Quick and Dirty Re-paint (Pistol Wraith)

I have been relatively inactive painting lately due to play more golf then painting. I did watch a tutorial online the other day that got me thinking about my incorporeal models and I decided to try it out on one of my pistol wraith for my Cephalyx/Cryx armies.

I just need to do the base and I'm ready to call him done. The mini is much closer to what I wanted then my previous green version and was way easier. I really wish I'd have figured this out prior to painting my risen because I'd much rather have them looking like this guy. After completing this mini I am part tempted to paint up an entire Cryx for using this style and make a full on ghost army.

Templecon Painting Log Update #4

Computer is buck up and running so I have some WiPs once again. I still haven't finished a minis but we are making progress so I'm hoping all of a sudden I will have a bunch done and start to feel like this is doable. I realize the Cephalyx are all I really "have to" finish but I'd really like to have three playable 50pt lists done. OK on to some photos. First up will be the 'casters I mentioned last week and where they currently stand (seeing as I didn't work on them this week)

First up is Drake MacBain. I tried out some battle damage on some of these new merc minis. Since I decided to basecoat all the armor via the airbrush I felt the paint chipping helped break it up a little and add a little more character.....it also seem to speed up the process a little which every little but helps. As you can see I may have been inspired a little by a wrestler from my youth :) "Whatcha gonna do Brotha when MacBain comes for you?"

Durgen! I did the same battle damage on Durgen as I did on Drake. All I really need to do on this little man is the yellow metals, the eye piece, finish his base and glue him down. 

Last of the casters I worked on was Damiano. Like little Durgen I was feeling the ginger facial hair on the good captain. Damiano is probably the closest to being finished as I need to tighten up his leather sections, highlight the purple and do his sword blade. 

Those where the photos I wanted to show to y'all last week but the computer issues prevented it from happening. Week #4 was a work week for me (never terribly productive) but I did get some work done and as Dory says "just keep swimming, just keep swimming"

To make my cephalyx list even harder to finish I've decided I want to drop one of the monstrosities in favor of a second unit of mind slaver and drudges. Here are the old school metal drudges cleaned and primed. As you can see I didn't assemble the metal cephalyx leader mini as I am trying to obtain a plastic one some how. So far I'm not having great luck getting my hands on one so I may have to use the metal leader.....anyone have a spare they'd like to trade for a metal one ;)

Next I assembled and started to paint a machine wraith. The machine wraith is one of the sweet Cryx minis that can be included in the cephalyx contract. He is a nice little one point filler that if an opponent is light on magic weapons can be great at contesting zones and flags. 

I have been tinkering with my lists and decided I'd like to try Alexia2 in one of them. I assembled and primed four more thrall warriors which gets my total up to 6......should be enough, no? 

I also started on Alexia's horse. I've used a couple different colors drybrushed for highlight and then washed the minis with two different washes. I need to go back and do some purple spot washes here and there and a few other colors to add interest but for such a quick and dirty start I'm pretty pleased. 

Last for today are a couple pirate solos and Mr Carvolo. I had a Rhupert started previously but the feet got snapped of by "It wasn't me". Funny how that guy is responsible for everything.

I love this model. The Doc is so full of character that I had to slap a little extra color on him one evening when I had a spare 15min. 

I didn't take any photos but I cleaned the last night risen needed to get me up to a full 20 for Alexia1. I think the only minis left to be assembled/cleaned are a unit of press gangers and the weapon attachments for the sea dogs. 

One month in the books boys and girls and zero finished mini. Tomorrow it Thanksgiving so Im not sure how much I'll get accomplished over the next few days but maybe I'll bring a couple minis and some paint and try and lay down some color during down times. Have a great thanksgiving all and safe travels wherever you may be heading. 

Durgen vs Gaspy2 (battle report)

Hello all. I am going to try out something new today and see if it is something I'd like to do more often on the blog. I found an app which is suppose to help with battle report so I figured I'd give it a go today at the FLGS. I have been wanting to try Durgen out for a while now and almost brought him to the Dark Omen LCQ instead of Ossrum. I met Tim at the store today and he is getting back into Cryx after a couple years away from the dragonfather. I'm pretty sure I haven't used the app optimally so far and this may be a little clunky for a first go so apologies in advance. Any feed back appreciated. Onto the lists for today's game: 

Nog:

