My first model of the year and it isn't even mine...

I painted this model for a friend ("Blondie" in my battle reports) who's recently started a Cygnar army. I've been trying to teach him how to paint (which requires two types of skills I lack: teaching skills and painting skills), and I decided Old Rowdy would be a good "reference model" to paint up for him so he could get an idea of how the techniques I'm trying to show him can look in his colour scheme (at least as it stands right now, he's still experimenting with colour combinations).

The idea we discussed for his colour scheme was basically a darker version of the standard Cygnar colours, with darker blues, and blacks instead of whites. So for reference' sake, I'm listing the paints I used with this guy. These are mainly Citadel paints, and some of them might be out of production (or renamed), so check the paint compatibility chart to see what equivalents are available.

Blue:

1. Base with Mordian Blue
2. Wash with Asurmen Blue
3. Highlight with Enchanted Blue

Black:

1. Base with Black
2. Highlight with Codex Grey

Brass:

1. Base with Doombull Brown
2. Base with Gehenna's Gold
3. Wash with Ogryn Flesh
4. Highlight with Auric Armour Gol

Gold:

1. Base with Doombull Brown
2. I applied a coat of Gehenna's Gold here, but it's probably not needed
3. Base with Auric Armour Gold
4. Wash with Ogryn Flesh
5. Hightlight with Chainmail

Steel:

1. Base with Leadbelcher
2. Wash with Badab Black
3. Highlight with Chainmail

Silver:

1. Base with Chainmail
2. Wash with Badab Black
3. Highlight with Mithril Silver

Glow:

1. Base with Temple Guard Blue
2. Highlight the center of the glowing area with Baharroth Blue

Grass:

1. Base with Blackfire Earth (a texture paint)
2. Wash with watered down Devlan Mud
3. Drybrush with Bleached Bone
4. After varnishing apply spots of PVA (preferably a waterproof kind)
5. Sprinkle on Static Grass
6. Hold model upside down above the grass container and tap the base to get rid of excess grass and help it stand up rather than laying down flat
7. Preferably keep the model upside down while the glue sets.

I painted him over the course of about three weeks, which is pretty good for me. I did feel that he was more detailed than I initially realised, and as a result he actually took a bit longer than I expected to finish.

A bit of freehand on the shoulder.

Rowdy has lots of cute little dials and gauges.

Wait a minute, Rowdy has... NIPPLES? Horrifying machine nipples...

About the only blank space on the whole model is that huge empty shoulder plate thing. I kinda felt that it would look strange if it was left blank since it's in such a prominent position and there's no other large empty spaces on the model, so I pretty much had to do some freehand. I decided to get a bit ambitious and try a combination of patterns that I had been experimenting with way back when I painted Dante. I think the results are pretty good, if a bit "uniform". In case it isn't obvious, it's supposed to be a decorated block of "scripture".

For reference sake I've broken down the steps for painting the pattern. First I painted a simple square in Mithril Silver, then drew two a "frame" inside:

Next I painted over the middle bars using black:

Then I painted very thin lines of black to give the pattern depth and make it look like a single line passing over and under itself:

The "spirals" took a lot of back-and-forth, but basically they were a series of diagonal lines, with the first and the last lines extended into a loop. The ends of the lines were then touched up a bit to to go up on one side and down on the other, making them look more like curves:

Finally I painted a bunch of squiggly lines inside the frame to look like text:

I think he looks pretty cool overall, without using any techniques that are too advanced (not that I can use any particularly advanced painting techniques...), with the possible exception of the somewhat mandatory freehand. By the way, this was my first time using my new camera to take photos, along with a Foldio light box and a two-part rotating turntable thing I painstakingly built for creating more uniform animations (this was before Foldio opened their kickstarter for their mini remote turntable thing). I think these are the best photos I've ever managed (I didn't retouch the brightness or contrast or anything in post, all I did was resize them), so that's good. I'll post more details on the turntable later, but I'm hoping to get better at creating smooth turntable animations in the future.

Finishing A Paracord Belt

I can't believe how long it's been since I finished a belt. Well, I just completed my second Derweesh Mark III paracord belt, and it reminded me of Goldilocks: my first one was too short, this one is too long. Hopefully the next one will be just right...

Well, at least I can actually wear this one. Last time I used eight spine strands, and as a result I had to change my weave at the end. This time I avoided the problem by using six spine strands and weaving through the spine "loops" instead of around them (if that makes any sense). I was using 550 Paracord, and the belt turned out to be 1.5" across; just narrow enough for a standard 1.75" buckle. If I had used eight spine strands I don't think it would have fit.

Nice big regularly-spaced holes.

All buckled up.

I had several comments in previous posts asking for more details about how to finish belts. It's hard for me to explain in words, so this time I took step-by-step photos.

