Slow And Steady

I ran a demo game for a new member of our hobby group. This was my first game of Warmachine this year. I had put together two 30 points Unlimited lists in preparation. I ran a silly Strakhov2 list that I could use to show off a little of the jankier things you can do in this game, mostly centered around Alexia and LoLS to demonstrate soul and recursion mechanics. I don't think either of used a command card all game (though I did mention how he could use them a couple of times), but we both had Blessing, Lucky Penny, Old Faithful, Hit & Run, and For The Motherland (which I guess is not legal anymore but w/e).
Strakov2 (proxied by Strakhov1)
-Kodiak
-Elite Kommandos (2)(proxies)
-Reinholdt
Koldun Lord
Alexia 2 (& Thralls)(proxy)
Battle Mechanics
Legion of Lost Souls (Risen conversions)

The list I made for new players was intended to be simple and solid, mostly centered around demonstrating the basics, including the use of straighforwards buff spells. Ruin was a no-brainer. I included Bombardiers as versatile faction models with good overall stats and enough armour for Butcher's Deceleration to be meaningful. The Forgeseer fit with the MOW, was painted, and could help counter Strakhov's cloud/stealth tricks. Mechanics made sense as they are cheap and could repair most of the army.
Butcher1 (buff version)
-Ruin (proxied by Juggernaut)
Greylord Forgeseer (Bombshell conversion)
Man-O-War Bombardiers
-Bombardier Officer
Battle Mechanics


Pre-Game
I placed a simple 12" zone in the center and said any model could score starting from the second player's second turn, with the first to 5 points being the winner. I went firsts so I could demonstrate basics rules first. I gave him the terrain so he could place them as he wished.


Deployment
I put Strakhov and his support near the forest. The Kodiak in the center, with the Mechanics behind him, and Alexia and the Legion to the left. He spread his MOW in a line in front of the rest of his models (I could not remember the rules for deploying units).


Round 1:
Strakhov cast Inviolable Resolve on the Kodiak and Quicken on himself, used the Sneak battle plan and ran into the forest. His support followed. The Legion ran into the zone, clustered up in a shield wall. The Kodiak, excited to get to grips with the enemy, "accidentally" vented steam and killed all three mechanics. Oops. Oh well, accidents happen in war. Alexia respectfully and surreptitiously pocketed their souls - no point in letting good corpses souls go to waste, right? Walking up, she used the souls to craft three Thrall Warriors, who immediately ran forwards.

Butcher's army ran up, with Butcher himself staying behind the wall of Bombardiers, while the Forgeseer alone split off from the force. Butcher cast Deceleration, and put Vengeful on the Bombardier Officer.

Round 2:
I upkept both spells. Strakhov moved forwards just enough to take a shot at the Forgeseer, hitting and rolling just low enough to not do any damage. Alexia walked up and slung a Hellfire at a Bombardier, also somehow rolling just low enough to not do any damage. The Legion walked forwards and shot their pistols, doing some damage. The Thralls charged the Bombardiers, although only one could make the 3" needed for boosting damage. They finished off one Bombardier, but the return swing from Vengeful on the officer killed a Thrall. The Kodiak trampled up and used Vent Steam, the Kommandos then walked forwards and did the same.

Butcher upkept Vengeful and allocated to Ruin. The Bombardiers shuffled up a bit and killed the Thralls, allowing the Officer to lob a shot at the Legion; it missed but a roll of 10 on the blast damage still killed the target. The Mechanics then repaired some of the damage on the Bombardiers. Butcher Feated and cast Deceleration again. Ruin charged the Kodiak, dispelling Inviolable Resolve. I was surprised that even with Butcher's Feat and the free charge from his Bond, he still only just managed to finish off the Kodiak on his final hit (doing only one point of extra damage). The Forgeseer walked in to the zone and cast a Hoarfrost at the closest Legion grunt, killing it and also a second with another roll of 10 on the AOE damage. At least Alexia was close enough to take their souls.

Round 3:
I dropped Quicken. The Legion charged the Bombardiers, killing one and bringing back a member of the unit. One attack hit the Bombardier Officer, triggering Vengeful. The Officer's attack did no damage, but it was a Crit allowing him to use Shred to attack again (it was only later that it occured to me that Crit Shred is only during the model's combat action), unfortunately he rolled low again, leaving the Legion trooper untouched.

Alexia charged Ruin, using souls to buy attacks and boost damage rolls. She did some damage, not that much. One Kommando charged Ruin, the other I feared would block Strakhov's charge so I charged the Forgeseer instead, leaving her on one health. Reinholdt gave Strahkov a Lucky Charm (which came in handy as I think I rolled three 1's on a damage roll at one point). Strakhov then cast Last Stand on himself and charged Ruin. After buying all his attacks Ruin still had around 10 health boxes left; pow 11 is just sad really. The Koldun Lord managed to land a Brittle Frost on Ruin but did no damage.

With all my activations done Last Stand kicked in and Strakhov keeled over; karmic retribution for killing his own Mechanics no doubt.