Mercinaries: Highborn Covenant

Durgen Madhammer (*6pts)
* Ghordson Earthbreaker (19pts)
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (Cylena and 9 Grunts) (10pts)
Herne & Jonne (3pts)
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt (4pts)
Steelhead Halberdiers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Tactical Arcanist Corps (4pts)
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios (3pts)
Master Gunner Dougal MacNaile (2pts)
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator (1pts)
Taryn di la Rovissi (2pts)
Thor Steinhammer (2pts)

Tim:

Lich Lord Asphyxious (*6pts)

* Helldiver (3pts)
* Helldiver (3pts)
* Nightwretch (4pts)
Bane Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts) (10pts)
Bane Thralls (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Bane Thrall Officer & Standard (3pts)
Bile Thralls (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Satyxis Blood Witches (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Satyxis Blood Hag (2pts)
Bane Lord Tartarus (4pts)
Darragh Wrathe (4pts)
Saxon Orrik (2pts)
Warwitch Siren (2pts)

The scenario was randomly generated using the website www.SR20x.com and after randomization came out to be scenario #7 incoming.

Table prior to dice roll for first turn and deployment. There are two obstructions that are tall enough to block line of site to a colossal on a hill, one hill, a linear obstacle, and shallow water. Tim won the roll and elected to go first and I selected the side of the table with the hill.

Tim's deployment. Blood witches to my left and lots of banes on my right.

I decided to deploy my steelheads across from the bane package and the nyss hunters and Herne and Jonne across from the blood witches.

Turn 1 Cryx: Stuff ran, hell divers burrowed, clouds were put up.

Turn 1 Mercs: I poorly planned my deployment with some of the solos due to not playing this list before and forgetting about the clouds. Durgen redlined the earthbreaker and put primed on the steelheads. He then walked forward and did a carpet bomb hoping for some good drifts. I had decent drifts but sub par damage rolls killing one bile thrall and the three bane thralls hit with blast either failed to exceed arm or passed tough checks. The nightwretch too three points of damage. The combination of H&J, Nyss, and Eiryss took half of the unit of blood witches off the table whi then failed their command check. Due to clouds and the obstruction the earthbreaker walked forward and scattered a few rough terrain templates hoping to slow down the thralls if possible. Thor repaired the redline dmg, TAC dropped clouds, and last parts of the army repositioned. 

Turn 2 Cryx: Helldivers popped up and re-burrowed. Vengeance moves and some charges/advances from knights and thralls killed a couple steelheads. Asphyxious cast excarnate on a steelhead which brought back a bile thrall luckily for me not in a great location to threaten too many models. He then cast caustic mist and teleported into his little bunker of cloud and obstruction.  

Turn 2 Mercs: Primed was upkept and redline was allowed to drop. Steelheads charges bane thralls and knights trying to induce freestrikes for multiple kills via primed. Aiyana gave the Nyss magical weapons so they could continue to shoot down the blood witches. Reinhold tmoved into position to reload Durgen who then moved towards the left zone. Durgen took a case cracker *attack on the nightwretch and the reload shot at a bile thrall killing the bile thrall and a warwitch siren with blast dmg. The Nyss killed the remaining blood witches except for the hag and then took a CMA into the nightwretch with the remaining Nyss. After the turn a total of 10 bane knights/thralls (just the right number, for cryx) were dead and the nightwretch was scrapped. (Photo was taken partway into Tim's maintenance phase)

Cryx turn 3: Helldivers popped up as seen in the turn two merc pic. Asphyxious activated, moved up excarnated, and feated back the 10 banes I had killed. The bile thrall purged kill Eiryss clearing a line to Durgen. The helldiver slammed Durgen into the obstruction and then the liberal application of feated banes put the little guy into the ground. 

No es bueno Durgen!

All in all this was a fun game. Despite the loss I have to say I really enjoyed Durgen and plan to make him one of my go to merc 'casters going forward. This wasn't a perfectly played game on either side as we both made positioning mistakes at set up and throughout the game due to rust/lask of experience. On the bottom of two I thought there was an assassination attempt against Gaspy but I elected to skip it due to what I felt was a low probability. Hindsight being 20/20 I probably could have made this work and in looking over the photos I see some other opportunities I missed as well. I was pretty happy with the Durgen list I brought with me but would like to try out press gangers in the spot of the steelheads to get that primed unit stuck in sooner due to advance deploy. Hopefully this first attempt at a battle report wasn't too clunky and you were able to follow along ok. Any feedback greatly appreciated. 

