The Headsman Cometh

The Warcaster Kickstarter 3 stuff had arrived, and Karas had already put his cadre together.
Automech (proxied by Haqq Al-Fasid)
Paladin Seigebreaker
Paladin Weaver
Regulator Reave
Regulators squad
Witch Hounds attachment
Tracers squad
Firebrand (Reflex cortex, Assault Rifle & Bayonet, Repulsor Shield, Maelstrom)
Morningstar (Exchanger cortex, Assault Shield, Assault Shield, Gate Crasher, Maelstrom)
Major Aysa Drayce (proxied by Paladin Commander)
Headsman

I hadn't really made any changes to my list:
Artemis Fang hero solo
Coalition Weaver solo
Hunter solo x2
Combat Engineer
Ranger Fire Team squad
Warder attachment
Dusk Wolf light warjack (Scout cortex, Railgun, Battle Rifle, Ripper Saw)
Strike Raptor heavy warjack (Ace cortex, Railgun, Railgun, Battle Rifle, Battle Rifle)
Strike Raptor heavy warjack (Bomber cortex, Talon Rocket Pod, Talon Rocket Pod, Flamethrower, Flamethrower)


Pre-Game:
We played Skirmish and rolled Chaos Theory. We decided to modify it to use the same scoring method as before: a model scores during it's activation. Karas won the roll and chose to go first, deploying his Morningstar and Regulator Reeve. I deployed the Bomber Raptor and a Hunter.


Pulse 1.1
The Morningstar scored the far objective and Gatecrashed in Aysa and the Firebrand. He was able to "daisy-chain" a gate off Aysa on my side of the table. I charged the Bomber Raptor and used him to score the near objective and take down the Firebrand. I repositioned my Hunter to the right and put down a gate.
Pulse 1.2:
Iirc Karas used a Cypher to clear the activation token off his Morningstar and advanced it further up, using Gatecrasher to bring in the Seigebreaker, and then deploying the Automech and Headsman from the other gate. He used a cypher to fully charge the Headsman (which I guess was not technically in keeping with the correct turn order, but I don't think it made a difference really). I charged the Hunter and sent him to score the right objective, finishing off Aysa. I sent the Bomber Raptor to score the left objective, spiking for the extra movement needed, then put some damage onto the Seigebreaker. I deployed Artemis, the Weaver, and the Rangers with the Warder (I forgot how the rules worked here and deployed the Warder too far from the gate), trying to impede the Headsman's access to the right objective. I placed a gate on the far side of the table.
Pulse 1.3:
A Cypher allowed the Headsman to tractor-beam my gate towards the center of the table. The Seigebreaker killed my (illegally placed) Warder then moved to score my near objective. The Headsman was then able to walk around my Rangers and gun them all down, along with Artemis Fang, with his machinegun-flamethrower. Oh, and he punched my Hunter to death too. The Firebrand deployed out of a gate. I charged the Bomber Raptor and used a Cypher to give him +2 speed and Flight. The allowed him to fly over the building and, with a couple of extra 2" moves from the Bomber cortex, he was able to score the far objective. I don't remember who he shot at but with no Arc he wasn't able to kill anything. The Weaver hopped onto a building so I could target stuff with Furies. I deployed my Ace Raptor next to the Headsman, then put a gate down on the left of my deployment zone. At the end of the pulse round we each had 4 points. We rolled a 1 and the far left objective disappeared.


Pulse 2.1:
Karas used a Cypher to tune up the Headsman, who then got to work on my Ace Raptor. I thought this was a funny result for an attack roll, with all the reds rolling blanks and (almost) all the whites rolling double strikes: Arguably even more funny (depending on your perspective...) was this damage roll: That's a 19. Three wounds on my Strike Raptor, and just one strike off being a one-shot kill. Obviously my Raptor did not survive the activation. I think it was the Seigebreaker who killed my Weaver. Finally the Tracers dropped in, followed by a gate near to my own. My Bomber Raptor shot into the Morningstar, failing to kill it but taking out a Tracer, before shuffling backwards and scoring the far objective again. I brought in the Ace Raptor and Engineer, then put down a gate on my right.
Pulse 2.2:
The Automech that cleared the activation token from the Headsman and repaired two or three boxes on the Morningstar. The Headsman killed my Bomber Raptor. Karas used a Cypher to shuffle the Tracers downwards, then he deployed his Palading Weaver. I allocated an Arc to my Ace Raptor then my Engineer tuned him up. The Raptor then killed the Paladin Weaver, the Seigebreaker, and a Tracer. The Firebrand hopped over to where the Siegebreaker used to be. On my right I brought in my Bomber Raptor and a Hunter, then placed another gate on the far left towards the center of the table.
Pulse 2.3:
The Automech scored the far objective. The Morningstar used Gatecrasher to bring in the Palading Weaver on the right objective. I think the Morningstar killed my Hunter, though it might have been a Fury cast through the Weaver. Karas collapsed his remaining gate to bring in the Seigebreaker near my objective. I had been counting on the Hunter to score the right objective; I had tried to deploy him in a protected position. Without him my options were a bit limited. I opted to charge my Bomber Raptor and use him to clear and score the near objective. I brought in my Duskwolf, Rangers, and Weaver on the left, intending to push them towards the far objective. I put down a gate again closer to the central objective. At the end of the pulse round I had 8 points and Karas had 12. We rolled a 3 and the objective on the right was removed.


