September 29, 2017

WM: Khador Grolar (Warjack)

The second Warjack that I needed to complete for a list I am thinking about playing at the Michigan GT next weekend is Grolar.  He is a pretty expensive Warjack at 18 points, but he is a ‘jack of all trades’, with some good shooting and melee.  The ability to shoot while in melee is an added bonus.

I picked up this model way back as a pre-release at the 2016 Las Vegas Open back in February 2016.  So it has been sitting for nearly 20 months.  I did already have him assembled and primed, so now it was just a matter of getting some paint on him.  I am happy to say that he his finally completed...though I am still undecided on lists for next weekend, I hear there will be some changes to Themes coming out today, we shall see if that will effect any of the lists I had thought of.

Grolar

Grolar

Painting Points: 5

September 28, 2017

WM: Khador Juggernaut II (Warjack)

Just a slight change of pace from painting Guild Ball the last couple of months (or six).  It has been just about 15 months since I last painted anything for my Khador army.  The last model painted for them was my Behemoth that I had purchased at Lock & Load 2016.  I have painted quite a few models for my Hordes Minions army, but not for Warmachine.

The Michigan GT is coming up in just over a week and I signed up for the Warmachine/Hordes Masters Event, I am not sure why since I only get to play every couple of months, but I thought I’d go for at least 2 games, get my losses and then check out the rest of the venue.  I was going to play my Minions army, but thought to myself, I have not played my Khador in a long time.  So I put together 2 lists using the new Themes for Khador.  I am going just for fun and have no intentions on winning, so why not play something different.  Well within those 2 lists, I am 3 models short of completely painted...so I am rushing to get them done.  Although a part of me is thinking that I still mught play Minions (to save some time on the Deathclock).  More than likely it will be a night before decision on what army I will be playing.

So back and Lock & Load 2016 when they released the new MKIII items, I purchased a Khador Battlebox (mainly for the mini rulebook), but having the 3 models in plastic was also nice.  Most of my Khador Warjacks are the heavy metal, so getting the new plastic is a nice change.  One of the models I am short in my list is a second Juggernaut.  I have one Juggernaut that was part of my original army that was painted back in November 2010 (a long time ago), so it was time for Version 2.0

I tend to paint my Warjacks more in a used condition rather than fresh off the assembly line, so that is continued also here.

Juggernaut II

Juggernaut II

Painting Points: 5

September 27, 2017

Guild Ball: Farmer’s Guild Completed

Well, the first 6 of the released models for the Farmer’s Guild are now completed.  As I mentioned in some of the model posts, I really enjoyed painting these guys, and took just a little bit of extra time with them.  I am no high quality painter, but I do feel like my quality is good for the table top.  It was nice to be able to paint these at the same time our real world entered the Fall season, it was just fitting.

What’s next? Honestly I am undecided at the moment.  I still have plenty of Guild Ball models left to paint to flush out my remaining Guilds, The Union are probably the farthest behind with only ‘Harry the Hat’ being completed.  But the Blacksmith’s are looking interesting and would like to get those guys completed in time for SteamCon USA.

I still have a few model I need to complete for Warmachine/Hordes before I can slide back over to Guild Ball.



Guild Ball: Farmer’s Guild ‘Peck’

The first 6 of the Farmer’s Guild are now completed.  The Mascot ‘Peck’ was the last to get done.  This model is one that I am not actually thrilled on how it he came out.  I just was not ‘into it’ to paint chickens and a rooster.  More than likely when the donkey comes out in the second 6 of models, the donkey will be seeing the Pitch more often.




Peck

Peck

Painting Points: 1

September 26, 2017

Guild Ball: Farmer’s Guild ‘Jackstraw’

I am down to the final 2 models for my Farmer’s Guild.  Today we have ‘Jackstraw’, a Winger  for the Guild.

‘Jackstraw’s’ MOV is not the greatest, actually pretty bad at 2”/4”, but he uses the harvest-markers to get around the Pitch.  He has a Character Play If I Only Had a Brain which allows him to move into base contact with harvest-marker that is 4” away, plus he has 2 Character Traits that also allow him to jump around.  At Your Post allows him once per turn to move into base contact with a harvest-marker or friendly goal-post that is within 4” and he has The Last Straw that at the end of his activation he may move into base contact with a harvest-marker that is within 4”.  So ‘Jackstraw’needs some setup from the other Planters to be able to move around.

Again, as with all of the other Farmer’s so far, ‘Jackstraw’ was a joy to paint.