Post-Mortem
It was a fun game that flowed fairly smoothly. I did end it somewhat prematurely using Last Stand, but I felt there wasn't much point in drawing it out too long. Still, in retrospect I probably should have let him take down Strakhov himself using Ruin. But this was actually my first game with Strakhov2 and I thought it would be funny for Strakhov to basically kill himself. I do think only have one jack per side is a bit of a problem, because losing that jack is hard to recover from; having a couple of jacks just sort of "buffers" the impact of losing one, or at least creates more of a back-and-forth. But I wanted to have a bit of everything without having too much of the power in the battlegroup as that might make the rest of the army feel redundant; I feel that gives a more accurate impression of the actual game. I think the Butcher list did what I wanted it to quite well, but I might re-write the Strakhov list.

Attack The Paint

Many years ago, when "Blackest Black" became available and people started talking about using it for miniatures, I had the idea of trying to recreate the monsters from Attack The Block (2011). I've always had a soft spot for that film; my old company worked on it, so I watched it at the cinema with a group of workmates, and I even got to briefly talk to Nick Frost about the possibility of a sequel at a signing at a comic convention several years back. And of course I've always loved the design of the monsters:

I didn't have a suitable model in mind though, so I never got around to it. I did discuss the idea with people on the old Privateer Press forums, and I seem to recall one forumite trying it on a Circle Orborus Warpwolf, but I don't remember his name or how well it came out.

I never completely forgot the idea, even picking up a bottle of Green Stuff World "Maxx Darth" when it came out. Well, recently I was dabbling with Khador lists (as you do) and felt like putting Butcher 3 on the table, just once. But I didn't have any Argus models and was never fond of the two-headed deal to begin with, so I figured I'd print out a couple of generic wolf models to proxy. And that's when I remembed the old idea, and figured it was finally time to give it a try.

As it happens, while looking up OSL effects for my glowing blade experiment, I saw some videos using fluorescent paints. I've been seeing more and more miniatures painted with these, and figured they would be perfect for this model. I actually had a few Vallejo fluorescents lying around that I had picked up years ago but never figured out how to use. Luckily I had both green and blue, allowing me to mix them together to try to get close the turquoise glows from the film.

War Argii:
I spent a couple of hours searching for a suitable wolf model. I was looking for something simple, with no accessories, but with large pronounced teeth. The best model I found was "Fang The Dire Wolf" by The Lost Adventures Co. Unfortunately this was a single sculpt and I needed two of them, so I had to mirror the model and hope it didn't look too obvious. Also I had to shrink the model to fit a 40mm base, which meant I couldn't use the existing supports and would have to make new ones. Which I completely screwed up first time, losing much of the all-important mouth detail, so I had to redo the supports and print them again.

I did some experiments with the Maxx Darth, and found that the surface finish was VERY delicate; even extremely light handling would start to affect the surface finish, possibly even rubbing off the paint. So I decided to put it over a normal black undercoat that had already been varnished, so even if the Maxx Darth got rubbed off there would still be a robust black layer underneath. So after priming them in Mr. Hobby Mr. Primer Surfacer 1000, I airbrushed the entire models with Green Stuff World 1779 Acrylic Color Black Stallion (thinned with Green Stuff World 1880 Airbrush Retarder).

I wanted the basing to be brighter than the black body of the wolves, but dark enough to help accentuate the bright teeth. My typical Khadoran snow or ice bases would be too bright. I also wanted something that would work for both the steampunk fantasy of the Iron Kingdoms and also the modern urban setting of Attack the Block. I settled on the flagstones from the Basius Max: Sanctuary texture pad (pressed into Brown Stuff putty). The irregular square stones were ambiguous enough to fit a variety of different time periods.

I basecoated the bases in Vallejo 70.994 Model Color Dark Grey, then dryrbushed with Vallejo 70.992 Model Color Neutral Grey. This didn't really give me the kind of stone texture I would have liked; the Basius flagstones are a little smooth. I edge-highlighted the flagstones with the Neutral Grey, then washed the bases with Citadel Shade Nuln Oil. It seems my Nuln Oil is getting too old; I had to thin it with some Lahmian Medium, but it still felt a bit thick and had some small black particles that I tried to remove with my brush when I saw them.

I airbrushed the entire models with Mr. Hobby Mr. Color GX 112 UVCut Gloss, followed by Mr. Hobby Mr. Color GX 113 UVCut Flat. I had some issues with one of the bases and had to repaint and revarnish the base rim, but I rushed it and it didn't quite come out the same as the first one, looking a little bit less flat black.

With the varnish dry I started on the mouth. I did this after the varnish as fluorescent paints rely on ultraviolet light, and the varnish I'm using blocks UV. I basecoated the entire mouth in Citadel Layer Sotek Green, then picked out the individual teeth using Citadel Layer Temple Guard Blue. I applied a layer of Citadel Layer Baharroth Blue, aiming to cover about three quarters of each tooth (starting from the tip). I then covered about half of each tooth with a layer of Formula P3 Morrow White. After this I glazed the entire mouth with a mix of about 5 drops of Formula P3 Turquoise Ink and 1 drop of Formula P3 Blue Ink. This added some shading as well as tinting the teeth to be closer to the greenish turquoise glow in my reference screenshots (Iirc in the photo below the model on the left has not gotten the glaze yet). Once dry I covered about a third of each tooth with Morrow White again.

I mixed Vallejo 70.737 Model Color Green Fluo with Vallejo 70.736 Model Color Blue Fluo in about a 1:1 ratio to again try to get close to the colour in my reference material, using a UV flashlight to check the glow colour as I worked. In my first tests I had tried covering the entire mouth of my test model (turns out the failed first wolf prints had a use after all...) with fluorescent paints, but under UV the entire mouth started to glow instead of just the teeth. So I painted the fluorescent mixture onto just the teeth.

