Very Preliminary Thoughts on Gartantuans (Trolls)

I cut my sleep a little short today so I could run out and grab my copy of Gargantuans at out FLGS so I could look it over. I gave the book a quick scan prior to heading to work and focused a little more on the trolls/minion sections. I tried to avoid looking at too many of the spoilers and forums over the last few days as I wanted to try and form my own opinions and the initial troll spoilers left me a touch flat. I am sure much of this will change but here are some of my initial thoughts:

The Hunters Grim:

I like the spell list. I think mortality is a pretty amazing debuff and a great way to negate tough. A unit of bone grinders may be a really important addition to eGrim to give that little extra range for mortality. Mirage and mage sight may be a little more situational but I also like them a fair amount. Pursuit I am not too sure of at this time but may find it has it place. Reform and circular vision granted by his pyg buddies are never a bad thing either. I think his feat is OK. It isn't an amazing feat but it isn't Gunnbjorn bad wither. I have concerns over the whole warlock unit thing however. I am worried about the potential for one of the lower def pygs getting hit with a debuff and affecting the entire unit. I like that we are now able to use both the snare gun and Headhunter in the same turn the inability to boost on the snare gun may cause problems when you really need that KD. My last big issue with eGrim is that he lost his goggles.....huh? If you had some super sexy amazing goggles would you stop wearing them? I wouldn't. I think eGrim has the potential to be pretty fun and will be in that middle ground warlock level.

Theme Force:
I like theme forces and always like to see what PP comes up with. The theme force is interesting. The first thing I noticed was the inclusion of a unit that we have no idea about....trollkin highwayman. I think the feeling is that they are the troll light cavalry but who knows and who knows when we can expect them to be released. I am not a huge fan of the units available for the theme but they are OK I suppose. Based on the minis currently available to us I don't see a great unit to be up in there and be able to mark targets for the feat. My favorite part of this them is tier two and the option to allow scout to ambush. I think a unit of scouts coming off the edge with the ability to assault could be really fun.

Night Troll:
I really don't know what to think of this guy at this time. I like the preview pictures floating around of the sculpt even if the tongue is a little out of control. It seems like he has some neat gimmicky trick but I don't seem him taking a spot from an axer, impaler, pyre, or even slag.

Trollkin Warders:
Speed 4...I hate speed 4. I had really high hopes for these guys and have to say they fell far short in my desires. I really hate speed 4. I also thought these guys were suppose to be a champion unit so I was hoping they could be added in theme forces that allow champion units but unless the wording gets changed they are not champions. The unit cost isn't bad at 5/8 and reach weapon masters are always nice. All in all these guys fall flat for me at this time. Did I mention I hate speed 4?

Trollkin Sorcerer:
The spoilers released for this guy are what caused me to stop reading any of them until the book came out. The first run of spoilers said this guy was a wa and therefor his *action upkeep removal would have been fairly crappy. His correct version make his upkeep remove far better and helps us out significantly in those match ups were debuffs ruined out day. As a one point solo I see this guy getting plenty of run. As a single wound model we will have to be careful not to get him carved off the table.

Fennblade Kithkar:
I was worried this guy was going to be a 3pt solo but was pleasantly surprise to see he was only 2pts and also FA 2. The kithkar comes in at mat 7, two reach weapons of decent strength, and 8 boxes I was pretty happy with him. In addition to being a nice combat solo his tactician ability allowing fennblades to move through each other is very nice. I can seeing fielding this gentleman on a regular basis.

Mountain King:
We know this guy move along.

OK so  those are my initial thoughts after skimming through the book once. I also threw together a first 35pt Hunters Grim list. This is what I came up with off the top of my head:

Hunters Grim (-4pts)
*Bomber (10pts)
*Impaler (5pts)
*Runebearer (2pts)
Fennblades: full (8pts)
*UA (2pts)
Scattergunners: min (5pts)
*UA (2pts)
Bone Grinders: min (2pts)
Fennblade Kithkar (2pts)
Trollkin Sorcerer: cliented to fennblades (1pt)

Mail Time! New Toys!

I received a package today I have been waiting for since Templecon. I have been extremely excite and I am thrilled to have it in my hands finally. Lets start off with a little story prior to getting to the pictures shall we:

If you may recall day three at Templecon was spent hanging out and playing some demos. We headed to the board game room to play a demo of Zombicide by Cool Mini or Not.

