So I May Have a Problem

When I bought the Deadzone starter box, I was drawn to two things. First, I had been looking for sci-fi based skirmish game for a long time. 40K Kill Team didn't quite fit the bill, as it was still a game of using the incredibly nonsensical system of special rules of whatever 40K codex the armies came out of. Like Mordheim, the rules for Deadzone are all in one book, which helps in learning the gameas you are not conastantly moving from book to book to look up rules. Expansions can be added or not, and you can make an effective strike team out of a single box of troops. For example, having never played a game, I was able to make a strike team out of the starter box that I took to a tournament and went 2-2.
 2) Space Dwarves are awesome, at least these are. They don't have the comic look that Squats did, as did so many models of that 40K generation, and the designs are fairly clean and well thought out.

So here we get to the problem. A week ago I decided to go to that tournament. I had five models assembled, so I drew up a strike team using those five models as a base and was able to fit in one more model, which I assembled that day as well. I based them Tuesday, and began painting Wednesday so I could have them painted enough so I wouldn't embarrass myself on Saturday.

Saturday evening and parts of sunday were spent binge watching Daredevil and assembling more Deadzone minis. I've assembled the rest of the boxed set, including terrain, and half of the Forge fathers faction starter as well, along with a couple of Merc models I picked up as swag at the tournament. I've also base coated the Enforcer models that came in the boxed set. Yeah I may have a problem.

Mantic Comes Through Again.

I went to a local Deadzone tournament today and I think I'm a fan of the game. I like the way the turns work with the players taking turns activating a model at a time. It keeps a first turn alpha strike from essentially ending the game before the other player even gets to play. I also am a fan of the command dice which throw a little curve into the game and add a slight bit more to the plate than standard turn by turn action.

What I think I really like is that the game has a feel similar to Mordheim, which was, by far, my favorite GW game. My entire strike force at 150 points consisted of six models. My last opponent only had five in his strike force. All in all, the game's a winner.

As it was, the forces of the Star Leaue, (know in common circles as the Forge Fathers) stood at:
Steel Warrior Huscarl
3 Steel Warrots
Storm Rage Veterans with a  missile launcher
Storm Rage Veterans with a flamer

Game one saw the good Space Drawfs get shellacked 16-0 by a Rebel force. I hadn't played a game yet, so I learned some harsh lessons in that first beating. 1) Teraton's suck. They can teleport into combat and mess you right up. Two of them mess you up even worse. 2) Command dice are vital. re-rolling the ones you KNOW you will not use is also vital. 3) Space drarves shoot better than they fight. Really. 4) Movement and managing it is important as well. 5) Lots of terrain is key. This game changes dramatically if he doesn't have enough cover to get to me without having to run across an open board.

Game two saw the Forge Fathers square off against the Enforcers of the Council of Seven. I improved to a 9-16 loss, but again learned some valuable lessons. 1) Elevation makes a difference. 2) Use of cover makes a bigger difference. 3) Objective are important, but eliminating the other side's ability to do damage is more important. I nabbed the major objective, but I left myself in position to get shot off the table getting it.

Game three was against the space rats, AKA Veer-myn. I put the last games lesson to good use and set up fire lanes completely covering my opponent's objective, which was a great plan. However, he used his big nasty HTH beasts to jump my closest models to that objective. Fortunate dice rolls not only allowed me to survive that rush, but to take out the two big nasties as well. He nabbed the VP for the objective by nabbing it and getting it off the table, but I won the VPs by wiping out the rest of his strike force while only taking one casualty. Final score was 18-9.

Game four was against an apparently renegade faction of Forge Fathers. I mean, clearly the RED ones are the good guys and the BLUE ones are the bad guys. This game was quick and bloody. We essentially traded off killing models. Fortunately I had six models to his five. The game literally came down to one model from each side that was already wounded. I happened to go first and killed his last model before he got mine. Final score was 15-12.

If you've ready anything on this blog before, you know that painted armies  (strike teams) are important to me. I won't begrudge unpainted models a a small shop tournament, but it was nice to play my last two games against armies that looked to be fully painted, though the Veer-myn player insisted he had more work to do. For that matter, my six models need some touching up as well.

While I'm not sure I'd want paint and such to be such a major factor as it is at big GT's, I'd like to see having a fully painted force factor in a little bit. Then again, I started miniature tournaments when fully painted was required to enter.

Trying Something New

After the frenzy of Getting an army ready for Bayou Battles, I'm ready for a change of pace.  With that in mind, I decided to try to paint some Forge Fathers from the Deadzone boxed set. First, I based them in black with Valejo primer using the airbrush. My experience has told me to let that stuff set overnight for best results. Iwanted a gunmetal finish, and had a bottle of Model Masters Gun Metal Buffing Metalizer specifically formulated for airbrushing. I wanted to test it out first, so I tried it on a couple of Age of Sigmar minis.

I liked the result, so I went ahead and sprayed the Forge Father minis; a Steel Warrior Huscarl, three Steel Warriors, and two Stormrage Veterans.

