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.

Spriggan: The Untold Story

"When Queen Ayn Vanar ordered the Mechaniks Assembly to give her a warjack that would turn the tide of the Motherland's ongoing border wars, they provided her with the Spriggan." - Forces of Warmachine: Khador

MECHANIK:	"Your royal highness, for years the Khadoran military has relied on the iconic Juggernaut, with its powerful MAT7 POW19 axe, and the humble yet beloved Destroyer, with its simple yet effect RNG14 POW14 AOE3 bombard cannon. Well, I am proud to present to you our latest and greatest creation, the mighty Spriggan!" "With its MAT6 POW18 lance it is less accurate and not as hard hitting as the Juggernaut. But it has two guns; not giant cannons that take advantage of the size and weight of the platform, but tiny little RNG10 POW10 AOE2 guns that could easily be carried by infantrymen. Also at ARM19 it has less armour than the ARM20 Juggernaut chassis - but we gave it a shield. Of course it's a POW14 shield that is much worse than the POW16 shield the Devastator chassis the Spriggan was built on is already equiped with. Oh, and the whole thing costs 50% more to manufacture than the Juggernaut." "As I'm sure you've realised by now, I am a Cygnaran agent who has infiltrated the Mechaniks Assembly in order to sabotage your production of war materials. I'm sure you will execute me now for wasting so much time and money on this nonsensical design, but I proudly sacrifice my life for my..."
QUEEN VANAR:	"IT'S AMAZING! PUT IT INTO MASS PRODUCTION RIGHT NOW!"
MECHANIK:	"Wait, wat?"

Fin.

---

I believe that a model's rules should be consistent with the model's story. A knight in shining armour should have a higher ARM value than a peasant in rags, and a sniper with a scoped rifle should have more range than a guy with a bandolier of throwing knives. So for me the Spriggan's strangely compromised stats are at odds with the fluff that served as its introduction.

Back in Mk2 it had the same MAT as a Juggernaut, and I could accept the lower POW on the lance as a tradeoff for the lance's longer range - even though other armies had warjacks that did not make this tradeoff, with expensive elite warjacks having straight-up better melee stats than the cheap beaters (for example the Mk2 Ironclad with its MAT7 RNG0.5 P+S18 hammer compared to the Stormclad with its MAT7 RNG2 P+S19 sword), and Khador even had an elite warjack with the weapon range of the Spriggan and the power of the Juggernaut in Beast09.

But I never understood the lower base ARM; why build a new Khador warjack (that according to the fluff was like 50% heavier than the existing chassis) with less armour, just to give it a shield? A shield which, despite being described in the fluff as being "heavy enough to deliver a crushing counterattack", is less powerful than an empty fist? I get that, rules-wise, an ARM22 warjack can be seen as a problem. But remember we had ARM25 Devastators at this point, and unlike other factions Khador had no ARM buffs at the time. I'm just saying it doesn't make much sense fluff-wise.

Then in Mk3 the Juggernaut chassis received a MAT upgrade to 7, while the Spriggan stayed at MAT 6 despite being an expensive melee jack (it also received a nerf to the guns, which unlike before - and contrary to the fluff - could now be crippled). Supposedly this was to keep it in line with the Devastator chassis, which also remained at MAT6 and now had a base ARM of 19 (the Spriggan was also buffed with the Devastator chassis' Steady rule, but for some reason not its Sturdy rule).

But why would it need to have the same MAT when it was built for different purposes? According the fluff the Devastator was build to use lower-grade cortices due to Khador's difficulty making high quality cortices, while the Spriggan was specifically designed as an elite warjack to present to Ayn Vanar herself! Also, partway through Mk3 the Berserker chassis, which in the fluff is described as a REALLY old, practically obsolete design that still used ancient cortices that had degraded with time, got upgraded to MAT6. Surely at this point the MUCH newer and more expensive Spriggan should have a MAT7 cortex, if not the entire Devastator chassis (that, remember, had previously had the same MAT as the Juggernaut)?