Here are Cash and Nick getting ready to demo w me and Abe (Oh Buddy!)

 

After playing the demo game I was pretty excited about the game and was seriously considering buying a copy prior to leaving. I got to talking with the CMoN guy running the booth and asked about the promo characters from the season one kickstarter. I was told they are never going to be reproduced and that unless you got them from the kickstarter or off eBay you would be out of luck.....then there was a but. He mentioned that anyone buying the game would receive a raffle ticket for an abomination pack. I was unaware what that ment at the time and he explaned it came with some of those characters and some other stuff.

 

I was pretty much all in at this point until it was said you had to be there to win and the drawing was at 5pm. Seeing as we were leaving at 3pm there was no way I could be there to win. I left the booth and head to one of the WM tables were Zack and John were playing a game. In conversation it turned out they would still be there at 5pm so John offered to head by the booth to see if I had the winning ticket at 5pm. OK back to the CMoN booth. It turned out they only had 4 tickets in the drawing for Sunday so I picked up my copy and ticket then and there. While we were driving home I received a text from John saying he was the only person present at the drawing and that I won the pack!!!! He was going to leave it with a buddy of his to mail out since John didn't want to fly home with it to Atlanta.

 

That brings us to today. After I got up from my nap I headed downstairs and saw the package on the dinning room table. Here are the sexy goodies within:

 

 Custom dice....who can't use more dice?

What's an abomination pack without an extra abomination? there are also some more zombie spawning cards.

An extra tray of zombies. While this may seem like trouble I am really excited about this as one of our biggest issues has been running out of zombies and getting killed to the extra activation 

 

Now we get to the really sexy part of the abomination pack! The extra promo characters.....

 

Here is Dave the Geek aka Dr. Sheldon Cooper. He has a cool ability to make two molotov cocktails instead of one once he gets the two parts. 

Second out of the pack is Nick aka Lt John McClane. This is the first of the new characters I want to try out. He has tough as a built in ability and therefore ignores his first wound each turn.

Last but not least we have El Cholo aka Danny Trejo aka Machete. Shockingly he gets to start the game with....two machetes. How 'bout dem apples.

 

 

So here is my abomination pack I have been so excited to receive. I want to say a really big thanks to John (Moz) and Mike for sticking around to pick this up and mailing it to me. I really appreciate it guys and I have the first round next convention we make it to. Those of you that missed out on the season one exclusive and don't want to miss out on season two head over to the Zombicide season two kickstarter going on right now. They are up to nine exclusive characters right now and soon to be 10. Five of the promo characters are added to the base game when you buy it the rest you have to add on for $10. 



Homestretch for Wild West Exodus

Well one of the two kickstarters that I have backed and been following very closely ends in one week. Wild West Exodus is coming down the homestretch and will close on St Patricks day. One of the game creators was recently on a podcast and had some really cool information:

http://gamerslounge.coda.net/2013/03/08 ... st-exodus/

I have to say the story spoiler about Lincoln I thought was really cool and has me more excited to make an army list featuring Lincoln and Pinkerton. I also thought that the background info on the Warrior Nation was really cool but also made me realize there are really no "good guy" faction in this game. and that everyone has their fair share of "evil"

I also have done a little more work on my enlightened grunt. I highlighted up his pants and washed the leather straps holding the exoskeleton in place. I have to say this mini has been really fun to work on and I am excited to paint more minis for WWX. The finish touches will include popping a few highlights on the metal sections and a could small splotches of blood.

Lastly Outlaw did two more previews yesterday showing of the wave 2 hired hands for the enlightened and the "terrain" piece civilians of the west.

I really like these new hired hands. Curse you Outlaw can you make one of the factions a "dud" so I don't want to buy all of them? They are also talking about retooling the wave 1 grunts a little. I hope they don't change them up too much as I have been really happy with the test one they sent me.

Here are the civilians. I say they are "terrain" because they are not going to game direct game play rules per say but they can be used as meat shield by your characters and you can have them take a bullet for you. The discussion on the kickstarter says you can even use actions to drag them around with you so you can have them soak up that first wound whenever it is needed. I think this a really cool concept. I don't plan on adding them to my pledge at this time but I like the concept a lot.

Undead Everywhere....