First of all, it helps to have a pair of leatherworking needles that will work with your cord. They aren't necessary, but you might have a much harder time getting the cord through the loops on the last row without them.

Second, the key is to leave lots of slack when weaving the last row, then pull it tight afterwards. This makes it MUCH easier to fit the cord through the loops, as I will try to show in the photos.

This is the second-to-last row:

As you can see there's enough room left in the spine loop to pass the paracord through again:

However, we don't pull the cord tight, and leave a generous loop:

We continue weaving:

Always leaving loops rather than pulling tight:

When you pull the weave tight, the cords actually take up more room; by leaving plenty of slack we can actually pull the cords back to reveal gaps that we couldn't have used of we had tightened the weave:

Again, needles help a lot:

In this case I chose to continue the same pattern, but I didn't want to end with a loop-back step as it would have created a bit of a "forked tongue", so I used a crossover step:

This meant passing the cord through the center,

then around the other cord and back through the same hole:

Once the pattern is finished,

you can pull it all tight:

Then of course cut and melt the ends. Not the neatest melt job I've ever done, but oh well.

Well, there it is. It's a lot lot lighter and easier to use than my Slatt's belt. I might make a shorter one with a nicer buckle at some point, although I'm considering trying to weave a KBK Bar as thinner, lighter belt next.

Turning Tables

Got my second game in with MacBain!!!!. My main plan going in was to try to use Countermeasures; the idea was to put it on the Cutthroats and jam them forwards.
MacBain!!!!
-Mangler
-Sylyss
Nyss Hunters
Croe's Cutthroats
Alexia & the Risen
Kayazy Eliminators
Maddie
Reinholdt

Blondie was trying his Sword Knights for the first time. Also, as Rowdy and the Squire were on the painting table, he put together a list without them.
Stryker I
-Centurion
Journeyman Warcaster
-Defender
Gunmages
-UA
Sword Knights (max)
Sword Knights (max)


Pre-Game:
Turns out a white and grey gaming mat covered with white and grey primed models is not very visually interesting... my camera doesn't seem to photograph it very well either. Because I had forgotten to bring terrain or objectives or anything with me, we picked the simplest scenario with just the two medium bases as flags. He won the roll and chose to go first.


Deployment:
Blondie lined up his Sword Knights, with the Gunmages to my left. I put Alexia in the middle for best soul collection, Maddie next to her to increase her collection range, and MacBain!!!! facing my flag. The Cutthroats faced off against the Gunmages, with one in spell range of MacBain!!!!.

Round 1:
Blondie ran his Knights forwards in base contact. The Gunmages moved behind them. Stryker put Snipe on the Defender and Arcane Shield on the Gunmages, while Junior put Arcane Shield on the Centurion. The Defender took an optimistic shot at my army, but even RNG 20 wasn't quite enough yet.

I put Countermeasures on the Cutthroats and spent the rest of my focus to run and Energize my battlegroup forwards. Everything ran.

Round 2:
The Defender put 6 damage on my Mangler. He Sword Knights charged my front lines, with one group putting another 6 damage on the Mangler and the other unit taking a bunch of Cutthroats. His Gunmages then shot through the gaps to take out some more Cutthroats and some Nyss Hunters. The Centurion charged a Nyss Hunter but missed all it's attacks. Stryker popped his feat.

My plan this turn was to clear my flag and start scoring. Alexia put down a bunch of Risen behind his Sword Knights. The Mangler killed a couple of the Knights engaging it with a Thresher. Reinholdt gave MacBain!!!! Lucky Charms. MacBain!!!! then took an aimed shot at one Knight but missed (I was saving the charms for the damage roll as it was in the feat). Jackhammer on the Mangler killed the remaining Knights engaging the jack. I put Fortune on the Nyss at last. The Cutthroats only killed a single model I think. A 5-man CRA from the Nyss killed one more Knight. I think I moved the Risen but forgot to make their attacks for some reason. In the end there was one knight left contesting my flag.

Round 3:
The Centurion finished off the Mangler. The Defender shot Alexia and forced her to sacrifice a whole bunch of Risen. The Sword Knights took out more Cutthroats, leaving only Croe. The Gunmages killed off Alexia, some Nyss, and all but one Risen. Stryker moved towards the flag.

Well, my army was almost completely gone, so all I could do now was go for assassination. MacBain!!!! used Intrigue to move forwards a bit, passing through the flag. Maddie seduced a Knight to get him out of the way; he walked over and missed a swing at a Gunmage. Croe killed a Knight because why not. One Nyss Hunter ran over to engage Stryker, while the rest killed a couple of Knights. Reinholdt gave MacBain!!!! Lucky Charms. MacBain!!!! cast Fortune on himself and charged Stryker, surviving a freestrike from the Centurion. With the Gang bonus from the Nyss, he managed to pull it off.