Jackstraw

Jackstraw

Painting Points: 1

September 25, 2017

Guild Ball: Farmer’s Guild ‘Windel’

Yesterday’s post was missed. Since I spent the day doing a cycling event, perfectly themed too...”Apple Cider Century”, anyways today post is on ‘Windel’, a Centre Back for the Farmer’s Guild.  I really enjoyed painting this model and took some time with it and I am quite happy on how he turned out (actually pretty happy with all the Farmer’s, they all look good on the tabletop).

One problem that I see with ‘Windel’ have heard on the Podcasts is that he does not generate any Influence for your team, but can use up to 2.  Berserk is a nice Character Trait to have and ‘Windel’ can technically generate 4 Attacks each turn let alone any more that he can gain from harvest-markers.



Windel

Windel

Painting Points: 2

September 23, 2017

Guild Ball: Farmer’s Guild ‘Harrow’

Half way through the first set of the Farmer’s 6.  Today we are going with their Defensive Midfielder ‘Harrow’

‘Harrow’ brings with him Tooled Up which is alwyas a nice Character Play to have, he also has a Character Trait called Rapid Growth [6” Aura] which at the start of the Maintenance Phase, before conditions are resolved, friendly models within this auro may recover [2] HP.  This is very nice to have especially if you have conditions like Bleed or Poison on you, this will at least take away some of that damage.



Harrow

Harrow

Painting Points: 1

September 22, 2017

Guild Ball: Farmer’s Guild ‘Bushel’

After a little Battle Report yesterday, it is time to continue on with the Farmer’s Guild.

Up today we have ‘Bushel’, a Striker for the Farmer’s Guild.

‘Bushel’ has a pretty decent KICK stat with a 3/8”, but where she really benefits from is one of her Character Traits Cabbage Punt.  Once per turn if she is within [2”] of a harvest-marker, she can remove the harvest-marker and that will allow her to reroll failed Kicks for the remainder of the turn.

‘Bushel’ also gets a [+1] ARM id she is with [4”] of ‘Harrow’, this makes it a lot harder to take her out with her base DEF of 5+ already.

Obviously right now she has to be in the starting 6 lineup (since only 6 Farmer’s are released), but I can see her also making the lineup in the future.




Bushel

Bushel

Painting Points: 1

September 21, 2017

Battle Report: Guild Ball 9/20/2017 Butcher’s vs Hunter’s

Not much of an actually battle report, but more of an A$$ kicking to the Butcher’s.

Last night I finally made the trek out to Big Kidz Games in Grand Rapids, MI for Wednesday night Guild Ball gaming.  Wednesday nights at BKG is pretty much dedicated for Guild Ball and Warmachine/Hordes.  I have been meaning to get up there on Wednesday night since I started collecting Guild Ball, but 82 miles one way is quite the distance to drive for a single game.  Luckily majority of the drive is all Interstate so it takes only about 75 minutes.  I wont be able to do this on a weekly basis, but maybe I can get up there every other week.  I need to play more games so I can get a better understanding on how everyone works.

Eric, the ‘Pundit’ for Western Michigan usually arrives around 6:30 PM and that is about the time everyone started showing up (I got there around 6:10 PM since I was not sure about traffic).  He brought 3 Pitch’s with him and Terrain, and I also brought along my Pitch/Terrain just in case.  There was about 7 players who showed up for Guild Ball and about 8 players showed up for Warmachine/Hordes, so there was a pretty decent crowd.


I got to play Joe and his Hunter’s Guild.  Joe is fairly new to the game but has a decent amount of games under his belt, last night was going to be his first time playing with the Hunter’s.  I have been wanting to try out my Butcher’s Guild, so an Ox led Butcher’s team hit the Pitch.

Butcher’s
Ox
Princess
Boar
Boiler
Brisket (V)
Meathook

Hunter’s
Theron
Fahad
Chaska
Egret
Jaecar
Seenah

I lost the kick off so I was kicking to the Hunter’s.  I decided to go ahead and kick off with ‘Veteran Brisket’, it was a good kick and a pretty decent postion.  It went between ‘Seenah’ and ‘Egret’, and Joe snapped the ball to ‘Egret’.

From there it was a lot of dancing around with the Hunter’s and doing some long ranged damaged.  I made a big mistake and forgot to allocate Influence to ‘Veteran Brisket’ (I did not see her up the field while I was allocating the Influence), otherwise she could have gone up and tried to tackle the ball.  So not much was really done this Turn for the Butcher’s.

Hunter’s kept on dancing around and keeping just enough distance away from my Butcher’s so I could not do any real damage.  When I would try and get close enough ‘Seenah’ would Charge into me and wreck some havoc.  Twice he was able to get off Bear Hug to take out ‘Ox’ and ‘Boar’ earning him an additonal VP for those take outs.

‘Boiler’ and ‘Princess’ were able to team up and take out ‘Fahad’ for 1 VP making it 6-1.