They came out brighter than I expected, and testing the dark wash on the AoS minis was a bust so I went with dry brushing the crew. This is about the time that I discovered what a pain the Model Masters paint is to get out of the airbrush. (Won't be doing that too much more.) That was also about the time I discovered what a "Buffing Metalizer" was. Apparently you are supposed to buff the paint when it's dry. The act of dry brushing changed the effect on the metal. I kind of like it. 

Above we see a little detail added. Who knew the space dwarves were wearing pants? It wasn't until I started dry-brushing the metal bits that I noticed that their leg armor doesn't cover their pants entirely.

Above is a little more detail added. Texture to the bases and a touch of Chestnut Ink added to the beards. (Yes I still have a tiny bit of a bottle of  Chestnut Ink.) Overall, the bases blend too well with the dark metal armor. I need to do something to differentiate the two.

Bayou Battles reflection

So Bayou Battle XIII has come and gone. Despite being the army I've played the longest, my orcs were finally done Thursday night. Below is what the creaming horde looked like.

What you see above is:

a Krudger on a winged slasher

a Flaggit with the Diadem of Dragonkind

two Godspeakers

two Gore Rider regiments

two hords of Trolls

two Morax regiments

a Greatax horde with the Brew of Haste

and a Wardrum

Results varied. 

In game one I came up against shooty ogres. This was the only game all weekend where I didn't feel I even had a chance. He shot up the units with longer range than his and charged the ones that didn't once they got in range. With no shooting to speak of, I couldn't do much. Big win for him.

In game two I came up against an ogre list designed to make me come across the board at me. Terrain and disrupted charges let me soak up a couple of charges I othewise wouldn't have and I was able to cave in both flanks. Medium sized win for me.

Game three was against a really great guy with his Empire of Dust. His shooting dice hated him. He missed with 16 of 17 shots with his three catapults, and the one he hit he retracted because he realized afterward that he was shooting at an individual and should have been minus one. It was a great game, but timely break test rolls on his part changed it from a very close game that I was probably losing to a blowout for him in turn six. This was probably my favorite game of the weekend and got my my second best game vote.

After game three I was done and ready for dinner. I forgot there was four games on day one. So when pairings were posted I was not really into the game or ready to play. I drew an Orc list that was pretty but had some questionable choices that should have been easy for me to exploit. I was able to lose the game pretty much on deployment. I deployed like I was facing a shooting army, not a face bashing one and paid for it. Big loss on my part.

After day one, I was about as down on the game as I ever was on WFB. I had 26 battle points in four games. My last game should have been fun, but I just wasn't into it. Food helped, and Sunday would be a better day. 

Then there was the Giant Bash. It was a rather toned down affair as far as Giant Bashes go, as we had a couple of younger players with us. I managed to be the last giant standing with a total of 1 wound left at the end and won a Darklands Scecchus, Servile Fiend of Dis, made by Mierce Miniatures. I suspect I know where that bit of prize support came from, and if you're reading this and responsible, thanks. 

On day two, I was determined to have a better time, win, lose or draw. For game five, a scenario that involved only taking loot and getting off the board with it or holding on to it until the end of the game, I made another deployment error and let my opponents Salamanders grab three of the five objectives in turn one. I grabbed the other two on my half of the turn and then he dumped his tokens back and let a skink (or KoW equivalent) unit grab them up and head for the board edge. It very nearly worked, but on turn five I was able to make a rear charge with the Krudger and grab the tokes back. So that one went from a close loss to a complete win in the space of one turn. If I'd failed to rout the skinks, they run off the table edge on turn six. This one got my best game vote, which was a tough choice. I ended up giving this one the nod because it really game down to a single charge. I rout them, I win. I don't, and he wins.

Game six was my first game against an Undead army. I expected this one to go badly for me, but the units on my flanks out-punched the units on his flanks and my big horde in the middle out-punched his. He failed three consecutive rolls for Bane-Chant to attack one of my units with one of his. I got so disgusted that I used one of my re-rolls to make him re-roll one of his dice on the third one, which he passed, letting him wipe out that unit. (Maybe too much altruism, but If he fails that again, the game gets even uglier and more lopsided than it ended up being in the end. As it was he had only his general and the scenario dragon left at the end of turn six, and I lost a unit of Gore Riders. No one got any bonus points.

So I got 26 battle points in four games on day one and 36 in two games on day two, for a total of 56. I'm pretty happy. I finished in 21st of 48 player, for the best big tournament finish yet.  I'm not sure, but I think this may be the first GT I've finished in the top half.  The big takeaway, now that I think about it, is that in six games, there was not a single unpainted model on the table. First time ever for a ft for me.

Now my big worry is getting more practice painting so I'll feel worthy of painting a beautiful model like Scecchus.

One Down...

Orc Boar Boyz Gore Riders

So my first multi-based unit for KoW is mostly done. I've got a couple more to go for Bayou Battles. I may, at some point, add shields to the ones who don't already have them. I may not. The guy with the shield in the center was intended to be a Krudger mounted on a winged slasher, but the spear didn't work with the mount, so he became part of a gore rider unit.