This gave a rather flat uniform glow effect under UV; I had hoped to experiment with fluorescent white paint, but the paints I ordered had taken a very long time to ship, and I really wanted to get these guys done in time to actually put them on the table during the month of Halloween, so I had to do without. Instead I applied a second layer of the fluorescent paint mix onto just half of each tooth, to create a simple rough gradient. I brushed Vallejo 26.518 Matt Acrylic Varnish onto the mouth, to protect it without blocking UV light (I did some test just to be 100% sure it had no effect on the glow whatsoever).

I could finally apply Green Stuff World The Blackest Black Maxx Darth to the body. This is a very thick paint; I had to thin it a lot with water, but I tended to over-thin it, so I had to apply several coats to get a solid effect on the raised fur areas. I was using a regular dry palette, and when I was almost done I started to suspect it might be picking up some of the grey paint that had dried on the palette before. So I grabbed a clean palette and thinned some fresh paint to apply on an area, but I couldn't see any difference so I guess it was fine.

The paint is kind of weird; sometimes it looks incredibly dark, much blacker than other black paints. Other times it looks like a lighter grey, but VERY matt, with virtually no specular light. I guess it's very lighting dependent. In the photo below you can see the regular varnished black on the left, and the Maxx Darth on the right, under normal room lighting:

The problem with Maxx Darth and, from what I hear, with all these "blacker than black" or "blackest black" paints is that they rely on their surface finish to work, and that surface finish is very delicate. In my test even very careful handling would damage the matt effect that gave the paint its "black hole" look. After some experimentation it seemed that a very light coat of Alclad II Lacquer ALC 600 Aqua Gloss Clear would give the surface a slightly satin look (compared to the unprotected matt original), but still maintain some of that extra blackness while providing some protection. So I carefully applied a very light dusting of the Aqua Gloss Clear. In the photo below the model on the right has been varnished:

I wasn't convinced that it had worked, so I avoided touching the bodies until after I had taken the glamour shots, to try to get the best possible photos. With that done I tried to very lightly rub the body of one wolf, as you would when handling gaming pieces normally, and I could immediately see the raised areas of the fur becoming more reflective. Here is the model before handling:

And here it is after some light handling. You can see the tops of the locks of fur starting to become more reflective:

And here's a comparison, with the unhandled model on the right:

So yeah, the Maxx Darth is basically a failure for normal gaming models. I can see using it for recessed areas that shouldn't be touched under normal handling, such as the inside of a monster's mouth or something (that could work well to give the appearance of a gaping maw of nothingness or whatever), but overall not really practical for normal gaming models.

Despite being such a simple scheme, these two models were EXTREMELY frustrating; from the print issues to the varnish issues to the finicky paint, these ones were a bit rough. And I'd like to say it was worth it, but knowing that all the work won't amount to very much in the long run since the Maxx Darth won't hold up kinda robs the project of the usual payoff. Still, it was educational; it was my first time using fluorescent paints, and that part at least worked out in the end. And I've finally put one of my many stupid hobby ideas into practice, so that's one less piece of baggage rattling around in my skull. Now to play Butcher 3 exactly once and never again.


EDIT (2024/11/03): I had ordered a pot of Green Stuff World 1760 Fluor Fluorescent White, but I wasn't able to use it for these models as I wanted to paint them before halloween and it hadn't arrived. Once it did, I tried painting it onto the teeth of one of the wolves to try to further brighten them (as the blue and green fluoroscent paints had darkened the whitest parts), but the paint is very transparent and made no visible difference under normal lighting. Under UV light the glow was more blue than before, but the difference doesn't really show up on camera so there's no point in posting new photos. So yeah, doesn't look like the white will work very well for creating gradients on glows, I think it'll be more for creating glowing whites (the glow itself is bluish under UV, but still).

Game-Swap

I offered to demo Warmachine to a local 40K player, and in return he offered to demo Killteam. So we did both.


GAME 1: KILLTEAM
Pre-Game:
I brought out my old Space Marine collection and picked some proxies for Angels of Death:
Space Marine Captain
Assault Intercessor Warrior
Eliminator Sniper
Heavy Intercessor Gunner
Intercessor Warrior (Bolt Rifle)
Intercessor Warrior (Bolt Rifle)

Attila had Legionnaires:
Legionary Shrivetalon
Legionary Chosen
Legionary Anointed
Legionary Baleful Acolyte
Legionary Butcher
Legionary Warrior


Round 1&2:
I was learning the movement and combat. I pulled ahead by a point in the first couple of turns.

Round 3:
I had done more damage in the earlier rounds, but wasn't able to finish off some models that I was in melee with. I had decided to take a risk with my heavy; instead of walking away and shooting the model engaging it (that would go down to a single hit), I figured I could kill it in melee, score the objective, and then use his ranged attack to finish off another model, but I whiffed HARD in melee and just died without costing Attila a single activation instead.

Round 4:
With very few activations left, the score remained even while Attila was ahead by one living model. However, having the numerical advantage allowed my an extra action with my sniper, who managed to finish off one more Legionnaire, drawing the game.