Pulse 3.1:
The Seigebreaker and Regulator Reave took out my Duskwolf and a couple of my Rangers. Furies may have been involved. Karas deployed a gate behind his Morningstar. I advanced the Ace Raptor and finally took down the Morningstar. I think I killed the Seigebreaker with a Fury. I collapsed my gate to deploy the Dusk Wolf and two Hunters, then put down a new gate on the far left. Pulse 3.2
The Headsman walked towards the center and casually ate my Dusk Wolf. Karas deployed the Firebrand beside the central objective. The Ace Raptor, tuned up and fully charged with three Arc, walked up to the central objective and failed to kill the (currently DEF 7) Headsman. I know attacking the Firebrand was the more logical choice, but at this point I cared more about revenge on the Headsman than I did about scoring. A Hunter tried to finish the job but predictably did nothing. I used a Cypher to advance my other Hunter towards the far objective for some reason. I once again deployed the Dusk Wolf, out on the far left.
Pulse 3.3:
The Paladin Weaver gave the Firebrand some Arc. The Firebrand then slammed my Ace Raptor off the objective, killing my Hunter and allowing him score. I moved the Bomber Raptor up to get line of sight to the Headsman and finally finished him off. I didn't bother with the rest of my attacks or activations. The game ended with Karas winning 18 to 11.


Post-Mortem:
Facing a charged and tuned-up Headsman who could have his activation tokens cleared by the Automech was pretty much getting a taste of my own medicine. He's a powerful and versatile model. Karas getting him charged and tuned up early, along with the ability to put models on the table faster than me with Gatecrasher, meant that I was fighting an uphill battle for attrition.

By spreading across the table and using my Raptors' manouverability I was able to keep up with the scoring in the first round, but as central objectives dissappeared and failed to push to the center and far objectives I was unable to keep up. My squad, solos, and even the Dusk Wolf, kept dying before they could do anything. It seems I should have focussed less on deploying them far up and more on deploying them in protected positions. In retrospect my target priority could have been better too, but at the time I wasn't sure which models were most worth the effort required to kill them.

By the start of the last pulse round Karas just needed to acivate his Automech and Morningstar and he would score 6 points, putting him 10 points ahead of me; even if I scored all three remaining objectives I could only score 9 points. We could have ended the game there, but there wasn't time for a second game so we played it through, with Karas delaying scoring. At least this let me kill the Headsman by the end, from which I derived significant satisfaction.

I was trying to spread the Arc and activations around a bit more than in my last game, but never really had the chance. The Strike Raptors really are my best models for holding Arc. Still, I believe I can get more value from the rest of my army if I play them better; getting to cast Furies is just free attacks, I should be able to get the Hunters to stay alive and kill stuff if I keep them back and just move in and out of cover rather than sending them forwards for objectives, and the Rangers could maybe do more work by knocking Arc off enemy models that by simply trying to damage them. I have reconsidered my Cypher deck to try to include more cards that benefit my models and playstyle, that should help too.

Raptors Run In Packs

It was finally time for a Warcaster rematch. I had a couple of new models:
Artemis Fang hero solo
Coalition Weaver solo
Hunter solo x2
Combat Engineer
Ranger Fire Team squad
Dusk Wolf light warjack (Railgun, Battle Rifle, Ripper Saw, Scout cortex)
Strike Raptor heavy warjack (Railgun, Railgun, Battle Rifle, Battle Rifle, Ace cortex)
Strike Raptor heavy warjack (Talon Rocket Pod, Talon Rocket Pod, Flamethrower, Flamethrower, Bomber cortex)