Then in Mk4 they dropped the base ARM on the Devastator and Demolisher to 18, so the Spriggan is no longer consistent with the chassis anyway! So why not bump it up to MAT7 now? At the same time, PP introduced the new Mk4 Khador warjacks that were ARM20 with access to shields, so ARM20+2 became normal. Yet the poor Spriggan is still stuck at the perplexing ARM19+2 statline that just doesn't make sense fluff-wise. Bear in mind Khador's new Great Bear is ARM20+2 at MAT7 with access to a RNG2 POW19 melee weapon alongside a POW 14 cannon with the pistol rule for the same price or cheaper than the Spriggan, leaving the sad old Spriggan completely outclassed. Hell, the new Avalanche, which is the same cost as the Spriggan and also has a RNG2 lance and a shield, has the Great Bear's MAT7 ARM20+2 statline, but at SPD5!

Yes, the Spriggan has some nice rules on it, but so do the Great Bear and Avalanche. For a while I continued to argue for the Spriggan needing at least a little bit of help; a single extra point of MAT would go a long way. But SGF just released their annual balance update, and it became clear that SFG/PP don't give a damn about classic Khador anymore. So yeah, even I have to admit there isn't even the tiniest grain of hope anymore for the Spriggan's rules making sense in the context of its fluff.

I still love the look of the jack, being one of my personal favourite models in the game, and I still think it's capable on the tabletop with all the utility if brings - if a little expensive and outclassed in several important ways by other options. I just hate that it just always seems to have been short-changed for no apparent reason. Well, that's the way it goes sometimes; some stuff is great, some stuff just does not work on the table the way it's supposed to. Still makes me sad when I think about it though.


--EDIT--
I forgot to mention that the original text seen above specifically says:

"... an impenetrable shield in addition to its tremendous underlying chassis armor".

This is Khador, ARM20 is standard. Yet somehow "tremendous chassis armor" is only ARM19. Like I said, the stats DO NOT match the fluff. Sigh.


--EDIT 2 (30/01/2026)--
In the January 2026 balance patch, the majority of Prime models - including almost every single Khador warjack - lost a point of MAT, or a point of RAT, or both. This includes the Juggernaut and Great Bear chassis. However this did NOT include the Spriggan or clamjacks. So now the Spriggan's MAT6 is the same as the Juggernaut and Great Bear (and ofc it has that +2 MAT on the charge, making it technically slightly more accurate). Which genuinely makes it a lot less painful to add to lists because you're no longer giving up melee accuracy to do so. And of course it makes it less out-of-touch with the fluff, which is a very big deal to me. This single change genuinely made me feel significantly happier about the state of the Spriggan.

Bear in mind that you can now build an ARM20+2 RNG2" POW19 Great Bear for 13 points (and an ARM19+2 SPD5 POW17 Shield Guard Dire Wolf is only 10 points), while the Spriggan is still sitting at 15 points, so it's not like the Spriggan is suddenly amazing or anything, he's still lagging behind in the "Khador jack with a shield" category. But I'm OK with that since:

1. rules-wise those two are Winter Korps so they are not in competition with the Spriggan in list building; the Spriggan has his place in Armies Of Legend,
2. fluff-wise the Great Bear and Dire Wolf are newer and therefore it makes sense for them to be more advanced.

Also the Avalance and Medveditsa (another two Khador ARM20+2 jacks) both went down from SPD5 to SPD4 (alongside the aforementioned loss of a point of MAT each), further reducing the disparity in core stats. So yeah, while the Spriggan is still not in an amazing place and there's still room for improvement, I'm much happier now with where he fits in the game both in terms of balance and in terms of representing the fluff on the table.