Templecon 2015 Painting Log

If you look at the Templecon website you can see by the countdown clock that there are only 101 days (at the time I wrote this) prior to the beginning of the convention. If I take out the few days leading up to the con that leaves me 14 weeks, give or take, to get my painting done. I have decided that the best way to accomplish my painting goals is to put the list to paper (actual and virtual) and try and plan out a points per week requirement. I intend to put the paper copy next to my painting station as a constant reminder/motivation/shaming tool. The list below if very large and intimidating at initial glance but this is nearly an all inclusive list and,  while I'd like to accomplish all of it, only some of it "must" finish. A second factor that comes into play hopefully making this a little easier is the fact that a large portion of the list is already assembled and in many of the pieces are partially painted. I will be breaking the list down into three categories and color coding theme for purposes of the blog:

Primary
Secondary
Tertiary  

As you look at the list below it should be pretty clear as to the theme for the minis in the primary category. These are the minis I need to finish for my "Templecon 2015 painting challenge" with my Canadian brothas Jamie and Chadi. If I can pull it off I'd like to post some updates here on their painting progress as well as one or two of my local guys I'm trying to rope in as well.

Warcasters: (25pts)
Exulon Thexus
Captain Damiano
General Ossrum
Durgen Madhammer
Drake MacBain

Warjacks: (76pts)
Earthbreaker (18pts)
Galleon (19pts)
Nomad (6pts)
Warden x2 (6pts/ea)
Wrecker x3 (7pts/ea)

Units: (84pts)
Alexia1 (5pts)
Arcane tempest gun mages (6pts)
*Officer (2pts)
Cephalyx mind bender & drudges (6pts)
Cephalyx mind slaver & drudges (6pts)
Nyss hunters (10pts)
Boomhowler (9pts)
Herne & Jonne (3pts)
Kayazy assassins (8pts)
*Underboss(2pts)
Aiyana & Holt (4pts)
Press gangers (6pts)
Sea dogs (8pts)
*Mr Walls (2pts)
*Riflemen x3 (1pt/ea)
Tactical arcanist corp (4pts)

Solos: (57pts)
Alexia2 (4pts)
*Thall warriors x6
Anastasia (2pts)
Bloat thrall (2pts)
Grogspar (2pts)
Cephalyx agitator x3 (2pts/ea)
Cephalyx dominator (1pt)
Killingsworth (2pts)
Eiryss1 (3pts)
Eiryss2 (3pts)
Hawk (2pts)
Gorman (2pts)
Harlan (2pts)
Kell (2pts)
Rockbottom (2pts)
Machine wraith (1pt)
Dougal (2pts)
Ogrun bokur (3pts)
Orin (2pts)
Pistol wraith x2 (3pts/ea)
Raluk (2pts)
Rhupert (2pts)
Taryn (2pts)
Thor (2pts)

There is the list as it currently stands. I think I have included everything but who knows as I banged this out on break last night at work and I'm ready for a nap;) When calculating the pt cost of the minis needing to be painted I just assumed a cost of 5 pts per caster just like an assassination in SR. If my math is correct the list adds up to a grand total of 242 pts which will mean I need to accomplish approximately 17 pts/week to have the list fully painted the week  prior to Templecon. The Templecon painting list is now on paper and staring me in the face time to get down to the cave and get to work (after I grab some sleep).

Southern Ontario Open Recap Part 2

So after our night on the town the alarms woke us up earlier than any of us really wanted. After rocking the free breakfast at the hotel and the mandatory (should be for all convention goers) shower we threw on the Team Spite shirts (except Tim who forgot his) and hit the road for the Canadian Legion that was hosting the event.

Some of the only photos I remembered to take

When we go to the Legion I got to say quick hellos to some of my Canadian buddy like Northblade, Chadi, Boots, and Charles (my partner in crime after the painting class) After the hellos it was time to break out the minis and get the tray ready for the day. It was at this time Tim realized he brought one of his troll cases and didn't have the minis needed for one of his lists :/

This mess is my tray prior to round one. Damn three lists and trolls :)

I don't know about y'all but round one of any event is always the most nerve racking for me and the lead up to pairing is always anxious. All I was hoping for was a match up where I had a clear drop and didn't have to think too much. Lucky for me this came true and I was paired up vs Legion and the scenario was destruction. 