Karas had to run some proxies this game:
Justicar Voss hero solo (proxied by Jax Redblade)
Paladin Weaver solo (proxied by a Terrasaur Carnidon)
Paladin Commander solo (proxied by Artemis Fang)
Paladin Seigebreaker solo x2
Paladin Enforcers squad (proxied with G.U.A.R.D. Exo-Armours)
Palading Defenders squad
Firebrand light warjack (Assault Rifle & Bayonet, Sun Piercer, Recon Cortex)
Morningstar heavy warjack (Gate Crasher, Starburst Missiles, Assault Shield, Assault Shield)


Pre-Game:
We played Skirmish and ended up rolling the same scenario as last time. I won the roll and chose to go first. I placed the resilient Ace Strike Raptor close to the central objective, and a Hunter close to my objective. Karas mirrored my deployment with his Morningstar and Weaver.
Pulse 1.1
I put an Arc on the Strike Raptor. My plan was to fight for the central objective with my most powerful model, and meanwhile push towards his objective with my Hunter and later reinforcements; I figured I didn't need to grab my objective yet because it would be easy to grab before the end of the turn, so I advanced my Hunter and Ace Raptor agressively. The Ace, having a 20" range, was able to put a couple of Railgun shots into the Morningstar, but whiffed his attacks. I placed a gate with 4 Arc near the Hunter. The Morningstar advanced and placed a gate, out of which Karas deployed the Firebrand and Seigebreaker. He also placed a gate by his Weaver.
Pulse 1.2
I cleared my activated tokens and gave the Ace Raptor his second Arc, then played a Cypher to boost his speed and give him Flight. Now at 2 Arc, he flew up to the central objective and gunned down the Seigebreaker, scoring a point. The Hunter advanced and took a shot at the Morningstar, doing nothing. I collapsed my gate to summon the Bomber Strike Raptor on my far left. I placed a second gate with 3 Arc in my deployment zone behind my Ace Raptor. Using Repulsor from a Cypher, the Firebrand pushed my Ace Raptor off the central objective and scored it himself. Karas deployed Voss and a Seigebreaker from his gate.
Pulse 1.3
I gave the Ace Raptor his third Arc at last. My plan had been to push my Bomber Raptor aggressively at the far objective, but at this point I realised I was not going to be able to score my own objective unless I pulled him back, as I didn't have any other model that could activate and make it to the objective. So unfortunately that's pretty much all I was able to do in the activation phase. I used up the arc on my gate to summon my Weaver and Fire Team, then placed a new gate near my Hunter. The Seigebreaker advanced and knocked an Arc off my gate. The Morningstar pushed up to my Ace Raptor and took a couple of swings with his shields. It also put down a gate, out of which popped the Defender squad. I believe it also killed a Fire Team grunt and put a wound on my Weaver. At the end of the turn we were at 2 points each.
Pulse 2.1
I gave the Bomber Raptor his first Arc. The Hunter resumed his long march towards the distant objective. I activated the Ace Raptor and put as much damage as I could into the Morningstar, but the extra armour from the two shields kept him alive. Using a Cypher card, I was at least able to inflict the System Failure effect (we used the wrong token in the photos), shutting down his shooting. I collapsed my Gate to summon my Dusk Wolf and Engineer. The Palading Defenders, with the help of a buff from a Cypher card, were able to finish off my Ace Raptor. The Seigebreaker took down my Dusk Wolf.
Pulse 2.2
I gave the Bomber Raptor a second Arc, then set the Firebrand on fire (ha ha) with a Fury. The Engineer walked back to my objective to score it, and also tuned up the Bomber Raptor. Which then moved up and took down the Seigebreaker. Finally I put down a gate. The Morningstar moved towards my models on my left, putting down a gate from which emerged two Seigebreakers. Hidden by the building on the far left, Voss killed my Hunter.
Pulse 2.3
I put a third Arc on the Bomber Raptor. He spiked for speed and Flight, enabling him to move up and get line of sight on Karas' hidden models. He hit Voss with a Talon rocket, who spiked to ignore damage and teleport away. Thanks to the Bomber cortex, the Raptor was able to move up to the far objective. He then finished off the Weaver, the gate, and the Morningstar, allowing me to score. I advanced my Weaver, and used a Cypher to reposition my Fire Team towards the central objective, and put down a gate next to my Weaver. The Seigebreakers took my Ace Raptor down to one wound. Karas put down a gate near Voss. At the end of the turn we both had 6 points.
Pulse 3.1
I considered activating the Ace Raptor, which would ensure that it would get to activate before dying and allow me to score, but I was worried about Voss pushing my Bomber Raptor off the table again, so I used a Cypher I'd been holding for a while to clear the Bomber Raptor's activation token, allowing it to shuffle to a safer position. My Combat Engineer then walked up and repaired two wounds on the Ace Raptor. I used the same fury again to set a Seigebreaker on fire, and pulled my Dusk Wolf and a Hunter out of the gate. Finally I placed a gate in front of my objective just to block access. The Palading Defenders put some damage onto my Dusk Wolf and a Seigebreaker went back to wailing on my Duskwolf. The Paladins scored the central objective.
Pulse 3.2
I put an Arc on the Ace Raptor. I used a Cypher to double the Fire Team's output, and took down the Firebrand. The Hunter moved to my left and whiffed a shot. I summoned a second Hunter next to my objective. The Palading Defenders and a Seigebreaker killed my Weaver, Dusk Wolf, and a Fire Team grunt. The other Seigebreaker killed my fresh Hunter and knocked some Arc off my gate. Karas recalled the Seigebreaker on the right and placed a gate next to my objective.
Pulse 3.3
I gave an Arc to the Ace Raptor, who spiked for Flight and flew next to my objective. He killed the Seigebreaker but couldn't clear the gate so he couldn't score. Using a Cypher for a speed buff, Voss walked around the left side of the building on my far left and used Repulsor to push my Bomber Raptor off the far objective, allowing him to score. The game ended with me at 9 points and Karas at 12, for an ISA victory.