Postmortem:
Wow, I was getting murdered! My plan to use Countermeasures backfired, as I was never able to reach the Gunmages so my Cutthroats just ran forwards to get themselves slaughtered. Meanwhile my completely unnecessary use of Energizer just meant that I couldn't afford to get Fortune out; in hindsight it would have been more useful to put that on the Cutthroats then swap it to the Nyss. Plus, you know, I completely forgot to feat. I kept saying "I should feat this turn", then forget until two activations after MacBain!!!!.

I underestimated the range on the Defender; he could have been putting boosted POW 15s on MacBain!!!! from the second round as I actually left line of sight, but he probably forgot that the flag doesn't block sight and focused on the Mangler instead.

In previous games Blondie would always use his feat a turn later than I thought he should, I think he picked the timing better this game as I suddenly found myself engaged by ARM 21 Knights, and an ARM 29 Centurion! My Nyss Hunter was at dice -20 on the damage roll on the jack!

I guess he still needs to work on his threat-range estimation and remember to protect his caster, though that's a skill that takes time to learn; I myself left MacBain!!!! pretty exposed this whole game. Plus Macbain!!!! has a slightly longer threat range than you might expect, especially with Maddie. The Gang bonus and ability to cast Fortune on himself also makes him a bit more dangerous than the average Warcaster.

I forgot to take the Eliminators out of the box again. I don't know why I keep forgetting those two, though they are stealthy ninjas after all. I don't think that they would have made that much of a difference to the game though.

I guess Maddie won me the match, as I wouldn't have had enough focus left for the kill if I'd had to use Energiser to make the distance.

Enter the MACBAIN!!!!

Well, I was finally ready to give MacBain!!!! a try. I had a 35 point Four Star list ready for him, but as Beanpole was preparing for a tournament I borrowed some of his models so we could play at 50.
MacBain!!!!
-Mangler
-Sylyss
Nyss Hunters
Croe's Cutthroats
Alexia & the Risen
Kayazy Eliminators
Aiyana & Holt (borrowed)
Saxon Orrick (borrowed)
Kell Bailoch
Madelyne Corbeau
Thor
-Blaster (2)

Beanpole was running:
Makeda I
-Tiberion
-Molik Karn
-Gladiator
-Krea
-Aptimus Marketh
Nihilators
Incendiarii (4)
Paingivers (4)
Agonizer (hereby known as "He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named")


Pre-Game:
This is was my first game playing a true Mercs army, however most of the units were of course familiar to me. I wasn't sure what to do with MacBain!!!!, but I'd been thinking about it over the week and had come up with some strategies:
1. Juggle Fortune between the Cutthroats and Nyss.
2. Use a full Energizer on the first turn to get the Mangler up the board quickly; other upkeeps could be cast in the second turn.
3. Start shooting early with the Cutthroats, but then use Bushwack to run them to safety and charge him with feated-on Nyss.
4. Keep MacBain!!!! near enough to the Mangler for Jackhammer.
5. Be ready to use Energizer for hit-and-run attacks with the Mangler.
6. Potentially use the Mangler as bait to draw heavies away, so that...
7. ... Maddy, who would stay safely behind MacBain!!!! all game, could give him the Intrigue move, which along with...
8. ... the Eliminators, who would also stay well back all game, would run forwards through his whole army to engage his warlock at the end, meaning that...
9. ... MacBain!!!! could get to the warlock with Gang and possibly Fortune, closing out the game by himself thanks to Undertaker blocking transfers.

We rolled a mission with two zones, two objectives, and Killbox (which I think we both forgot about?). I won the roll; since I wasn't too worried about terrain I chose to go first and Beanpole chose the side with less terrain in the way. We both picked the Arcane Wonder. Beanpole played with a deathclock as preparation, but I was not prepared to use a deathclock on my first game with a new(ish) faction, so I just ignored it. I think I went at least a half-hour over the deathclock time.


Deployment:
Well, the Nyss had to go in the middle on account of the rough terrain (of course I could have put Alexia there and used Saxon...). I tried to spread the rest of my forces around them. My support models and Eliminators stayed in the back.

Beanpole put his Nihilators on my left with Karn, and the Incendiarii on the right with the Titans.

I then put the Cutthroats in the middle, with Kell and Saxon on the left (I figured they would do better shooting at Incendiarii than at Titans).