So seems like I have been over run with the undead. The undead are hitting me from two different game systems. The first is from Wild West Exodus the sci-fi western kickstarter I have been going on an on about recently. The second is zombicide which also has a KS running. I have been playing a bunch of single games of zombicide recently and also got a game in the other night with two buddies. OK on to some painting.

As you may recall the good people at Outlaw sent me an enlightened grunt so I have been banging away on him. My hopes is to finish him to day as I have a Warmahordes tourney tomorrow which will take up the entire day. Here are a few shots of the poor little guy....

While the photos aren't great I am happy with how he is coming together. Prior to receiving this mini I was really not that interested in the enlightened but I like them more and more as this guy progresses.....curse you outlaw do I really need all four factions! At this time I am calling the skin and shirt done. The metal is nearly there just need to hit a few highlights to call them finished, the pants will require a couple highlights as well. I think I am going to change the suspenders and straps to P3 rucksack tan but not 100% on that yet. What do you think?

A few more random photos from WWX before I switch over to my next undead item. These two photos appeared on the WWX kickstarter page and facebook today. The first is for the yet unlocked Wyatt Earp boss of the lawmen faction:

The second photo is of the warrior nations heavy support option the Great Elk. I have been leaning toward the warrior nation since the beginning of the kickstarter as my primary faction and this guy does not disappoint.

Ok that is it for WWX at this time. If you like what you see head over the kickstarter page and take a look at some other sexy minis. The KS has 9 days left.

Some WiPs

I didn't get to paint too much last week due to work but got a little time this week to work on a few mini. I didn't really focus on one faction (or game in fact) but bounced a round between a few.

The first mini to show is my enlightened grunt from Wild West Exodus. Once again you can check out the kickstarter here if you are interested. After putting this guy together the other night I primed him with grey Vallejo Surface primer via the airbrush (hindsight being 20:20 I wish I went with black).

My initial inclination was to paint the paints in a denim scheme but I was unsure of the correct timeline for the creation of denim so I elected to go with a grey cloth. On a whim (and after talking with a buddy) I decided I liked the idea of a red shirt so went with it. Here he is with most of the base coating done and the pants and metals washed with GW Badab Black.

The next minis are the sluggers for my unloved challenge army. While I am still not 100% sold these guys are going to be in a ton of the lists I run with the Family Reunion they will be in one of the first few just cause they look good and I want to try them out. I am also holding out hope that there will be a UA in Gargantuans that will make up for some of their issues. I think it is a possibility that the UA is in the book as both Legion and Circle have received UAs for medium based units that are on the newer side of releases.

Here is where they currently stand. I washed the skin and metal sections while the boys were at school today. I typically let this wash sit for a while before going back to the mini but when I get back to it highlighting the skin will be the first order of business.

The last mini I have been working on is the High Reclaimer for my FADD Menoth army. Here is the work I have been doing on the HR:

The model had already been primed and the white metal section laid down months ago. Over the last two days I did some of the yellow metal sections with VMC bronze and the cloth section. I then washed all the metals with my standard armor wash and when that dried I washed the yellow metal sections with GW Sepia wash (whatever the new one is called) While the majority of my PoM to date has had grey cloaks I was in the mood to paint some more red (not sure why as I usually hate red). I started by laying down a few thin layers of VMA fire red. I still need to do a few more layers to get the coverage perfect but I think I like the feel of the red and bronze. I am not sure I love this red and may go back to may more standard red build. I am considering using the airbrush to paint the weapon blades and add some effects but we will see.

I know this came out of left field a little as I have shelved the PoM for a while. The reasons I picked the PoM back are two fold. The first reason is I have just been seeing them on the shelf and been in the mood to paint them a little but the second reason, and most compelling, was Privateer Press previewing this guy:

I love the look of this guy (I also love the regular bastions) and the description is really intriguing to me. It sounds as if this guy is a jack marshal which has some cool potential....I think. It will all depend on his rules but i am thinking of marshaling a sanctifier with him could be pretty sweet and could be a part of an HR army. I would be looking at something along these lines:

The High Reclaimer (*6pts)
* Reckoner (8pts)
* Vanquisher (8pts)
* Hierophant (2pts)
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Exemplar Cinerators (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)
Holy Zealots (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Holy Zealot Monolith Bearer (2pts)
Exemplar Bastion Seneschal (?)
* Sanctifier (9pts)
The Wrack (3 wracks) (1pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)

Since I don't know the points for the senny I left a little wiggle room in there for maybe Rhoven or the book or who knows what.

