So I am now back to the learning phase of the game. My son is going to start to re-teach me the game with a 'battlebox' size game, then we'll move onto 15 and 25 points. Not sure if will have time on Saturday for anything larger than 25 points.

 

I am also in the process of downsizing our living spaces. We have been in a 1800 sq ft house for the last 5 years and next month we will be moving two blocks away into a new Luxury Apartment Complex into a 2 bedroom apartment. My oldest son will then move in with my Mom to keep her company with the passing of my Father back in November.

 

Cleaning up a house after 5 years is a lot of work, a lot of items are going into the trash. I am hoping in my new room I can have a permanent table for painting, but that may not be happening and may have to bring out the paint tray every time I want to paint, so my hobbying may still slide (but I will try and get a table setup so I do not lose any interest).

 

Not sure if I will get anything painted this month (with items already being boxed up), but I do have a bunch of P3 paints coming in tomorrow and may want to give a shot at another Warmachine model to paint. We shall see if I can squeeze it in.

 

To conclude, hopefully I am back into gaming (been coming and going)....just not sure how thin I can spread myself over all the games. I am suppose to play in a Bolt Action Tournament in February, but that may not be happening for me. Once I spread myself thin, interest gets lost for me. Once again my biggest issue is time.

 

Hopefully the cobwebs are now dusted off this blog.

 

 

 

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