Swapping Playstyles

Back in Mk2 I was quite fond of Lady Aiyana and Master Holt. It's a great looking unit, with an elegant decorative style, Holt looks cool with his bladed pistols and his rules and stats lived up to his appearance, while Aiyana's debuff spell was an incredibly powerful tool. But in Mk3 it became much harder to justify taking them outside of a Mercenaries list as the main reason to bring them, the Kiss of Lyliss, became friendly-faction only. Still, I've been thinking about running them lately, and the other day I had an idea. I've been having a hard time getting the most out of the Cutthroat's Prey, and was wondering if it was worth throwing it at a jack early. Then I realised that if I couple it with Kiss and Brittle Frost that becomes functionally POW 16 shooting; against an ARM 18 Cygnar jack, that's doing 5 damage per shot! Couple that with Holt's pistols and that's an average of 35 damage, enough to one-round a Cygnar heavy!

Of course I should take some more quality shooting just to be sure; since I'm pulling out some old models, how about Harlan Versh? He could be very effective if the target jack has an upkeep on it. But that's a lot of delicate pieces I would want to keep alive for multiple turns, so the best Khador caster to run them under would be Strakhov 1. But he'll only protect them for one round, and even then there's ways to ingore Stealth, so I would need some shield-guards. The High Alert card would help, but it wouldn't be enough, so how about Alexia 2 and a unit of Legion of Lost Souls to both stand in front and also catch bullets? Plus that amounts to a +6 damage swing for them, putting them at effectively POW 18!

Obviously I'd need the Blessing card, and I chose Infiltration and Hit & Run for extra defense. Finally I chose Old Faithful over Power Swell, since I was only taking one shooty jack and no repair models. This all sounded like a very silly and janky list that would probably catch someone by surprise and win the first time I run it, then probably never again.
50pts Unlimited Khador
Strakhov 1
-Destroyer
Lady Aiyana and Master Holt
Croe's Cutthroats
Legion of Lost Souls
Alexia 2
Koldun Lord
Ol' Grim
Harlan Versh
*Blessing
*High Alert
*Hit & Run
*Infiltration
*Old Faithful


I told Karas I was running a Strakhov gunline, and he finally succumbed to the urge to run a jackspam list; it's something he's mentioned wanting to do even though he knew it wouldn't work very well.
50pts Cygnar Storm Legion
Huxley1 (Electrify, Jackhammer)
-Courser (Advanced Deployment, Mag-Bolter, Voltaic Punching)
-Stryker (Arcane Precision, Voltaic Javelin, Heavy Mag-Bolter)
-The General
Arcane Mechanics
Sharpshooter
*Blessing
*High Alert
*Infiltration
*Old Faithful
*Sentry Duty


Pre-Game:
We took a quick look at the Battleforge Customs 1.2 scenarios (by Alif Cheng). On a whim I chose the Extraction scenario. I tried to set the table up in a slighly less symmetrical way than I usually do while still having an overall uniform spread; I chose to put some terrain in the very center, but not something that would be too punishing. I don't know why I have such a hard time laying out terrain... Karas won the roll and chose to go second.


Deployment:
I put Strakhov in the center to ensure he could cover my entire army with his feat, but closer to the forest since he likes concealment. Ol' Grim also went close to the forest. The Legion went in the center with all my important units and solos behind them. Karas deployed in a block to my left. My Cutthroats went behind the forest. I declared The General as their Prey target.

Round 1:
I ran everything up. The Legion went as far forwards as possible, while everything else tried to get defensive bonuses. Strakhov cast Assail on the Destroyer, then Feated and ran forwards to cover the entire army.

The General ran to the left objective. Huxley and maybe the Courser shot the right objective, leaving it on a few boxes, then Huxley used Jackhammer to destroy the left objective with The General, giving him a point.