Post-Mortem:
We really need to play more often so we can get the rules down properly. I think we mixed up pulse rounds and turns the whole game, so we might not have resolved continuous effect properly. I do feel I'm starting to understand the turn sequence better, as well as what I suppose you could call the "gameplay priorities": where to use Arc, holding on to useful Cyphers and cycling through the useless ones as quickly as possible, keeping enough models on the table, etc.

Well, I say that, but at the end of the day I mainly just used Arc to charge and summon Strike Raptors. In fact most of my meaningful activations were Strike Raptor activations. When you can only activate a unit and a solo each round, why not activate the unit that can make 4 attacks with up to 3 extra Power Dice? And when you're allocating Arc, why not allocate it to the model where a point of Arc buffs 4 attacks per activation, as well as buffing the model's survivability? It's simply the most efficient use of the resource. Obviously efficiency isn't everything, it's just an easy answer is all.

Anyway, in the future I'll try to make better use of the rest of my army and not crutch on the Strike Raptor so hard. I was too complacent when it came to scoring my near objective, and that cost me-I actually didn't score it at the end of the game, hence my loss. And had I pushed the Bomber Raptor up earlier rather than needing to pull it back to score my near objective, I probably could have scored the far objective earlier, gaining an additional 2 points. You live and you learn right?

Flying Monkeys

I've had three squads of primed Apes sitting neglected in my closet for a while. I would like to finish them. I had a bit of time so I thought I could knock these guys out quickly, but they took a little longer than expected as I found I wasn't really enjoying painting them. I'm not really sure why; I think I just don't like squad painting, I much prefer just focussing on one model at a time. Still, I think they came out OK, and I'm glad they're done. Only two squads left, hopefully I'll finish them THIS year... Ape Bombers:
Like the other Ape units I initially primed these guys in Vallejo 73.660 Surface Primer Gloss Black, but ended up having to airbrush a layer of P3 Menoth White Highlight on top before I could even start with the basecoats, just to get the colours to look bright. I airbrushed a basecoat of Vallejo 72.730 Game Air Goblin Green, then I airbrushed the bombs with Vallejo 72.710 Game Air Bloody Red.

The fur was painted Citadel Layer Skrag Brown, then drybrushed with Formula P3 Rucksack Tan, folled by a drybrush of Vallejo 71.132 Model Air Aged White over the upper-facing surfaces. The skin was Vallejo 70.992 Model Color Neutral Grey, which I roughly highlighted with Aged White then glazed with Citadel Shade Seraphim Sepia. The teeth were Menoth White Higlight, washed with Seraphim Sepia.

I stuck with Citadel Colour Snakebite Leather for the leather, but I'm wondering if I should have gone for a darker brown to stand out from the fur - with my current recipe the fur is turning out lighter than my previous recipe. Brass was Scalecolor SC-73 Dwarven Gold over the Snakebite Leather. Steel was just Vallejo 72.054 Game Color Gunmetal; I felt this had slightly poorer coverage than some other steels I've used in the past, but maybe that's just my imagination. Grey bits were Vallejo 70.862 Black Grey.