Post-Mortem:
It's a quick game to pick up and play. The movement and action system seemed to be simple but fairly well done. The combat resolution system took a little getting used to, but I can see how it creates the opportunity to make meaningful decisions while giving the attacker an advantage. The "stealth" system felt unintuitive to me, but I guess it makes sense as a way to balance melee and ranged combat. The action point system seems to allow most activations to follow the standard "move and attack" format, but with some flexibility (moving further and attacking, or scoring an objective without sacrificing movement and combat) while still remaining quite simple. I have had issues with small model count games in the past, where sometimes models would die too easily, or there was too much of a binary difference between the model getting hit and dying, and never getting hit and not taking damage, making attacking feel unsatisfying. Killteam's system of wounds and saves might be the best health/damage system I've played in a small-model-count game.

The basic game did feel very simple, without too much difference between different models and weapons, and very few special rules outside of basic attack/defend combat rules. Of course this was an intro game where we didn't use all the rules so it's not a fair comparison, but I will say there was a stark difference between the model profiles, which were mainly just base stats with a few special rules on the weapons, and the incredibly rule-dense model cards in Warmachine. Which is not a knock on Killteam, I believe it's supposed to be a quick and easy-to-pick-up little skirmish game, so the simplicity seems like a feature. I don't know how much depth the game has when played at a higher level by experienced players, I imagine there's a fair bit of strategy in positioning etc. when you understand the game better.

From this one experience, I felt it was a fairly quick and clean game that's an easy way to put some cool 40K models on the table, that can be enjoyed in a very casual way. I wouldn't mind playing it again, though I don't expect it to replace Warmachine or Monsterpocalypse for me. It might replace Zone Raiders sadly; the core rules in that game are probably just too crunchy for me.


GAME 2: WARMACHINE
Pre-Game:
I wanted to write a couple of 30 point lists that prioritised using actually painted models for the demo, with at least one jack, unit, and solo. I chose Butcher1 for Attila; he's relatively straight-forwards (or at least he used to be) and wrecking face with him is great fun. Ruin is the best jack for Butcher and would help demonstrate command cards (Grave Robbing) and internal synergies/interactions through his bond with Butcher. The Legion of Lost Souls was freshly painted and synergised with Alexia2. The Koldun Lord filled out the points and brings a great debuff.
Butcher 1
-Ruin (proxied by Juggernaut)
-Sylys Wyshnalyrr
Legion of Lost Souls
Alexia 2
Koldun Lord
*Blessing of the Gods
*Grave Robbing
*Infiltration
*Old Faithful
*Power Swell

I chose Harkevich for myself as he's a relatively simple warcaster, and Black Ivan could show off some synergies and movement tricks with him. The Drakhun and War Dog are painted. I didn't want to run a mirror with my second unit of Legion of Lost Souls, so I just grabbed the Cutthroats.
Harkevich 1
-Black Ivan
-War Dog
Croe's Cutthroats
Man-O-War Drakhun
*Break Through
*Careful Reconnaissance
*High Alert
*Hit & Run
*Put The Fires Out

I know demo games are usually played without a scenario, but again I didn't feel that was a good representation of the game, and Attila was not new to wargames so I figured he could handle it. So I just threw a 12" zone in the center of the board and said that any model could score it if no enemy models were in the zone, starting from the second player's second turn. First to five points - or to kill the enemy warcaster of course - would win. I said I'd go first so I could demonstrate the turn order etc.


Deployment:
I deployed centerally, with Harkevich ready to run into the forest. We discussed his deployment and I suggested that some models wanted to stay further back.

Round 1: I forgot about Escort and moved Black Ivan before activating Harkevich. Everything basically just ran up and spread out.

Attila moved the Legion towards the trench and ran Alexia into the forest. Butcher cast Deceleration and put Vengeful on Ruin.

Round 2:
The Drakhun was almost exactly 13" away from Ruin; too far to charge, but just close enough to walk and shoot, repositioning away afterwards. I think he might have done a couple of points of damage; in retrospect this would have been an opportunity for Ruin to trigger Hyper Agressive and Vengeful (singe the Drakhun was almost exactly 6" away so Ruin could walk 4" and attack 2"), but I completely forgot about those rules. Also that would have allowed the Drakhun to hit Ruin, and I don't remember if Black Ivan had activated yet, so it probably wouldn't have been a good idea. But I should have remembered it and discussed it.

Hark and Black Ivan did a bit of shooting, but didn't do much damage. The Cutthroats charged the Legion of Lost Souls; I killed one but that left two of my models without a target in range. Croe and the last Cutthroat missed their attacks.

Butcher cast Decelaration and moved around a bit, respecting my threat ranges. Alexia moved up in the forest. Ruin dismounted then killed the Drakhun, allowing Alexia to replace him with a Thrall, who moved behind Ruin to be able to Shield Guard for him. The Legion of Lost Souls completely wiped out the Cutthroats, resurrecting their lost brother in the process. Attila scored one point.

Round 3:
I allocated to Black Ivan and charged him in to Ruin, but wasn't able to finish him so I had to finish the job with Harkevich. Worth mentioning is that Black Ivan's Dual Attack shot hit even though he doesn't have the Pistol advantage, but the Thrall took the shot. Also I once again forgot that Ruin had Vengeful and should have been able to take a swing at Black Ivan. I scored a point.