Round 1:
So before I even moved anything I realised I had made my first mistake: MacBain!!!! was not going to be able to advance aggressively because of the Cutthroats, and I wasn't sure I would be able to reach them with Fortune if they ran first. Clearly there was no hurry, I could have just kept a Cutthroat back a little, but instead I cast Fortune first then moved MacBain!!!! over to the left with Energizer in order to go around them, moving him away from the Mangler. It was my first activation and already things were falling apart...

Everything else ran forwards, with the Eliminators hanging back and the Nyss finding themselves boxed in and unable to spread out (I didn't want to move them too far forwards yet because Incendiarii). Kell started flanking around the forest. The Mangler ran to toe the zone, but I think I ran him out of my control area. I wasn't able to move the Blasters as far forwards as I had wanted to because Thor was behind them, so I could activate him first but after they ran they were out of his command range so I couldn't use Pronto. Sigh.

Beanpole ran up, engaging a couple of Cutthroats with Nihilators. Defenders Ward went on Tiberion as he was already in the Mangler's charge range.

Round 2:
So I had been planning to pull my Cutthroats to the right with a Bushwack (I have yet to actually use that rule with them...), but because two of them were engaged I stupidly decided to basically shuffle around and shoot stuff. So they did, as did the Nyss, killing a few models including an Incendiarii, but not really doing as much as I wanted due to my opponent doing a good job of protecting things with cover and the Krea's animus. At one point I put a six-man Nyss CRA into one Incendiarii, but Tiberion took the hit with Shield Guard.

I wasn't ready to charge Tiberion yet as I wasn't sure Aiyana could tag him and I was too far for Jackhammer, meaning my chances of killing him would be slim at best. In retrospect I don't think I could have allocated focus anyway, but it didn't matter since I never even tried. Instead I shuffled the Mangler back a couple of millimetres, to the very corner of the zone. MacBain!!!! advanced into my zone and put some damage on the Krea with his handcannon.

Kell continued to flank while Saxon stayed back to hand out Pathfinder. Alexia ran up to be ready to collect next turn. A few Risen moved up to make nuisances of themselves. One Blaster moved way out in front to keep the Titans busy, but Thor failed to pronto the other.

Nihlators under Carnage killed most of my front line. The Gladiator killed the Blaster. I think Beanpole was planning to kill the other with Tiberion, but he forgot to Rush him meaning he wouldn't have made it over the first Blaster's corpse. Karn and a Nihilator contested my zone, meaning I couldn't score. He also feated this turn.

Round 3:
Well, I wanted to start scoring, and that meant killing Karn. Plus he was basically offering me his gladiator, it would have been rude to refuse. So Sylyss upkept Fortune on the Cutthroats and the Mangler got three focus. Thor used Tune Up to boost the Blaster's damage rolls, and Pronto to move it into position so it could aim and spray the objective, catching the two Titans and the nearby Incendiarii. He did decent damage to the objective, but Tiberion shield-guarded the shot on the Incendiarii.

Aiyana Kissed the Gladiator, someone cleared a Nihilator who was threatening free-strikes (Holt maybe?), then the last of the Cutthroats charged, doing a surprisingly large amount of damage. Finally the Mangler charged in and finished the Gladiator off.

Next the Nyss killed the Nihilator in front of Karn and I think did some damage to the cyclops himself, as well as finally killing that damned Incendiarii behind the well as Tibbers had already used up his shield-guard. Saxon charged Karn and did very respectable damage, adding a point of fury with his skinning knife to reduce the number of times Karn could force a reroll. MacBain!!!! cast Fortune on Alexia for a single focus thanks to the Arcane Wonder, then used his last two points of focus to cast Energizer and try to pull the Mangler to safety.

Finally Aiyana charged Karn. Well, actually, she charged the Krea. Seeing as Karn had already lost a number of boxes I figured that Aiyana should be able to handle him and might be able to get the Krea as well, so I moved her to engage both. But then it occured to me that in that position she was turning her back to the rest of the Skorne, so by charging the Krea instead she would end up with a better facing. This was not the smartest thing I've ever done; by the time she'd spent her last Risen, Karn still had a single box left.

I still had one last attack I could put into him however; Kell. I walked Kell into the forest and fired into the scrum. With the backstrike bonus, but firing into melee, I needed a seven. Which I got, landing the sniper point of damage needed for the kill! That was a relief I can tell you! I ran Sylyss in front of MacBain!!!! under the vague theory that would make him a little safer, and ran the Eliminators to try to stop Tibbers from being able to reach the Mangler (clearly I've never heard of something called a "trample"), but they couldn't really get far forward enough.  I scored a point for dominating the zone.

Beanpole brought back a bunch of infantry thanks to Makeda's feat and killed off some more of my infantry including the last of the Cutthroats, Saxon, Alexia, Sylys, and one of the ninja twins. Predictably, Tiberion mangled the Mangler. One Eliminator and Kell survived on one or two boxes each thanks to poor damage rolls. I couldn't score this turn thanks to reanimated models and the Krea in my zone. (It seems I also forgot to take a photo).