For the goggle lenses I ended up using a previous mixure of GreenStuffWorld 1872 Metal Color Neptunus Blue and Scalecolor SC-66 Speed Metal that I had left over from when I painted Defender-X; I felt this gave the impression of mirrored lenses reflecting the sky.

After this was done I dipped the models in The Army Painter Quickshade Dip Dark Tone, then airbrushed them with Vallejo 26.518 Acrylic Varnish Matt.

He's A Big 'Un

This is the largest thing I've printed in resin, and also the largest figure I've painted. Obviously I was trying to capture the look of the cinematic version. I wanted to capture the feel of that moment where his face starts to light up, and you just know there's a big energy blast coming. The Destroyer
I airbrushed a primer coat of Vallejo 73.660 Surface Primer Gloss Black. I then sprayed Vallejo 71.073 Model Air Metallic Black from around 45 degrees above, Vallejo 71.072 Model Air Metallic Gunmetal from around 10 degrees above, and Vallejo 71.065 Model Air Metallic Steel from directly above, pretty much just on the head and shoulders. This left some black visible on the downwards-facing surfaces.

I painted Vallejo 70.950 Model Color Black thinned with a lot of Vallejo 73.596 Glaze Medium directly into grooves. I actually went over the spikes with a light drybrush of Steel, as I felt they were not standing out enough and I wanted them to pop a little more.

I built up the glow by painting layers into the grooves, then drybrushing the same colour around them. I started with Vallejo 72.711 Game Air Gory Red thinned with a bit of Glaze Medium for most of the grooves of the face, then drybrushed Citadel Foundation Mechrite Red onto most of the face. This was followed with Vallejo 72.106 Game Color Scarlett Blood painted then drybrushed over a smaller area (again thinned with Glaze Medium for the grooves). In the same way I worked through Vallejo 72.008 Game Color Orange Fire, Vallejo 72.007 Game Color Gold Yellow, and Vallejo 72.005 Game Color Moon Yellow thinned and painted into face grooves and eyes.

I had been applying the layering at a small scale on the eyes to create a transition, taking it all the way up to white by painting Formula P3 Morrow White thinned with glaze medium into centers of eyes, drybrushing Gold Yellow around the eyes and surroundings, touching up a smaller area of the center with the white, drybrushing Moon Yellow over the eyes and immediate surroundings, and then a final tiny spot of white in the very centers of the eyes.

I had a lot of difficulty with the base. I thought of warm desert tones, to match the Earth terrain the Destroyer walks across at the end of Thor, but with how dark the model is I was afraid even darker warm tones might distract slightly from the glowing face, which I really wanted to be the center of attention. So I went for cold tones, representing the vault on Asgard where we first see the Destroyer. I initially basecoated with a roughly 2:1 mix of Vallejo 70.899 Model Color Dark Prussian Blue to Vallejo 70.862 Model Color Black Grey. I then drybrushed on The Army Painter Warpaints Viking Blue, then a very very light drybrush with The Army Painter Warpaints Ice Storm. This created a much brighter and more saturated look than I had hoped for. I was able to darked and desaturate it somewhat with a drybrush of grey (I don't remember the exact shade); it was still far from perfect but I didn't know what else to do.

I applied an airbrushed layer of Vallejo 26.517 Gloss Acrylic Varnish, then I brushed Vallejo 26.518 Matt Acrylic Varnish directly onto the base to matt it down.


Overall it's a fairly simple model with a fairly simple colour scheme, but a surprising amount went wrong. I left supports to the software, and they were not as well placed as they could have been; cleanup was quite a pain. Some of the grooves, especially around the head, needed to be deepened a little. I didn't want the spikes to be too sharp as I felt this would leave them more vulnerable, so I used a rotary tool with a very soft fiber buffing wheel to take off the tips and leave them more rounded.

Perhaps the most frustrating part is that I actually printed some smaller test pieces, and got results that I liked for the metallic effect, with a shiny metallic effect that seemed to add depth and highlighted the model's contours. But when I attempted to apply the same method of zenithal basecoat to the actual model it looked a fair bit more dull and flat, and just less metallic. I tried to take a picture to illustrate the effect; it's not obvious in the photo but you can still see the model in front is shinier and more metallic, and the difference was clearer in real life: I was having a lot of issues with my airbrushes when I went to paint the actual model, so that was probably part of the issue. I suspect I might not have been heavy enough with the Vallejo Steel, or perhaps I had the airbrush too far away so the paint dried too much before landing and didn't form a smooth shiny layer?

I dunno. I guess he looks good enough overall. Hopefully future statues will come out better.