Round1: I was paired up with Fadi from Northblade's meta. I forget what his other two lists were but I was nearly 100% sure he was going to drop eVayl theme force and I was right he did. Fadi's list was as follows (to the best of my memory):

Vayl, Consul of Everblight (*6pts)

* Naga Nightlurker (5pts)
* Raek (4pts)
* Angelius (8pts)
* Angelius (8pts)
* Angelius (8pts)
* Ravagore (9pts)
* Ravagore (9pts)
Spawning Vessel (Leader and 5 Grunts) (3pts)
Blighted Nyss Shepherd (1pts)
Blighted Nyss Shepherd (1pts)

I dropped Runes of War. I was very happy with round one as it was a central scenario I felt very comfortable, the terrain was set up in such a way I could put my wall in great spots plus there was water, and I know the Vayl list pretty well to boot. 

I won the roll and decided to go first. I deployed in a pretty standard runes set up with the Doomie, the beasts, Janissa, and the KSB centralized and two units of runeshapers on each flank. Turn one everything pretty much runs forward. I had a little brain fart in my turn one as I forgot to do no continuous effects from the KSB and on his turn the ravegores set two of my runeshapers on fire....doh! All in all the game went pretty well for me and I feel hes was a little too conservative as I was able to score three scenario point on top of three and then get another two on top of four to win the game on scenario. Out of round one W CP:5 AP 23....1-0

Round2: I was paired up with Andrew who was playing Circle. His three 'locks were eKreuger, pMorvahna, and eMorvahna. I was pretty sure I was going to see eMorvahna so I decided to drop runes of war once again. He did indeed drop the Goatlady and his list was as follows:

Morvahna the Dawnshadow (*5pts)

* Gorax (4pts)
* Warpwolf Stalker (10pts)
* Warpwolf Stalker (10pts)
* Woldwarden (9pts)
Warpborn Skinwalkers (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)
* Warpborn Alpha (3pts)
Wolves of Orboros (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Wolf of Orboros Officer & Standard (2pts)
Druid Wilder (2pts)
Gallows Grove (1pts)

The scenario for round two was balance of power which from my experience isn't all that "live". I decided to drop runes once again. Just like in round one I won the roll for initiative and once again elected to go first. This round my side of the table wasn't as favorable to my standard deployment as there was a pretty large obstruction on my right flank that would effect my standard "unpacking" He deployed his skinwalkers across from the runeshapers on my right flank and the unit of wolves across from the runes on my left flank where they could run into a forest. I went with a pretty standard turn one except the two units of runeshapers on my right flank were not able to get as far out as I would normally like them. The next turn we exchanged minis on the flanks and were jockeying for position. I lost the mauler to a primaled stalker on a turn I was considering feating but decided to hold off. I attepted to RFP as many of the skinwalkers as possible but my axer just didn't damage Mulg enough and Mulg was fully healed after eating two skinwalkers. Once he was down to a skinwalker and the alpha he ran them around my right flank and feated putting a lot of pressure on my backfield and swinging the attrition game largely in his favor. Luckily for me he had scales a few too many time and Morvahna was pretty far up the table to get feated skinwalkers into my backfield and she had 2 fury left in her. After surveying the table I felt I had a very solid Mulg assassination run in line if I could get all my orders of activation layed out properly. Janissa advanced and tectonic shifted pushing two skinwalkers off of Mulg and one off of Doomies back arc. Doomie was now un-engaged and I advanced him forward to rampager a beast out of mulgs charge lane, put fortune on Mulg, and feated. I was struggling deciding if, after receiving rush, Mulg was in charge range of Morvhana it was going to be <1/4" either direction. I decided I could afford to charge and fail so I charge a wilder that was a little closer but on the same trajectory I needed. I had to take a freestrike from a gorax but mulg was at full health so it wasn't too scary. Once the charge of the wilder was completed it turned out I would have been able to charge Morvahna....oh well. I killed the wilder with my fist and was able to take my club initial on Morvahna without having to goad. Since Doomie's feat was up she was going to have to take a D6 each time she transferred and between Mulg's dmg and feat dmg she just couldn't hold up. Mulg killed her with two fury remaining. Round 2 W CP:0 AP: 42.... 2-0

Round3: Before the pairing came out I was desperately hoping for some compelling reason to pick one of my other two lists. I was really enjoying runes of war but I needed to get the other lists on the table. Turns out I was paired up with David who was playing Cryx so Grim2 you're up. David was playing Lich2, Terminus, and pSkarre. He ended up dropping pSkarre and the list was as follows:

Pirate Queen Skarre (*6pts)

* Desecrator (9pts)
* Skarlock Thrall (2pts)
Bane Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts) (10pts)
Mechanithralls (Leader and 9 Grunts) (5pts)
Mechanithralls (Leader and 9 Grunts) (5pts)
Necrosurgeon & 3 Stitch Thralls (2pts)
Necrosurgeon & 3 Stitch Thralls (2pts)
Satyxis Blood Witches (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)
* Satyxis Blood Hag (2pts)
Satyxis Raiders (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Satyxis Raider Sea Witch (2pts)
General Gerlak Slaughterborn (3pts)
Satyxis Raider Captain (2pts)

Scenario for round three was incursion. The board was pretty fair in regards to terrain with nothing really sticking out except one fag was in a forest. I won the roll to go first and I never like to go second vs Satyxis so I elected to go first. I deployed the SoB and Saxon on my right flank across from the right flag which was in the forest, D&S got deployed on the left flank, and the Hunters Grim/battlegroup/scattergunners/dygs we all centrally deployed. Turn one dygs burrowed, Grim put mirage on the scattergunners, and everything advanced. I tried to keep minis far enough back so as not to get charged by the raiders. I did a pretty good job of not getting charged on his turn but he decided to just run his raiders into my army and start jamming up the scattergunners and the dygs pop up zone.....the flag on my left went away. On turn two I popped my feat and attempted to clear as many raiders and mcthralls as I could but didn't' get as many as I would have expected. Over the next few turns the middle of the was just bogged down with back and forth fighting and David taking the advantage on attrition due to the recursion he had in his list. I really didn't execute a good game plan after engagement was established and felt like I was fighting an uphill battle the entire game. As I was getting very short on time I attempted a last ditch attempt to snatch a win from the jaw of defeat and was able to dominate the right flag to get up to four control points with 20 sec left on my deathclock. He was able to contest on his turn however and I lost on time. This game was very disappointing to me and has stuck with me since it ended. I have replayed it in my head multiple time and I just played poorly and didn't really make it tough on David. I had some terrible dice throughout the game but by no mean was this why I lost. It seems to me that dice tend to favor a well executed game plan and my rolls reflected my play. As I mentioned above I wish the list was a little different from design but I really wish I could play this game again from go. I cannot say with confidence that I would win but I can say I would play a better game. My hopes of an undefeated day one went out the door and the wind was completely out of my sails. I took a while looking at the table and replaying things in my head. Round 3 L CP:4 AP:37.....2-1

Round 4: I was still a little out of sorts and replaying the last round and I don't remember the warlock pairing for this round. I was playing Matt and he had Legion so I was gonna drop runes I figured I could play eGrissel day two if I qualified. The scenario for this round was Close Quarters. He dropped Saeryn. Once again I won the roll for initiative. I don't remember too may details from this game but I ended up winning via assassination on my feat turn as he ended up killing himself with feat dmg. Round 4 W CP:0 AP 75...... 3-1.

So at the end of day one I was 3-1 and had only played two of my three lists. When they did the raffle and announcements for day two they decided all the 3-1 players were invited back to day two and that they weren't going to narrow the field to the top 16. So I was back for day two and after losing round one Tim clawed back to a 3-1 record and was also going to be playing on day two. It was at this time that the announce the top player from each faction for the day and turns out I was the top Trollblood player and got a Trollblood patch and pair of dice for that achievement. I was pretty worn out by this point and while our initial plans were to hit up the town once again I ended up just going back to BWW to grab some food and watch the UFC PPV.

We came back for day two but neither Tim or myself were that into it. I got paired up with Phillip who play with Ze Frenchies out of Quebec I believe. He was playing mercs and was a really good dude. I forget his pairings at this time but know one had an earthbreaker. The scenario for this round was Outflank. I had so much fun playing runes on day one I said screw it I'll play it again. He selected:

Magnus the Warlord (*6pts)
* Nomad (6pts)
* Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker (2pts)
Kayazy Assassins (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Kayazy Assassin Underboss (2pts)
Kayazy Eliminators (Leader and Grunt) (3pts)
Kayazy Eliminators (Leader and Grunt) (3pts)
Steelhead Halberdiers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Steelhead Heavy Cavalry (Leader and 4 Grunts) (10pts)
Lord Rockbottom (2pts)
Ragman (2pts)
Wrong Eye & Snapjaw (9pts)
* Bull Snapper (3pts)