Round 4:
Well, I didn't have enough left to kill a Defender's Warded Tiberion, so the plan this turn was to clear my zone, destroy his objective, and spread my models out in his zone to make them hard for him to kill. I would keep enough models safe to contest his zone for another turn or two, while trying to score in my zone.

Kell missed a swing against an engaging Thor failed to Pronto the Blaster then missed a shot against a Nihilator. The Blaster, unable to run, walked as far as it could towards the far corner of the zone. Aiyana and Holt backed off and Kissed then shot at the objective, then the Nyss finished it off, killing or knocking down a few Nihilators too. Cylena failed to clear the Nihilator in front of MacBain!!!!, so he finally feated on all my models in my control area (I actually could have protected one more model than I had), cast Fortune on himself, killed the offending Nihilator with Jackhammer, then charged and one-shot the Krea to clear the zone. At this point I considered using Energizer to back away from Tiberion, as I was just in his threat range, but I carelessly decided that the forest would be enough to keep him away and I would be better camping to protect me from all the Nihilators and Incendiarii staring at me. I went up to three points.

As it happened, there was tons of room for Tiberium to pass between the well and the forest, allowing him to walk up and start swinging away. By some cruel twist of fate however, terrible dice kept MacBain!!!! alive! By the time Beanpole ran out of activations MacBain!!!! had a single damage box left!

Round 5:
I saw two option now. Run away from Tiberion - using Maddie and Nyss to shield MacBain!!!! from the freestrike - and try to get into the other zone to dominate for five points, or go all in on Makeda. Eyeballing it, I wasn't sure MacBain!!!! could reach the other zone around the forest, though I had forgotten to account for Maddy's Intrigue move; in retrospect I'm pretty sure he could have made it with the extra three inches. Torn, I asked myself: "What would MacBain!!!! do?". The answer was obvious.

So I upkept Fortune, used Intrigue to walk as far as I could around Tiberion without taking a freestrike, then tried to use the Nyss to gun down a blocking Paingiver who I had very intelligently just engaged with MacBain!!!!.

Sigh. None of the Nyss could land the 11 needed to hit. Actually their dice were pretty cold all of a sudden; even when I landed hits on Nihilators I kept failing to break ARM 13...

Finally I gave up. Maddy ran over to block Tiberion's view of MacBain!!!!, protecting him from the freestrike. MacBain!!!! killed the Paingiver with Jackhammer, then charged Makeda. I really should have been boosting attack rolls, instead I put my hopes on Fortune, but only landed a couple of attacks and left her on about 7 boxes.

Then I suddenly remembered the nearby Eliminator! DOH! If I had even just run her to engage before I would have had the Gang bonus, which would have been more than enough to finish Makeda (I'd rolled a whole lot of 7s and 8s when fishing for 9s...). But there was still a chance; the Eliminator charged Makeda. Makeda couldn't transfer because she had been hit with Undertaker; with the backstrike bonus and using a Combo-Smite, I had a chance... the attack hit and did 6 damage, leaving Makeda on one box.

Makeda killed MacBain!!!! with her first attack.


Postmortem:
Holy crap, that was a close game! MacBain!!!! on one box, Makeda on one box, it was crazy! I made so many mistakes and forgot practically all my plans, but good dice kept me in the game despite my stupidity. I mean, even when I should have known Tiberion could reach my caster and just let it happen. The number of times one of my models would survive on a single box was crazy.

In fact I was extremely careless at the end; I forgot to activate the Eliminator, costing me the Gang bonus. I didn't even think to try to Kiss her with Aiyana first (I don't know if was in range or not, I didn't even consider it). After I knocked Makeda down to one box, I actually might have still been able to finish her with Holt or Kell - unlikely, but possible; I had nothing to lose by trying, but didn't even think to.

Having said that, Beanpole's dice weren't bad at all. He finally started making tough rolls this game too! The fact that only he was playing against the clock was obviously a big advantage for me; in fact he had less than three minutes left on the clock when the game ended.


Thinking about MacBain!!!!, he doesn't really seem that scary. No Freezing Grip, no Iron Flesh, no double-damage-feat. But his spells and abilities, while not exactly powerfule, are versatile and useful and can solve problems.