Odd Coincidence

I often use a movie as background noise while painting. It is an odd bit of coincidence that the movie I chose while painting the boars from the orc boar riders was The Advocate, which in the UK was released as The Hour of the Pig.  It turned out to be a bad choice as I kept stopping painting to watch the movie. It's been a while since I'd seen it.

Krudger on a Winged Slasher

Still needs some work, but here he is, my Krudger on a Winged Slasher. He just looks like a Warboss on a red dragon.

Restraint? The Hell You Say!

So my preorder Deadzone box came yesterday. The urge to jump in, dig out the new models and begin painting them is powerful. However, I still need three units painted for my Orcs for Bayou Battles. I also need to multi base those three units as well as some repairs to another unit. 

Any bets on how long I make it? I've opened  he box to make sure everything is there and that is it. 

Of course, I could totally play a game or two using Space Marines I already have as Enforcers...

Can't Leave Well Enough Alone.

I have the models to make a completely painted army for Bayou Battles without painting a single model. I really do. However that's not the army I want to play. I still want it to be orcs, with troll and savage/morax regiments as the bulk, but I want some cavalry, and not goblin cavalry, which means painting. And I really like how the krudger on the winged slasher played, so I need to paint that. And I need to finish up the war drum, because its pretty awesome too.

At least I can get into some looking multi-basing with the gore riders since the models I have don't rank up well at all.And you know, I've got enough savages to completely redo those units as well...

Things you find in the closet...

In September of 2013 I made a 2 1/2 gallon batch of cherry melomel (cherry mead). I bottled it in May of 2014 on the day a friend walked the stage to receive his BFA, so I named it in honor of him, Scholar's Robe. It turned out pretty good. I used clover honey, 100% cherry concentrate I picked up at a hippie grocery, and a yeast called Assmanschausen (sp). I cannot recommend that yeast highly enough, as it makes an amazing mead, and this one was no exception. It was nice and sweet; best served chilled.

I ran out of the stuff far quicker than I thought I should have, and by 2015, there was not another bottle of it in the house, or so I thought. Last month I found six bottles squirreled away in a closet. Two were consumed for testing, one gifted to the friend's wife who missed out when we were drinking most of the batch as she was pregnant at the time, and one gifted to an SCA queen on the day she chose her champion. There are now two left, and one is spoken for. How long can that last bottle make it? I'm not betting on it making it very long.

Bitten by the bug again

As usually happens, I lose interest in building and painting minis, then I go to a tournament, be it six players or 60, and suddenly I'm all fired up. In the past, it's always been seeing all the fantastic, armies that other players bring. Even at the local tournaments, some beautiful armies show up and make me want to improve my own.

Last weekend there was a local tournament with only six players, and only one fully painted army. Two of the three armies I played had little to no paint at all. I even broke my own personal rule of not putting unpainted models on the table because I wanted to see how the winged slasher worked out in play.

It took me until today to realize why I suddenly felt so enthused. It was the game itself. I started seeing places I could improve my army that I already have the models for; they just need painting. I then realized I have the models for a rather large orc army, a significant elf army, and also a decent sized goblin army. They all need painting. So much painting to do.

What started as, "All I need for Bayou Battles is to finish up the dragon and the war drum, became, "Well, I could use my black orcs as a greatax regiment, but some of them have shields and some have two weapons, but I have more black orcs with two handed weapons to replace those, they just need painting." It then became, "You know, I probably have enough two-hand black orcs to just replace the unit, and then I could multi-base them and that could look really cool."

As for the tournament itself, taking third out of six was fun. I rarely finish in the top half of these things. Knowing the tiebreaker for second came down to the 210 point head to head loss in round one was nice to know. What was great was knowing how close my games all were. A 210 point loss, a 500 point win, and a game that on paper looks like it was a blowout win for me actually turned in my favor on the last throw of the dice in the bottom of turn seven where I had to roll nine or more to get the win and rolled exactly nine on the both first roll and the re-roll.

The point is not that I played well and won two of three. The point was that each game was fun and while one game turned on a single die roll, in reality, the biggest factor in each game was decisions I or my opponents made. In that final game, I don't crush his flank if he doesn't make a mistake in allowing my trolls to flank one of his units in turn two. If I don't make a similar mistake in turn five, I win the game without needing a crazy die roll at the end.

What it comes down to is that win or lose, I like this game. So far, I have felt out of my depth against certain players who are simply better at the game than me, but I haven't felt like I have won or lost a game due to special rules or one army simply being over-powered or under-powered compared to the rest of the armies.

A mild bit of inspiration...

So there's a KOW event at a nearby shop this weekend. I have enough models to bring a fully painted Orc and Goblin army, but of course there are some models I want to play that are not painted. I'm limiting myself to only two models to get done by Saturday. Should be easy, right?

Well one of them is an orc general on a black dragon and the other is a kit-bashed war drum made from a skaven war machine of some kind.

No photos yet but I did get them based last night.

Note to those with an airbrush: when cleaning your airbrush, don't set the compressor on the bathroom counter. It will vibrate right the hell off the counter. The compressor is fine, but the moisture trap and regulator need to be replaced