I may be off with one or two of the solos but I am pretty sure this was his list. Turn one prtty standard advances on both side. Top of two I rock hammered a bunch of kayazy and was able to kill one girl from each pair of eliminators so I was pretty happy at the end of my turn with what I killed and amy positioning......well I shouldn't have been. I kinda forgot what Magnus' feat did and after clearing the left zone (a couple of those runeshapers didn't want to die) he got Magnus into his zone and feated. Oh no! I was pretty much locked out and was done at this point. Hindsight being 20/20 I may have been able to throw my axer into the zone to get myself an extra round but I got rolled game over. Since the game ended early we got to chat a but and he was a good dude and I hope to run into him at Templecon next year.

Tim lost his round one game to a guy we know from Buffalo. Seeing as we were both out of the running for anything we decided to drop and hit the road back to the States. The tourney was very well run and I hope they do it again next year. While I would love to say I won and was heading to WMW the best part of these trips is truly the old friends you get to catch up with, the friends to travel with, and the new people you meet.

Sturgis, The Corrupted

When I got my kickstarter minis two days ago I would have told you that you were crazy if you thought dead Sturgis would be the first mini I assembled......and I would have been wrong. As part of the Vengeance release we have been having 25pt tournaments every Friday night with coins available every night. While this is not the traditional way people do book releases it has kind of become a tradition in our meta and in the past has turned into some large events.

 

I played my trolls Thursday night at the other FLGS so I wasn't planning on attending the Friday night event but after receiving a few texts from Les and Adam I talk with the wife and decided I was in. I picked up my Khador coin the first week (have the Khador coin from every book release) so I needed to decide what I was going to play. I jokingly said dead Sturgis to Adam and he convinced me I should and that I could borrow some of his stuff. Here is what I came up with:

 

Sturgis The Corrupted (*6pts)
* Ripjaw (5pts)
Bane Riders (Leader and 4 Grunts) (11pts)
Bane Thralls (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Bane Thrall Officer & Standard (3pts)
Pistol Wraith (3pts)

 

I am sure I could have come up with something better but I really wanted to try out Adams Bane Riders and giving them stealth is never a bad thing, right? Ok I decided I was going to play now lets get assembling:

 

Parts all laid out ready for cleaning/ assembly. The mold lines were not that bad but as you can see lots of tiny flash from vents (I assume)

The Corrupted all ready to roll. The left wrist connection point is very tiny so I highly recommend pinning this. I didn't pin due to time restraints and it has broken off at least twice already.

 

So you may be asking what do you mean time restraints? Why didn't you have time if you were just assembling the mini to play and that's it? Well...... I was texting with my Canadian buddy Mr. Bell AKA Northblade and he convinced me (didn't take too much) that I should try and get him fully painted before heading to the store. I had maybe two and a half hours before I had to leave for the FLGS but said what the hell lets give it a go. Due to the basement flood I have paints and supplies all over the hous right now so I had to scramble to find everything. It looked like I was going to be grounded before the flight even took off as I couldn't find any of my primer but I came across some grey Vallejo Surface right when I was about to throw in the towel. I'd say it took a good 30 min of my time away finding my supplies and get set back up.

Sturgis primed grey and standing next to a Dragonforge Designs Lost Hemisphere base (for motivation)

Corrupted metals basecoated. I did a mix of VMA gun metal and rust (metallic) to achieve this color. As this was drying I had to leave the house to go get my son off the school bus so that cut another 20min or so off my time.

Drybrushed the metal with VMA steel, then added some gold trim accents with VMC brass, then filled in some plates with the original corrupted metal base color.

Painted the pants with P3 Rucksack Tan and the boot covers with P3 Bootstrap Leather. As you can see the weapon hand snapped off (this was #2)

The last thing I was able to do before I packed up and headed out was basecoat the cloth in the mid-tone from the Reaper Master Series muted purple triad. I forget the name of the color at this time.