Fortune is not the most powerful buff around, but it's very versatile as just about any model or unit would benefit. It's no coincidence that MacBain!!!! had it on himself at the end; I wanted it on him the turn before because I knew I might need to go for the assassination soon. I love Jackhammer, it gives his jacks some much-needed extra hitting power while getting around things like disruption, but because models can use it to attack before moving they can clear their own charge lanes. There's some synergy with Fortune there, as MacBain!!!! proved a couple of times that game. Energizer is expensive but those few inches of out-of-activation movement can be a big deal, and using it at the start to get jacks further up feels good to a Khador player like myself. I'm still not sure how much use I personally will be able to get out of the feat, but I can see some applications for it; I think it would have pretty useful that game if I'd used it earlier on, I just kept forgetting about it. And Grievous Wounds? That's a reason to take him right there!

The rest of the army worked quite well. I didn't get as much use out of the Cutthroats as I would have liked; partly because I overextended them a bit as usual, and partly because Beanpole does a pretty good job of protecting his models with cover, the Krea's animus, and even Tibber's shield-guard. I didn't do that much damage with the Nyss either, but I have to admit it was kinda crazy the way they just stood back and shot through the forest like it wasn't even there. Aiyana was a huge enabler, and Holt wasn't bad either. I might not have been terribly smart with Alexia, but her (mostly) taking down Karn was huge, that guy is trouble and getting rid of him removes a lot of pressure.

Anyway, I will probably be swapping between Sorscha and MacBain!!!! for a while depending on my mood and what models I want to use. In the meantime I'm hoping to get some warcasters painted, but where's the time, amirite?

Primer and Bare Metal

Game 1:
I swapped the Decimator for a Demolisher; the idea is that it's a durable piece that the opponent can't ignore for risk of being frozen, and with the bond and eSorscha's feat it should hit hard enough if needed.
Sorscha II
-Demolisher
Doomreavers
Nyss Hunters
Croe's Cutthroats
Alexia & the Risen
Reinholdt

Beanpole threw something together:
Mordikaar
-Gladiator
-Bronzeback
-Krea
Nihilators
Incendiarii (4)
Paingivers (4)
Saxon Orrick


Pre-Game:
We played a simple mission with two flags. I won the roll and chose to go first. As our games tend to take a rather long time, we decided to play ten minute timed turns for a change.


Deployment:
I aimed the Demolisher at Beanpole's flag and Sorscha at my own. Alexia went in the center with the Risen positioned to run up ahead for a change. Nyss went on the left.

Beanpole put the Bronzeback and Incendiarii on my right, with the Gladiator and Nihilators on my left.

I decided I would rather the Cutthroats face off against the Incendiarii than the Doomreavers, so they went on my right and the Doomreavers on the left.

Saxon went on my right, so he could help the Incendiarii through a patch of rough terrain.


Round 1:
I ran stuff up. Cutthroats got Iron Flesh, the Demolisher used Boundless Charge for the extra inch, Sorscha used Cyclone to move up farther. The Nyss caught up with the Doomreavers but passed their leadership check.

Beanpole advanced agressively and feated, giving his army +3 DEF and Poltergeist. The Nihilators got Hollow.

Round 2:
I dropped Iron Flesh for the focus and so I could declare a charge with the Cutthroats, but then remembered the feat and decided to just run and jam. I made sure to engage the Bronzeback with my first move. I had very intelligently put Risen in front of Reinholdt, meaning he couldn't reach Sorscha to use Lucky Charms. Sorscha moved over to hide behind the well and froze the Nihilators. The Demolisher ran up to cover Sorscha. The Nyss killed a bunch of Nihilators, but several survived thanks to tough rolls. The Doomreavers killed a couple more, leaving just the one survivor. I ended up using my extension this turn.

That is a big pile of souls...

Mordikaar now had something like 16 Fury. He brought back a couple of Nihilators, then between Mordikaar, the Paingivers, and the Incendiarii, Beanpole cleared enough Cutthroats for the Bronzeback to charge and Beat-Back it's way to Sorscha. Result: dead Sorscha.

Game 2:
The last time I played Gru I was impressed by his fully painted army, so I put together a list that used as many of my painted Warmachine models as I could. The only one missing is the wardog, who it seems can't be in the same list as Sylyss. Perhaps the elf is alergic? I went for the Kodiak for the free run, and Destroyers and the Demolisher so I wasn't trying to charge my entire army into melee in one go. I threw the Kovnik in there at the last minute for a laugh, but didn't think to actually put a warjack on him, which I really should have done; the Demolisher wouldn't have been a bad choice. We decided to go ahead and play at 50 points.
Strakhov
-Black Ivan
-Destroyer
-Demolisher
-Kodiak
-Berserker
-Sylyss
Alexia & the Risen
MOW Kovnik
Koldun Lord
Widowmaker Marksman

Gru just brought lots of gators, but for some reason brought the Spitter instead of the Wrassler. Perhaps he was anticipating my usual infantry horde when he wrote the list.
Barnabus
-Ironback Spitter
-Bull Snapper (2)
Gatormen Posse (5)
Gatormen Posse (5)
Gatormen Posse (3)
Gobber Bellows Crew
Witch Doctor (2)
Croak Hunter (2)
Thrullg


Pre-Game:
We left the table as it was. I won the roll, and decided that I had better pick the side with less rough terrain in my way, so I chose sides and Gru chose to go first. No timed turns this game.