The Koldun Lord cast Brittle Frost on Black Ivan and Alexia did a few points of damage with a Hellfire. The Legion of Lost Souls charged Black Ivan; they were doing a couple of points of damage each, except for on who REALLY cranked the dice and did two whole columns by himself:

This left Black Ivan on twelve boxes. Butcher Feated and charged, swinging over the heads of the Legion where it would be harder for Harkevich to reach him. With five damage dice on his charge attack, he rolled 16 damage, taking out my jack while sitting on 6 Focus. I just went ahead and conceded.

Post-Mortem:
I find it amusing that Attila played a Legion and Butcher in both games. Playing Warmachine right after Killteam reminded me just how complex Warmachine is these days; every model on the table had a multitude of special rules. Butcher1 used to be one of the simplest Khador casters; the back of his card used to be blank, but now he has Hyper-Agressive on himself and his warjacks; I feel that's a rule that takes a fairly high skill level to use effectively. Perhaps Vlad1 is a better starter caster now; he's strong but pretty straight forwards, with great buffs and crazy threat range on his jacks. Guess I need to get mine painted up.

Still, Attila seemed to enjoy it, and didn't seem to have any trouble with the rules (other than both of us forgetting about Vengeful...). It was fun to play some Warmachine, it's been a while. As much as I love the game, it has no local presence and I don't really want to try to push it. I was trying to bring people into Monsterpocalypse, but that game is pretty much dead right now, at least in terms of support. As is Warcaster. People seem to be enjoying 40K and related GW games, at this point I don't think I'd be doing them any favours trying to get them into other games. So maybe I should be playing more Killteam...

Orsus The Barbarian

I've never loved Butcher's models, even though there's plenty of reasons to put him on the table. I thought Wolf by Hasslefree Miniatures, with his bald head and comically exaggerated musculature, made a suitable proxy - especially for the bare-chested Butcher 4.

Butcher:
I replaced the model's sword with Butcher's axe, which I ordered from the PP webstore back when they had their bits ordering service (I miss that). I made a shaft by wrapping green stuff around a brass tube and then using Green Stuff World's "Roll Maker" to texture it. I sculpted a Khador anvil over his original necklace, and put him on a Dark Age Groundwerks Ice Explosion clear resin base topper (that was glued on to a base that had already been primed white, and might have been painted light blue, idr).

I masked off the base using Talens Liquid Masking Film and primed the model with Tamiya Fine Surface Primer L (light grey), and old rattle can primer I still have lying around. I airbrushed a basecoat of Master Series Paint 09225 Redstone Highlight. I then sprayed on P3 Rucksack Tan down from about 60 degrees, then Vallejo 71.132 Model Air Aged White from about 30 degrees.

I basecoated just about everything other than the skin and steel with Green Stuff World 1832 Redwood Brown, then went over the brass with Citadel Layer Gehenna's Gold and the bronze in Citadel Colour Tin Bitz. I picked out the belt and straps in Citadel Layer Skrag Brown, and the fur in Vallejo 71.132 Model Air Aged White. I went over the "inner" parts of the leather with Redstone Highlight. The axe blade was basecoated with Vallejo 72.054 Game Color Gunmetal.

I wasn't happy with the skin colour at this point as it was looking too pale, a little like a corpse. So I tried to darken it a bit and add some colour back by glazing skin with a mix of Citadel Washes Ogryn Flesh, Vallejo 73.596 Glaze Medium, and water.

It looked better, but wasn't there yet. I removed the masking layer from the base and cleaning up my basecoats. I was having an issue with the axe head coming loose from the base, so after gluing it in place again I used some UV resin around the edge to build up the base around the blade and make it look like it was embedded in the ice slightly, better anchoring it in place. With the basecoats done, I carefully applied Army Painter Quickshade Strong Tone to the whole model, holding the model upside down to stop the quickshade from reaching the base. Oly after I had covered the model then removed most of the excess, and it was starting get less runny, did I turn it right side up. I worked it a bit more right-side-up to avoid excessive pooling. The quickshade added some extra shading and also improved the skin tone.

I washed the brass areas with The Army Painter WP1469 Quickshade Washes Mid Brown (closest one I've found to Ogryn flesh, because my Ogryn Flesh is old and has become too thick). I drybrushed the bronze with Scalecolor SC-72 Viking Gold; the result was a bit subtle, perhaps copper or steel might have worked better? Or maybe the gloss coat was interfering with the drybrush effect. I edge highlighted the brass with P3 Solid Gold. I tried thinning it with Vallejo 70.524 Thinner Medium, but that made it hard to use - it flowed too easily, going where I didn't want it, and was harder to build up the colour. Using it neat seemed better for edge highlighting. I washed the steel axe blade with The Army Painter WP1136 Quickshade Washes Dark Tone and gave it a rought scratchy edge highlight with Vallejo 72.052 Game Color Silver.

I highlighted the dark leather with Redstone Highlight, and the "inner" leather with with about a 1:1 mix of Redstone Hightlight to Rucksack Tan. The belt was highlighted with Formula P3 Bogrin Brown. By the time I had washed and highlighted everything, the browns had blended together more than I had intended. Oh well, that's fine; I think the different colours still come through a little, creating some subtle variety.