Round 2:
I upkept Assail and allocated one focus to the Destroyer. I started by activating the Koldun Lord, who successfully landed Brittle Frost but did no damage. Aiyana and Holt went next; Aiyana landed the Kiss but Holt rolled low for damage. Next the Cuthroats activated, walking out of the forest and doing a fairly poor job as well. Harlan Versh activated, but without an upkeep on The General he did very little damage. Alexia tried to land a Hellfire (which would have been effectively POW 18) but missed. Ol' Grim tried his hand, and also fell flat on his face, missing one aimed shot and doing very little damage with the other.

Mathematically speaking The General should have been VERY dead by now, but it just wasn't happening. So much for that plan. I activated Strakhov, aimed, and cast Hand of Destruction on The General. I rolled three shots on the Riot Gun, and with damage boosts plus Hand of Destruction killed The General with the second shot. I put the third shot into the Stryker, then... somehow had two focus left? I... must have forgotten to pay for something? Anyway, I cast Convection at the objective but didn't do any damage, then repositioned backwards. I played High Alert on the Destroyer, who walked to within 3" of Strakhov and put a double-boosted Bombard into the Stryker. Finally the Legion of Lost Souls charged the Stryker and cranked their damage rolls, killing it! I scored two points for killing two undamaged jacks.

The Mechanics moved in and shot at the Legion, but only managed to kill one. The Courser hit Strakhov with his armour-piercing gun, but the Destroyer took the shot, taking 9 damage iirc. Huxley then shot Strakhov, doing 8 damage. The Sharpshooter took a shot as well, but missed.

Round 3:
Prey went on the Courser. I dropped Assail but forgot to allocate focus to the Destroyer. The Koldun Lord walked up and landed Brittle Frost on Huxley, but did no damage. Aiyana landed Kiss, but Holt didn't do all that much with his guns. Harlan Versh rolled four shots, missed two, and only did around 3 damage with the ones that connected. This was turning into The General all over again. Eventually, between Ol' Grim, Strakhov (who landed a boosted Hand of Destruction and remembered to use the Infiltration card after activating), the Destroyer (who didn't have any focus for boosting the damage roll), and the Cutthroats, I finally managed to take Huxley down. I think it might have been Croe who got the final shot, doing a single point of damage and also ensuring that Huxley wouldn't have been able to cast any spells next turn. I was planning to have Alexia buff the Legion's damage and walk them in if I couldn't finish Huxley with shooting.

Post-Mortem:
That was a silly but fun game, where we both played lists that felt better suited to each other's factions. I had a janky shooty list and Karas was running very unoptimised jackspam, so he was facing an uphill battle. The mission was a bit of a weird one, I didn't end up liking it; technically I won by points, because caster kill wasn't a win scenario. It's weird though, because I can see situations developing where you would run out of ways to score points and essentially have no way to win; I guess at that point you play to draw, or just conceded? That wouldn't be very satisfying. I need to spend more time looking at scenarios.

I was careless with Strakhov, running him dry; I really need to get used to resisting the temptation to use all my caster focus. It was a bit scary, facing down armour-piercing guns without any focus. In retrospect I could have protected him better; if I had put High Alert on Versh instead of the Destroyer, I could have replaced him with a Thrall with Shield Guard, allowing my to block two shots instead of one. Also I could have stayed within 3" of Old Grim, who benefits from Alexia's aura and thus was also a shield-guard. I kept forgetting to transfer Prey, and also forgot about Volume Fire on Strakhov. Oh well. Karas forgot that the Courser had Advanced Deployment, didn't put out his usual upkeeps, and he might have forgotten about the Eyeless Sight card (I'm not actually sure if he every had a chance to use it). Tournemant-winning players we are not.


Last game I said I was done with Strakhov, but I have to admit I felt as if he worked this game. He did pull his weight when so many models weren't; rolling a lot of Riot Gun shots will do that I suppose. Still, I think it's time to move on. I've had my eye on Butcher2, and recently I've been considering Vlad2 (who on paper looks like he has some similar gameplay elements). Most casters want faction infantry though, so realistically I need to start playing less mercs and get some more Khador stuff ready for the table. Eh, we'll see.

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.