 

It was a decent effort and I am pretty happy with the progress after about an hour and a half of paint time. As you can clearly see there is a bunch left to do still but I should be able to bang him out pretty quickly once I sit back down with him. I think if I had an hour more before heading to the store he would have been "finished". I ended up going 2-1 at the event. The game I lost I tried to assassinate Butcher one. I tried to shoot him with the pistol wraith and missed. Tried to hit him with a boosted parasite (needing 8 on 3d6 since he wasn't iron fleshed) and missed. then charged him with 4 bane thrall grunts and two axe and missed all six attacks :o Well guess that wasn't meant to be. I know people don't think Cryx Sturgis is very good but I have to say I had a blast playing him. Playing Cryx again may have had something to do with it but I really like Sturgis and had a good time. I'd say the highlight of my night was in game one Les jammed mini-feated zealots into my army. I teleported Sturgis into the middle of them and feated killing ALL but one of the zealots! It was glorious. OK that's all I have for now hopefully I'll have a finished Sturgis for y'all to see soon.

PP's Unexpected Package

When I got home from y part time job today I had a package waiting for me. I received a shipping invoice from PP on April 1st but couldn't remember ordering anything so I kind of disregarded the email. I have also been so preoccupied with the flood in the basement and getting everything taken care of that I completely forgot about the email. Well when I picked up the package I was even more confused by the size of the box and the weight of the package.....I certainly didn't order this much from PP recently. Lets look at what we received shall we?

Completely forgot I pledged War Chest!

Coinage!

 

There you have it my little surprise from PP. OK off tot he store to play some trolls.

Templecon '14 Recap

Templecon '14 has come and gone and it's time for the wrap up. This years Templecon was a little on the bumpy side for me but more on that as we go.

My initial plan was to leave my house around 1pm to head out to Les' place. I was going to play a game with Adam before Les got home and we packed up for the ride. Well mother nature had different plans as we were getting hammered by a snow storm here in Central New York. After bouncing around different options he elected to try and leave around 7:30-8pm after the storm had passed. My drive to Les' (about 70min away) was a bit of a nightmare but we made it got the car packed and headed for Warwick. We got into RI between 1-2am and met up with some friends in the lobby. We got a sec to catch up Northblade and Chadi from Canada (had the good sense to leave a day early) and out of town Team Spite members John (Moz), Zack (z1g1), and Jeremy. I ended up heading to bed sometime around 3:30am with the vague recollection I told Les to get me in the am I'd stand in line at the PP store with him.

Day 1

Well the morning came and there was a knock at our door at 6:30......Les all bright eyed ready to roll. Being a man of my word I grabbed a quick shower and headed down to the gaming hall to get in line. We were the 9th and 10th people in line and none of us had an idea what was going on sale. There was speculation that Vengeance would be available but that turned out to be false. They opened the store at 9am and started the assembly line in motion. You were only allowed one of any items so I grabbed an extra floaty CoC heavy kit for Northblade and he picked up an extra trollkin sorcerer for me and we just swapped after paying. I also picked up a gatorman bokur and swamp shamblers box. Directly after the PP table Broken Egg was set up selling trays. I initially fought the urge to buy one but ended up doubling back and picking one up (good call). The PP store sold out of nearly everything by the end of the morning except for Butcher3 and maybe one other item.

Plummer and Shick running register at the PP store.

I really didn't do much day one since I figured I had three full days left to game (bad call). I walked around a far bit that first day and did a lot of watchmachine. A couple guys were playing in the 50pt special forces event so I stopped by to watch them play a bit.

Yes, John, those Kayazy passed another tough check

Nick rocking the Team Spite colors

I did manage to get one Iron Arena game in again Mr Chris 'gdaybloke Miller. We have tried to get a game the last few years and it finally came together.

'Gday setting up his very nicely painted Ret

 

Friday night Les and I headed out to Longhorn for dinner with Trevor and Jay from Chain Attack (Jay was in one of our rooms), Chilly Winters from Texas, and out of town Team Spiters John, Zack, and Jeremy. After having a few drinks with dinner and belly full of steak and potato I ended up calling it a night around midnight. My initial plan was to get together with Jaime and a few people to play some drunken Zombicide but my body had other ideas so off to bed.  

 

Day 2

 

Friday am brought about the PP keynote address. All in all nothing too groundbreaking or amazing but still cool none the less. Looking forward to more info on the troll minis show in the presentation and the "something really awesome" Will Shick mentioned trolls would be getting instead of a beast pack.

 

Against my better judgment I decided to organize a team and try to play in the marathon that is the team tournament. Team Plan B was formed consisting of myself, Les, and Nick. John, Zack, and Jeremy also formed a team and tried to get into the tourney via the standby list. Well Team Spite got shut out of the event with our two teams being the last two out of the event. We ended up playing out our own team event with Les playing Jeremy (Jeremy Wins), Nog playing Moz (Nog wins), and Zack playing Nick (Zack wins) for an out of towner Team Spite W.