The fur (and the straps in the middle of the fur) were washed with Citadel Shade Agrax Earthshade. I drybrushed the fur with Formula P3 Menoth White Highlight. It felt like some other colours (blue, brown) were being pulled off the drybrush; even though I hadn't used it in months and I had tried to wash it last time I put it away? I tried washing the brush in Pebeo brush cleaner, and indeed it blue colour kept coming out. I wasn't going to go back and try to repaint it now, luckily it's a just a couple of small spots that are hard to see, so it doesn't bother me much.

I had actually painted the eyes before the quickshade, but the whites were darkened too much so I redid them. First I filled in the whites with Formula P3 Menoth White Highlight, then cleaned up the shadows above the eyes with Redstone Highlight mixed with Army Painter Quickshade Mid Brown. I dotted the eyes using a Copic Multiliner SP 0.03. I tried to add colour by running Amsterdam Acrylic Ink 517 King's Blue through an Isomars Technoart 0.1 technical pen. But the ink was too flowy and kept flooding the eyes. The 0.1 nib size was the smallest I could get, I might have been able to get away with it if I could get the ink/paint consistency to go through the pen without flooding the surface, but that would be very difficult so I gave up. I pulled out a loupe and went over the eyes with Vallejo black and Army Painter Warpaints Electric Blue, thinned with Vallejo glaze medium, through my thinnest brushes, trying to get an iris and pupil. After multiple attempts due to constant mistakes, I basically gave up. I painted dark lines around the eyes with Green Stuff World 2832 Acrylic Color Choco Brown. They look rather crappy in closeup photos, but good enough in person.

I blocked in skin highlights with a mix of 2:1 Aged White:Rucksack Tan. I thinned this with a touch of Vallejo Thinner Medium, but I can't say I liked the consistency; it was runny but didn't go down thin? I don't know, it just didn't work the way I wanted. I then heavily thinned the mix with P3 Mixing Medium and water; it was somethign like 2 drops of Tan, 4~5 drops Aged White, 12 drops medium, and about 6 drops of water. I used this to smooth out the skin highlights by building up gradients from the shadows.

After picking out the base rim in Vallejo 70.950 Model Color Black, I sprayed the whole model with Mr. Hobby Mr. Color GX 112 UV-Cut Gloss varnish, which would serve as my primer for the ice base topper. After leaving this for a day to fully dry, I washed the ice with Vallejo 73.207 Game Wash Blue Wash. This flowed and pooled more than I expected, likely because of the smooth glossy surface, but that was fine - in fact after I had drybrushed it with Formula P3 Morrow White, I think it looked even better than my previous ice bases.

Unfortunately some of the blue wash had gotten onto the black base rim, so I actually ended up painting the entire base rim black again before airbrushing on the final varnish of Mr. Hobby Mr. Color GX 113 UV-Cut Flat. I used an Isomars TechnOart 0.4mm pen with Dr. Ph. Martin's Pen-White to write the date on the bottom of the base. This worked quite well, I think technical pens have a lot of potential for use on miniatures and I intend to experiment more in the future. I did actually go back and brush a little Citadel Technical 'Ardcoat gloss varnish onto the eyes, but that was long after taking the photos and I don't think it actually improved the model.


I had a surprising amount of difficulty making colour choices on this model. The whole thing basically needed to be different shades of brown, and being mostly very natural materials was more limiting than models that are dyed cloth, painted armour, and various metals. The skin is still not great, being more yellowish than I had intended, and arguably paler than you would expect a near-naked barbarian to look. But at least it looks human, unlike how he started. I feel like I need to invest in more skin tones - although I don't have too many models with lots of skin planned for the near future.

Butcher Gonna Getcha

I got to play some more Warmachine with Speedy. This time we decided to try Clashmachine.

Game 1:
I've been a little tired of Strakhov and kinda wanted to run a list that could hit a little harder. I settled on Butcher 2: since the massive update a while back I've been interested in giving him another try. He brings a bit of speed, a bit of armour-cracking, and I feel he has some fun rules. I stuck with the Wolves of Winter theme. I brought a Spriggan for the 2" reach: not only would that help compensate for my lower threat ranges, it would also make the most of the Ravager spell. A Berserker was a cheap way to fill points, and with Boundless Charge and Fury would make a good opener to start the piece trade. The Adjunct was a must considering Butcher's... "Focus situation". The Koldun Lord along with the Forge Seer would also help with Focus. Nyss Hunters with Valachev can hit hard with Fury. Action Saxxon is a fairly survivable Stealth solo for scoring, and being able to hand out Pathfinder would let the Doomereavers charge and still ignore Tough, or potentially allow Butcher to go in without needing to spend Focus on Boundless Charge.
[Theme] Wolves of Winter
[Butcher 2] Kommander Orsus Zoktavir [+28]
- Berserker [8]
- Juggernaut [13]
- Spriggan [17]
- Greylord Adjunct [3]
Greylord Forge Seer [0(4)]
Koldun Lord [3]
Saxon Orrik [4]
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (max) [16]
- Koldun Kapitan Valachev [0(4)]
Doom Reaver Swordsmen [10]
- Greylord Escort [3]

Speedy was running Amon with a jackspam list:
[Theme] Exemplar Interdiction
[Amon 1] High Allegiant Amon Ad-Raza [+29]
- Crusader [10]
- Dervish [7]
- Devout [7]
- Devout [7]
- Reckoner [14]
- Repenter [7]
- Hierophant [2]
Scrutator Potentate Severius [0(5)]
- Fire of Salvation [13]
Vassal Mechanik [1]
Vassal Mechanik [1]
Vassal of Menoth [0(2)]
Vassal of Menoth [0(2)]
Choir of Menoth (min) [4]
Choir of Menoth (max) [6]


Pre-Game:
This was our first time playing clashmachine, and man: I do not have enough terrain, or objective markers, for this game. Luckily we rolled mission 1, and between the two of us managed to scround up enough zone markers and terrain... more or less. Speedy won the roll and chose the side of the table with less forests.