Deployment:
Gru put his whole army on my left, facing his flag. I think he may have deployed his advanced deployment models in his regular deployment step?

Strakhov aimed for the flag. I put the Kodiak behind the forest on my left as it was the only other model that could run through it. I put the Kovnik behind the house as I was scared of the Croak Hunters' poisoned weapons - in retrospect I should have put him near Strakhov so I could give him Occultation (assuming I could ever spare the focus). The rest of my jacks went in the middle, with everything else on the right or behind the jacks.

The largest number of painted Warmachine models I've ever put on the table! Sad huh?

Round 1:
Gru put Iron Flesh on the three-gator Posse and ran everything up. The Croak Hunters hid in the trench.

I put Superiority on the Berserker with the intention of sending it in as a "first wave". Everything ran. Alexia starting accumulating Thralls.

And even more painted models thanks to the Thrall!

Round 2:
Gru advanced cautiously and hid the bulk of his army behind swamps and clouds (well, OK, one of each), casting Spiny Growth one each of the three Iron Fleshed Gators.

I realised at this point that I had stupidly positioned my "first wave" where it couldn't attack because of the well. So I hatched a Cunning Plan^TM! Strakhov gave the Berserker three focus and kept three for himself, then he advanced to shoot at the Gobbers in order to use Overrun to reposition the Berserker. Unfortunately they were too far away, so he threw a cinder bomb and a Rift instead on the off-chance that they provided some protection or something. The Berserker simply ran around the house instead, while the rest of the jacks ran or walked and shot, doing very little.

The Marksman then walked forwards and fired at the rightmost Gator. He landed the shot and rolled an amazing double 6 to perfectly one-shot the big lizard! What a champ! Alexia advanced and summoned a second Thrall.

Round 3:
One Bullsnapper frenzied, and took a big chunk out of the other, knocking out an aspect. Barnabus triggered his feat, knocking down several of my models. The nearest Posse charged the Kodiak, but only a few manage to reach. The Croak Hunters put a few boxes of damage on the Kovnik. The Gobbers moved up and put a cloud in front of my Berserker. He put Spiny Growth on a couple of the Iron-Fleshed unit. The rest of his army mostly just held it's ground.

I realised that my Kodiak was out of my control area and thus I wouldn't be able to shake, meaning he wouldn't be able to do anything useful this round. Neither would the Kovnik. So I hatched a Cunning Plan^TM to get some use out of them.

The Berserker got three focus, the Destroyer two, then they both shook. The Kodiak and Kovnik both sacrificed their actions to stand, and moved into position. The the Destroyer slammed the Kovnik, hoping to send him over the Croak Hunters. Sadly the slam distance was an inch short. I wanted to slam the Kodiak as well, but I realised that the Destroyer was in the way, plus I probably wouldn't have range anyway. So the Demolisher just ran forwards.

The Berserker trampled over the Gobbers, boosting his attack rolls and killing them both. Hang on, the maths doesn't add up; did I forget to pay for the trample? Perhaps I used Strakhov's feat but forgot that it doesn't give free tramples, only charges and slams? Either way I guess I screwed up somewhere. Anyway, the Berseker promptly exploded and put a few boxes of damage on the min unit of Gatormen.

Black Ivan did very little with his bombard. The Marksman shot another Gatorman but did not manage a repeat performance, only doing a few boxes of damage this time. Alexia summoned a third Thrall (proxied by Reinholdt). Strakhov based the flag to score a point.

Round 4:
One unit of Gators charged and killed the Marksman. Revenge! The Croak Hunters finished off the fallen Kovnik. The Gators swarmed around my jacks, slowly chipping away at the Kodiak. I scored a second point.

With the Berserker dead I would be wanting to re-cast Superiority. But who would get it? Well, with the Demolisher engaged, he would pretty much have to open up now, so perhaps a couple of extra points of defense would help keep him alive. However, he was too far away from Strakhov. So I hatched a Cunning Plan^TM (are you seeing a pattern yet?). Strakhov kept all his focus, moved up to cast Superiority on the Demolisher, then cast Overrun on himself and tried to gun down a Gator in order to be able to move back onto the flag. I rolled three shots, but the only unit in range had Iron Flesh so I missed them all, even with the boost.

