The next rush job; more Menoth painted for Warmachine.

Sean is participating in a Warmachine Journeyman league and had recently moved up to 25 pt. so I agreed to match this. After a little procrastinating I realised I had just three evenings left for painting. To make life easier I decided to use all of the 15 pt. that I had used in the last two games so that left 10 pt. to paint and base. Uh oh!

Long story short, I finished basing my battle group 15 minutes before Sean was due to arrive. Here they are, in all their crimson glory.

 Vassal Mechanic - 1 pt.

 Temple Flameguard UA - 2 pt.

 Temple Flameguard (min) - 4 pt.

I was going to paint another min. unit at the same time but dropped them on the floor... :(

 Choir of Menoth (min) - 2 pt.

(I painted the whole choir...)

Wracks - 1 pt.

Sean arrived, the game took place. Details coming soon...

Club Night - 15 pt. Warmachine refight.

Sean and myself found out that neither Keith nor Dave could make it to the club so we had a change of plan and switched over to Warmachine using exactly the same two forces as in our previous game.

My list - Menoth - 15 pts.

pKreoss
Castigator
2 x Revenger

Sean's list - Cygnar - 15 pts.

Stryker
Ironclad
Lancer
Charger
Black 13th Strike Team

This proved a much quicker game than our previous encounter. We were just that little bit faster with the rules but also managed to get a decisive result in less turns; last time was an attritional grind. I forgot to take photos apart from a couple of shots during turn 2 (3?) and the details are hazy.

Early in the game I moved Kreoss up behind a wall and cast Defender's Ward on him which I think I upkept for most of the game. The Revengers pressed the attack in front of Kreoss while the Castigator moved up the left flank to engage the 13th who ran across to the other flank leaving him stranded. He toasted one but made no other contribution to the game.

All the action was on the other flank. Stryker feated first and did a lot of damage to my Revengers, crippling several systems and leaving one without it's arc node and the other disrupted. This made all the difference when I feated with Kreoss straight after. Both Revengers moved through the huge gaps between the knocked down Cygnar 'jacks to attempt an assasination but neither could charge. If they'd been in any fit state they'd have got the job done but instead they left Stryker on one box!

The mists of time have clouded what happened next. I know a Revenger went down and maybe a Cygnar light  'jack. Stryker really needed to get out of dodge but instead stumbled into Kreoss' line of sight. Focus was duly camped and a boosted Immolation fest saw Stryker incinerated as befits all heretics.

Later I realised I had forgotten the +2 shield bonus for the Revengers for the entire game. This might have made all the difference in Stykrer's feat turn leaving them able to kill him for me in mine.

'Man' of the Match was awarded to the wall that sheltered Kreoss throughout the game.

Song of Blades and Heroes - Game on

Sean came over a few weeks ago for my first 'proper' game of Warmachine but later in the day Keith arrived so we moved on to SoBaH. I'd been itching to give this a go and had had various lists and fully painted warbands sitting on the sidelines for days.

I'd planned a classic Dwarf v. Goblins game. The dwarfs are more powerful, costing more, so were massively outnumbered. Most AAR's I've seen for SoBaH have been between two similar warbands with similar capabilities and they looked like fun games but I can sum up my feelings on how well the rules stood up to a more asymmetric scrap in one word... Disappointing.

Hordes of poor quality troops in SoBaH seem to have no chance against smaller warbands made up of high quality troops. The points system fails to allow for the massive disparity in the abilities of the troops. It was bad enough in the first game we played but once we added Leaders it was ridiculous. The dwarf player just kept shouting, "3 actions!", rarely causing a turn over. The Short movement dwarfs ran rings around the goblins, setting up advantageous fights and slaughtering them. Gruesome Kills happened all the time causing 50%+ of the goblins to flee every time the dwarfs ploughed in. I played a 3rd solo game after the others had left, same results.

I took loads of photos, planning on doing a detailed AAR/batrep but it all seems pointless now as there wasn't really a battle. My enthusiasm for these rules which was riding high has really drained. I'll give them another go with two warbands of similar size/quality but first impressions are that the game engine won't allow me to do what I want to do.

Warmachine Wreck Markers

I really like the Menoth wreck markers for destroyed warjacks but they're expensive for what they are and they're not really a 'playing piece'. Flicking through Ebay the other day I spotted some resin bases for sale with metallic / mechanical debris and figured they were just the job. They arrived Monday and they're the first thing in a long time that I've painted the very day I got them. I only got around to photographing them today though.

Not wrecks as such but it does at least look like a 'jack might have taken a pasting in the vicinity. Each one has been matched to my normal bases and has just enough crimson and white to mark it out as Menoth.