Deployment:
I deployed my Nyss Hunters on the side with the forests. Butcher and the Juggernaut went on my left, towards the wall, with the Berserker and Spriggan central, behind the pool. My Greylord solos were farther left, positioned to go for the left zones. Speedy positioned his battlegroup centrally, with a Choir on each side, and Sevvy on my right. I put Action Saxxon on the zone on my right, with the Doomreavers in a line across the center in order to threaten the central zone.
Round 1:
I threw BC on the Spriggan and the Berserker, the latter of whom also received Fury. This allowed them to charge over the pool in their path. The Doomreavers stepped into the zone, claiming it for the MothaARGHARGHAAARGH! Sorry, they can be a little incoherent at times. The Koldun Lord pushed up to be able to cast Frostbite on stuff. The Nyss Hunters spread out on my right. Amon cast Mobility and walked 8" to touch the zone. The rest of his army moved up cautiously.


Round 2:
I believe I rolled 7 Focus on Butcher. I filled up the Spriggan. He trampled forwards to be within 10" of the closer Devout, hitting him with a boosted Flare grenade and tagging Amon as well, dropping his DEF to 14. This allowed the Koldun Lord to advance and hit Amon with Frostbite, dropping his ARM to 12. The Nyss Hunters tried to aim and Zephyr up to shoot at Amon, but in all the clutter on the table I forgot about the forest blocking LOS so they did literally nothing. Finally the Doomreavers charged Amon (with Pathfinder from Saxxon), with the first one dying to the Devout's Defensive Strike. Thanks to the lowered DEF I was able to land my attacks, and the second crazed swordsman cranked his damage roll. With the Escort blocking Tough, Amon was toast.

Game 2:
We decided there was no need to change anything for the second game. I won the roll and chose to go first, Speedy stuck with the same side of the table.


Deployment:
I tried switching things around this time, putting the Nyss on my left and Butcher on the right. Speedy again put his battlegroup in the center and units on the sides, but this time had Sevvy more central so it would be easier to use his buff aura. I put my Doomreavers on my right this time.
Round 1:
I pushed forwards again, spreading my infantry out and getting my jacks as far fowards as they could go. I ran the Adjunct behind the forest on the right "for safety", which was stupid because he wanted to stay near the Nyss Hunters and Koldun Lord on the left. Speedy was a little more conservative with Amon this time. The Repenter was able to kill one Doomreaver and leave another kocked down and on fire. The Reckoner shot down the Greylord Escort.
Round 2:
I really didn't know what to do here; I figured my best bet was to try to get a lead on scoring. The burning Doomreaver died, but the other 4 managed to kill the Dervish and get some damage onto the Repenter. The Nyss Hunters spread out and ran to engage the jacks on the left, just to keep them busy. I moved the Spriggan into the zone, keeping out of the Crusader's threat range but within range of the Devouts. I thought about putting the Berserker there instead, but I figured that, even with some buffs, the P+S 13 Devouts probably wouldn't wreck the Spriggan. Butcher toed into Saxxon's zone, allowing him to touch the back of the next one. I ran the Adjunct into the Koldun Lord's command range, allowing the Koldun Lord to cloud himself. The Forgeseer hid behind the cloud. Fire of Salvation killed the engaging Nyss Hunter then used Road to War to walk over and kill the other contesting his zone. The Crusader killed the two in his face. The Repentor and Reckoner finished off my Doomreavers. The two Devouts charged the Spriggan; at P+S 17 they were doing respectable damage and almost certainly would have destroyed him if Amon had been able to actually spare focus to fuel them; as it was he was left with about 10 boxes that very fortunately included the arms and cortex. For some reason Amon advanced much farther than he needed to. At the end of the turn Speedy scored 3 points and I scored 5.
Round 3:
Well, my Juggernaut had a clear path to Amon, so I just needed to figure out how to get him there with as many buffs as possible. Butcher <sarcasm>helpfully</sarcasm> chose this turn to roll minimum Focus. Last turn I had run the Adjunct away from Butcher, so I had to drop Fury to save Focus. I actually got a little flustered and made a lot of mistakes this turn; I don't even remember some of my activations. First I shuffled the Spriggan around a bit to create a window for Butcher to see the left Devout. This earned the Spriggan two Defensive Strikes, but at P+S 14 they bounced off harmlessly. I think I tried to flare Amon with a boosted Grenade and missed, but I don't remember for sure. I had intended to use the Spriggan's melee attacks against the Devouts, but somehow forgot. The Berserker walked up to the left Devout and hit him twice for good damage, leaving him with just a few boxes left. The Berserker still had his Power-up focus so he could have attacked again, but there was a chance of killing the Devout so I ended his activation there. Butcher could not see the Devout so he couldn't charge, meaning he needed Pathfinder from Saxxon. Luckily Butcher was just in walking threat range. So he walked up, popped Feat, and killed the Devout, triggering Conferred Rage and allowing him to cast Boundless Charge and pass a Rage token onto the Juggernaut. Butcher stepped back an inch, toeing the zone. The Koldun Lord and Forge Seer then Empowered the Juggernaut up to the full 3 Focus. I tried to aim with the Nyss Hunters again, but once again I somehow missed the forest and just gave up on them, ending their activation without doing anything.