Alexia created a fourth Thrall (proxied by a Nihilator). A pair of Thralls charged an Iron Fleshed gator and missed, while the newborn charged a regular Gator and also missed. The rest of my army then stood about flailing ineffectually.

Round 5:
Barnabus finally based his flag, but didn't score as my jacks were contesting. The Ironback Spitter nailed Alexia with a double-boosted loogie. If I'd had one more Risen (or the one Risen that was also in the AOE was a little farther away so I could pass damage off to it) she could have traded them to survive it, but Gru had rolled the exact damage needed to kill her, so I let her die and hung on to the Risen. The Croak Hunters hit the Koldun Lord, landing him with Corrosion, but poor damage rolls meant he survived the attack.The Gators killed three of my Thralls and kept chipping away at the jacks. I think this was the turn that the other Bullsnapper frenzied, taking a big chunk out of Barnabus.

Strakhov handed out three focus to the Destroyer and kept three. The Destroyer, using all three focus, finally managed to kill a single Gator. My flag was starting to look like a dangerous place to be, so I decided to focus on killing stuff with Strakhov. I wanted to charge him into the two Croak Hunters, but due to poor positioning I didn't have a line on the far one, so I charged the near one, killed it and Overrun into the second, but whiffed my attack. Finally Strakhov sprinted away, taking some damage from a free-strike.

The Risen simply regrouped (did you know they have CMD 3?). Ivan moved in to melee since he wasn't having much luck with his gun. The Koldun Lord lost another damage box to Corrosion.

Round 6:
The Gators finally managed to finish off the Kodiak. The Spitter moved in and, with the help of a couple of Gators, knocked out the open Demolisher's arms and cortex. The rightmost posse killed all but one Risen. The Thrullg disrupted Ivan.

Well, I really didn't want to move Strakhov over to my flag now. The Destroyer was the only jack left that I could allocate to; I couldn't even use the Koldun Lord to try to give Ivan focus as he died to Corrosion at the start of the turn. It occurred to me however that Barnabus was injured and on zero camp; perhaps I could put some damage on him this turn. The idea was to move Strak up, kill a gator, cast Ram at Barnabus, then sprint to a position of relative safety. It was a risky play, but the alternative was just to continue chipping away at Gators and lose the game from attrition / him scoring on my flag. So I went for it.

First I tried to free up Strakhov with the Demolisher, but a freestrike killed him. It's a shame, but at least he was out of the way. Strakhov then charged one of the Iron-Fleshed Gators (the freestrike from the Croak Hunter missed) and boosted the attack roll. The attack missed. This was a problem; I couldn't afford to just stand there, I had to try to reposition to somewhere a little safer with the sprint, so I spent the rest of Strakhov's focus trying to kill the Gator, but failed.

Sylyss ran to engage the Croak Hunter. The Destroyer killed another croc. Black Ivan took a swing and missed. The sole remaining Risen charged a Gator and missed.

Round 7:
Two Gators killed Strakhov. If they hadn't managed to finish it the Ironback would have.



Postmortem:
It's a completely different experience when you're on the clock. I would say it was exciting, but also somewhat stressful of course. The added pressure meant that I didn't play very smart and made stupid mistakes, like moving Sorscha into range of the Bronzeback. I think it might be worth playing with timed turns every once in a while, but probably not with the infantry spam lists I'm currently playing, and probably with a slightly more generous time limits to start off with.

It was fun to run jack-heavy again; in fact I think this is the jack-heaviest I've ever done. Strakhov is clearly not the right caster for it though. I love using Overrun for janky little plays, and I spent all game trying and failing to pull that kind of thing. I guess the Hoff really likes easy to kill targets for triggers, and Gators are not exactly easy to kill; I think I only took out three of them the whole game.

The terrain was part of the problem; it funneled us into a rather narrow skirmish line where we couldn't get enough of our larger-based models into engagement, drawing out the game a little. Iron Flesh didn't exactly help; DEF 16 is obviously not as bad as DEF 18, but it was still enough to give me trouble.

Actually, I think both our dice were pretty poor overall. I had some good rolls early on, then he had a few at the end when he killed Strakhov (whole bunch of 8s for his attack rolls...), but for most of the match I think we were generally rolling below average (my attacks kept missing, his kept failing to do damage).

That Marksman though! Man of the match! I should have used Swift-Hunter to move him back to maximum range after his first attack though, I just forgot how fast Gators can be when charging living models.

Looking at the photos, I think Gru could have gotten that posse around the right flank a lot sooner if he'd been more agressive; with the forest in the way they could have flanked without much risk of my jacks catching them, then put pressure on my flag sooner. In hindsight, knowing now how much trouble my jacks had with his Gators, I would say that if he'd moved the main complement of Gators up faster he could have jammed me off his flag and started scoring fairly early on.