OK that is that for now. Hope to have more updates in the next few days and should have a wrap up of leg one of the Thruway Cup early next week......Let's go Team Spite!!!

Kickstarter Knock if Off!!!!

As you may have been aware I have been in lover with Wild West Exodus and have been following that Kickstarter very closely. At the current time they have a nice chunk of changed pledged and this may only go up as we near the end of the KS. I have started basecoating the enlightened grunt

Yesterday I get an email alerting me to a new kickstarter I "may be interested in" This email was from Cool Mini or Not since I pledge both Relic Knights and Rivet Wars by them. The email was to alter me to the release of Toxic Mall and Season Two of Zombicide. Those of you that check in on the regular know I fell in love with this game after my demo at Templecon and in playing it after I returned. Well looks like I will be pledging another game....thank God the wife doesn't read my blog! Curse you Kickstarter you won this one.....take my money.

Toxic mall is an expansion to the original game 

Prison outbreak is a new stand alone game

Think the bog says it all

OK back tot he Warmahordes front. Les, AKA Oxyguy, has been working with some guys from Buffalo and Rochester to try and set up a cup series consisting of three tournaments with each meta hosting one of the events. They are calling it the "Thruway Cup". Those of you not too familiar with Central/Upstate New York the thruway (I90) run pretty much directly through the state in a straight line from Buffalo in the west to Albany in the east before heading south toward the city.

I don't know all the ins and outs of the "series" but the first event will be a week from today out in Rochester. This is going to be a SR2013, divide and conquer, 42min death clock, specialists, and  a limited selection of scenarios in play. I have been playing with lists back and forth for the last few days. While I really prefer to play trolls at 50pt I think I have some solid lists ready to roll. I will hold off posting them for the time being as I hope to get a little play testing in during the week before we hit the road for Rochester.

Where Does the Time Go?

Well February is over and that happened in the blink of an eye. I really haven't been able to get too much work in on my sluggers but they are pretty much done being basecoated. Here you can see them in their current state:

I painted the paints P3 rucksack tan, boot and gloves P3 bootstrap leather, the guns were painted with a 1:2 mix of VMA black:VMA steel, the other white metal sections were painted VMA steel, the yellow metal sections were painted with VMC bronze, and the tartan was painted with VMC Russian green. I washed the paints with GW sepia wash but will most likely have to do it again later on.

Next up with be to wash the skin and metal with my armor wash and wash the bootstrap sections with my dark leather wash. At the current time the female slugger will be the leader as my box had two leader minis but I have received a second female mini from PP and once she is assembled and painted she will fall in as the forth grunt and one of the leader minis will take a seat on the bench.

The next thing I want to cover in this post is my newest obsession....Wild West Exodus. As you have seen from my last few posts I am pretty fired up about this kickstarter and the minis they have been showing. Once again here is a link to the project WWX. They added two new pledge levels today for those looking to focus on a single faction. Those of you that follow along know I have serious FADD so I will be getting all four factions (hopefully five if the lawmen unlock).

The other day I sent Outlaw minis an email discussing the project and asked if they happened to have any of the test minis available still. I have seen a few of these on other more prominent blogs and on the KS itself. I figured I didn't have a snowballs chance in hell but figured it didn't hurt to ask. Well Outlaw got back to me and said they only had a few left but would mail me one......WOW! I have to say as impressed as I have been with the art and 3D renders they have been showing I have been even more impressed with how Outlaw Miniatures have been listening to the community and how they genuinely appear to care what the community wants (ie the new levels today). When I went to get he mail today this was in the mail box:

 

 Front and back of the sprue

 Assembled leg sections and torso

  Only issue for me

So the mini was really easy to work with. As much as I love Privateer Press working with their plastic models makes me insane. This plastic was like the old GW minis I used to assemble and WAY easier to work with than PPs. The mold line were pretty minimal and cleaned very easily with a hobby knife. I missed a few in my haste to assemble and prime this bad boy but if it took my time there would have been no problem. The only place I had an issue was with the small spine section seen in the 4th picture above. It was a very small piece and my sausage fingers had a hard time manipulating the piece and getting it just right. The final molds my end up having a different break down as currently it feels like there are more pieces than needed but I have to say after getting my hands on this test mini I am only more excited to get the final minis in my hands. Look for painted pics by the end of next week. OK of to work have a good weekend y'all.