With all the help I could give him, the Juggernaut - now at MAT 9 and able to charge 11" for free, with 3 Focus and a Rage token - charged into Amon, and immediately rolled Snake Eyes on his charge attack. The fist attack missed as well. The first bought attack rolled a crit and left Amon Stationary. The second bought attack burned through the last of Amon's focus, and the third Boxed him... but he passed his Tough roll. Fortunately I still had the single Fury token, which allowed me to buy one more attack... that Amon Toughed through. Searching the table, I found the one model I had left to activate: the Greylord Adjunct. He advanced as far as he could towards Amon... then I read his card and realised his only offensive spell was an 8" spray, and he was just over 8" away. With the turn over I scored 4 points, bringing me to 9, and Speedy scored 3, bringing him to 6. Amon shook the Stationary and retreated. The Reckoner killed my Juggernaut and the Crusader kill the Adjunct and the Berserker. The remaining Devout bounced off the Spriggan again. Sevvy stood his ground, but the Repenter moved in front of him. Fire of Salvation trampled over my Nyss, killing most of them, including Valachev and Cylena. The Vassal Mechanic moved up to contest the zone that Saxxon had been controlling. At the end of the turn I scored 2 points, bringing me to 11, and Speedy scored 4, bringing him to 10.


Round 4:
My only chance now was to try The Move. Butcher started with 5 Focus this turn, which was not bad. I couldn't get the Forgeseer into range to Empower the Spriggan, so I just had to make do with the 1 Focus. The Spriggan bulldozed the Devout back and moved around him to be in shield-range of the Reckoner, easily shrugging off another Defensive Strike from the Devout. He then fired his Flare grenades at the Heirophant who was standing next to Amon. The first unboosted attack scattered off harmlessly, but the second boosted Flare hit, lighting up the Heirophant, a Choirboy, and Ammon. The Heirophant survived but the Choirboy didn't, and what's more I rolled boxcars on the damage roll against Amon! Speedy momentarily forgot that he had focus on Amon and instead rolled the Tough roll... turns out Amon was still Tough. Well, I guess that's some saved Focus anyway. The Spriggan then used his two initials to do serious damage to the Repenter. Saxxon then fired at Amon but also failed to finish him off. The Koldun Lord moved across and cast Puppet Master on Butcher. Finally it was Butcher's turn. Casting Boundless Charge on himself, he charged the Repenter, moving as far towards Amon as he could (which was a little short of his full movement). His initial attack destroyed the Repenter, and his Berserk attack killed Sevvy. That allowed him to move an inch and cast Eliminator on the Flared Heirophant. I boosted the attack roll and hit; I think I boosted the damage roll too, which was enough to kill. The blast damage was not enough to force another Tough roll on Amon, and what's worse Amon was just over 4" away from Butcher at this point so the 2" move from Eliminator was not enough to reach him. If only the Spriggan's grenade hadn't killed the Choirboy I might have been able to kill him for the extra movement. Luckily though, a Vassal near Amon was just within 4" allowing Butcher to get into melee with him. I bought an attack and killed him; this allowed Butcher to move an inch, more than enough to engage Amon. The Berserk attack hit, and Amon finally reached his limit.
Post-Mortem:
Good grief, that last hail-Mary was tense! My dice were solid though, consistently rolling well for that whole sequence. Man, that wall of fast hard-hitting jacks was pretty overwhelming; I felt at a disadvantage the whole time. If it wasn't for Speedy pushing Amon too far up on order to keep everything in Synergy range, I don't see how I could have won - at least not considering how many mistakes I was making. I could not figure out what to do with my Greylord solos; there was just too much on the table and I ended up spreading things out and losing out on the chance to put buffs where I needed them. I think a big part of the problem was that there was just too much on the table; too much terrain, too many zones, and of course a bunch of dangerous jacks. But I had always expected to have to use Butcher himself to win, so I was always on the lookout for ways to get him into Amon, and in the end I found it. It was dicey as hell though! I could hardly believe Butcher managed to pull it off!

I wasn't sure about the Spriggan or Saxxon, and almost didn't include them in my list; it's hard to bring a Spriggan over Ruin after all. But the Spriggan's Flare, and even Bulldoze, proved to be extremely useful; there was nothing Ruin would have done in those games that was better than what the Spriggan did. And even though most of my killy warrior models already had access to Pathfinder, somehow Saxxon handing it out to the Doomreavers and Butcher was still huge.

I think Speedy overestimated Amon's survivability, although that was his first time playing against the new Spriggan, and the combination of Bulldoze and Dual Attack can be hard to account for. Without the Flare I'm not sure the Doomreavers could have sealed the deal in the first game; the Koldun Lord would have missed without it, and I think the first two Doomreaver attacks would have too - needing 9s to hit is a lot worse than needing 7s.

That was a good game, it got pretty intense by the end. I feel like that second game illustrates what I like about Warmachine: there's different paths to victory, and even if you're behind there's always a chance you can find a way for your pieces to work together to get you the win.