 

After this I grabbed an Iron Arena Game with Chadi from Canada. It was a fun and loud game ;) It was at this point however that things started to turn for me. I could feel the convention plague setting in and was only hoping it wouldn't bee too bad. I headed to the room early that night and just hung out in bed. I ended up having a really nice chat with Les and Chain attack Jay about the keynote, the con, and the state of the game in general. The chat was cut off when old man Les started snoring in the middle of the conversation signifying it was getting late.

Day 3

Saturday I woke up feeling like hell but decided to try and get into the special forces 50pt event. My two lists were:

Madrak Ironhide, World Ender (*5pts)
* Pyre Troll (5pts)
* Troll Impaler (5pts)
* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)
Pyg Burrowers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer (2pts)
Trollkin Warders (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)
Trollkin Warders (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)
Fell Caller Hero (3pts)
Trollkin Champion Hero (3pts)

Reinforcements:
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew (Leader and 1 Grunt) (1pts)
Trollkin Runeshapers (Leader and 2 Crew) (4pts)
Gatorman Witch Doctor (3pts)
Professor Victor Pendrake (2pts)

and

Grissel Bloodsong (*5pts)
* Earthborn Dire Troll (10pts)
* Mountain King (20pts)
* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)
Trollkin Warders (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)
Trollkin Warders (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)
Janissa Stonetide (3pts)

List one is a pretty standard style Madrak2 list. List 2 was one I played 3 time in Iron Arena games and really enjoyed. There is a ton of beef in the list and if I can play a single zone scenario against an opponent with minimal armor cracking it can be a bear to chew through. I intended to play the Grissel1 list most rounds but long and short of it I ended up playing Maddy all three games.

Round one was vs Charles aka Omnus from Removed from Play. He was playing a Vayl2 theme force with three angels. The board had a forest in the center of the board which was not great for me. Charles is a very good player and between my illness and lack of recent gameplay I wasn't on the top of my game and ended up deathclocking myself. Charles was all set to win even when I deathclocked myself so the L was inevitable. Hopefully I can get a rematch one day when I am not sick cause I think we could have had a really fun game otherwise.  

Round 2 I was paired up with Danny playing Cryx. He played a fairly standard pSkarre list. I was starting to feel worse and worse at this point and don't really remember the game too well. eMaddy survived a 12 focus Skarre assassination at the end of the round timer and we ended up with a tie. It wouldn't be a Templecon if I don't get a tie no?

Round 3 I got paired up vs Nick from my own meta. nick played his Zaal T4 theme force. The game felt like he was in control the entire way then all of a sudden I ended up tabling him and winning the game. It was at this point I decided I was going to have to drop. I never like to drop from an event but I felt terrible and was miserable. As I turned our results to Stubbs and was going to tell him I was dropping he said unless you were undefeated the event was done. So I avoided the dreaded drop but my day was over. I went to bed at 6pm and was there sweating, shaking, and coughing the remainder of the night. 

 

Day 4

 

Day four was pretty much a wash I was feeling like complete dog poo and was not up for gaming at all. We packed up out gear and got the car loaded for the right home. Nick was struggling after having a rough night of beermachine the night before. We hit a Denny's with John, Jeremy, and Zack so we could hang with our out of town brothers one more time. After getting back from breakfast we walk through the gaming hall one last time saying good buys and doing our last mini shopping. Even though I was ready to leave I am really glad I made that last pass as I was able to get one of the Zombicide season 1 minis Marvin! The CMoN booth had four of the season one exclusives and while they are not allowed to sell the minis they were giving them away with the purchase of a game. Since I have all the games already I though I was SoL but after talking with the guy he said I could grab one if I picked up one of the box of zombies. I wanted more toxic zombies so this was a no brainer. BOOM Marv is part of the crew now!

 

My new Broken Egg trollkin sized tray. I elected to go with the single 120mm tray vs the double 120mm

SDE minis

 

My ticket to Marv!

Marv!

 

Gator Alexia and two sorcerers

Templecon dice from Iron Arena and a bottle of VGC paint I picked up

The full score

 

So that was my Templecon. I am not sure I am a huge fan of the new four day con but that may just be cause I was sick for >50% of it. Hopefully next year I can avoid the plague and get some more games in and spend some more quality time with friends.