‘Egret’ then finally made a move towards my Goal with the ball but did not have enough Influence left to take the shot.  ‘Veteran Brisket’ was standing by real close ready to attack at the top of the next Turn.  Of course I lost the roll off and Hunter’s were going first.  ‘Egret’ did an attack on ‘Veteran Brisket’ so he could earn some Momentum and Dodge away and took the shot on Goal and scored making it 10-1.  I played the Plot Card Super Fan which allowed me after conceeding a goal to place the ball-marker in possesion of a friendly model within [6”] of the friendly goal.  So I place the ball-marker  on ‘Veteran Brisket’, she Sprinted towards ‘Boiler’ and passed him the ball.  At that point, ‘Theron’ was able to finish off ‘Meathook’ for the win and I lost 12-1.  I did activate ‘Boiler’ next (just for fun) to see if he would have scored....he did...




First time with the Butcher’s, I am still undecided on them, I need to give ‘Fillet’ a chance next time and see how I like them.

September 20, 2017

Guild Ball: Farmer’s Guild ‘Grange’

Well here we go, the very first model completed for my Farmer’s Guild (well 2 if you count the ball).  As I mentioned yesterday, I am taking just a little bit more time on each of these models and picking out some more highlights.  Usually on my models I like the colors to flow more fluently with subtle highlights.  For these guys I decided to give them that extra ‘pop’ of a highlight in just a few spots.

So first up we have their Captain ‘Grange’.  In all honestly I have not had the time to really go over the stats on any of the Farmer’s models. All I been hearing though is that ‘Thresher’ is the better Captain once he is released.  Personally I dont care, I like the look of all the Guild Ball models and enjoy collecting/painting them.  Eventually they will also hit the Pitch.

I also mentioned yesterday that I was unsure of the quality of the new plastic and how it would take the paint.  So far I like them a lot.  For the last 5-7 years I have been using a very cheap flat black spray paint ($.98/can) to prime my models (I never understood spending $8-$10 a can for black primer) and these plastics models took that spray paint very well.  Then with my P3 paints I also had no issues at all.  I did notice I had to use multiple coats on some of my colors but I think that is due to the paint itself.  Some of the colors I have been using are from P3’s new ‘Grymkin’ line of colors and I think a lot of these colors are very thin, but I love the color choices and they could not have been released at a more better time.



Grange

Grange

Grange and Ball

Painting Points: 1+1

September 19, 2017

Guild Ball: The Honest Land, The Farmer's Guild

Now that I just completed another Guild with the Mason's, it is time to move onto something new.  Seeing how we are just 3 days away from the official start of the Fall Season, I think it is a great time to finally start on the Farmer's Guild with their new 6 man plastic boxed set.


I have actually been pretty excited and looking forward to painting this Guild.  I know I am not the greatest painter out there, but I do think my finished models are pretty decent for tabletop quality.  I do tend to paint on the fast side (I like the feeling of accomplishment when the model is finished), but with the Farmers's Guild my plan is to slow it down just a bit.  I plan on doing a little bit more highlighting with these guys.  Nothing to drastic, just a little bit more than normal.

I am also looking forward to seeing how the plastic quality is on these models.  They changed the plastic that they used from the Kick-Off starter set for the new Farmer's and Blacksmith's Guilds.  I have been hearing mixed reviews for the new plastic.  We shall see soon.

I also do have 2 cycling events coming up over the next 2 weekends, so that will take away from some of paitning time.  I think maybe the end of next week or possibly even the first week of October, the first 6 of the Farmer's Guild should be completed.

Now I can only 'hope', 'wish', 'dream' that SteamForged will be releasing the second 6 to us at SteamCon USA.




Guild Ball: Mason's Guild 'Chisel'

Well there we go, the final model for the Mason's Guild, at least for now....back at GenCon 2017 in August, SteamForged did release a model called 'Lucky' that can be played with the Brewer's or the Mason's Guild.  Currently that model is only available at conventions or through an escalation league.  Eventually we'll get a hold of 'Luck', more than likely at SteamCon USA in December.

Today we have 'Chisel', an Attacking Midfielder for the Mason's.  I also enjoyed painting this model a lot like I did with 'Granite'.

Onto some of her stats....looking at her Playbook, I wish she did some more damage that was Momentous, see like 2 is the highest with Momentum but can do up to 4 damage.  Painful Rage does give her [+2] TAC and [+1] DMG to Playbook damage results when her HP's fall below 6.  If she is running relaly low on HP, she can use Sadism for the cost of 1 Influence that she may recover [1] HP when an enemy model within her 4" Aura suffers damage.



Chisel

Chisel

Painting Points: 1