Shocking News

Right, it is done. I officially have enough stuff painted to play Warmachine, specifically my new Cygnar army. So what’s done? Well, first of all I’ve got two warjacks, a Centurion (the big beat stick) and Thorn (the little beat stick). No ranged weapons on these two in a shooty army but we won’t worry about that.

Second up, my warcaster, Commander Adept Nemo and his Squire attachment (to give the old man more magical niceness). And finally, three Stormsmith Stormcallers because there wasn’t quite enough squishy things.

This makes a grand total of 16 points. Hooray! One point over with one day in hand!

I’ve been musing over the next steps for this force (which I’m pretty sure won’t work as it is). I think to get to 20 points, I’m going to add the Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team because whilst also being squishy, they also have a silly amount of special rules.

For 25 points, I’ll probably add a Firefly to work with the Stormsmiths (and the Storm Tower that also needs to be painted); all for extra zappyness! Have to admit, the General Adept Nemo Tier list also looks mighty tempting.

Anyway, there you go; slowly making progress.

I May Have Been A Bit Rash…

OK, firstly, its been a while since my last post on this blog. They are some good reasons for this which I may or may not cover during the course of this ramble.

Next Thursday, I have a couple of good friends visiting for a game of Warmachine. This is obviously not earth shattering news (unless you can’t believe I actually have friends); however it has set a deadline for painting some of my Cygnar.

Why? Well, I’m one of these crazy people that insists on painting every single model before playing with it. No game seems as real or excites my imagination without little PAINTED toy soldiers on a table with nice scenery. This is unfortunate as it takes me ages to paint anything.

I could blame the crazy job that leaves me travelling around Europe all the time, or the family which with young kids is also very demanding. However those would just be excuses. The truth is, I’m a slow painter. My steadily deteriorating eyesight doesn’t help and neither did Halo: Reach (excellent game by the way); but even still, it takes a long time for me to paint anything.

This is where deadlines like tournaments are great. The only reason my Blood Angels, and in particular the latest addition, a Typhoon, were finished was because of A Small Matter of Honour and Calnage.

The aim is to paint little and often. So, by next Thursday I’ll have 15 points of Cygnar painted and finished. Hopefully.

For the record, I have started tonight by painting the kitchen…

In other news, myself and a couple of conspirators are planning a Warhammer 400000 campaign weekend next year under the working title “Lost Stars”. The emphasis will very much be on a fun style of gaming and it will probably use a 1500 point doubles format. More details will follow once we’ve actually got organised.

In the meantime, if you like 40K doubles, there are still tickets available for the GCN South Champion of Champions tournament, being hosted by Spiky Club in Reading on the 14th November. Cruise over to their website if you are interested!

The Big Blue Guy

Well, my first Warmachine model is finally finished. I’ve tried a couple of new techniques on here including the non-metallic gold (instructions can be found here), glowy spell rune effect, and the arcane energy effect (completely copied from the Cygnar Faction Book).

Anyway, here it is…

 

Just to burst my bubble, my better half just shrugged her shoulders, and described him as a big blue guy. Still, this Centurion is done so that just leaves a huge pile of other stuff to paint. Hooray!

Cygnar Army List (or the stuff I have to paint first)

Well, I can safely say the best way to build a… less than effective army (for any system), is to go for the models you like best first. So I’ve done exactly that with Warmachine. To stop me getting distracted, my wife has told me (in no uncertain terms) that I am not to even think about Hordes until this lot is painted. Seems fair enough.

So here’s my first 25 point Cygnar army list, based around warcaster Nemo. The approximate plan is to shot or zap anyone soft and squishy; and supercharge the warjacks to hit anyone harder on the head with a big pointy stick (pointy sticks are good). However to main objective is to learn how the game works before diving in with both feet.

I hope it works although I’m fully expecting it not to…

The Professors
Commander Adept Nemo	(6)
- Centurion Heavy Warjack	9
- Thorn Light Warjack	8
- Squire Warcaster Attachment	2
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team	4
Journeyman Warcaster	3
3 Stormsmith Stormcallers	3
Stormsmith Warcaster	2
	25

In addition to this lot, I’m also working on some Warhammer scenery, minus the frilly bits. This will quite acceptable as Warmachine (or generic fantasy) scenery.

Just need to find some time to paint now…

The Rocky Road

In yet another tangent in this blog, this time I’m going to talk about bases. Before you disappear, please bear with me.

Normally I use citadel sand and bits of slate to cover my bases, however in keeping with the steam-fantasy theme of my new Cygnar army (that’s a Warmachine faction in case you haven’t been paying attention) I wanted a paved effect.

As I’m far too lazy (read: unskilled) to sculpt this in green stuff, I opted to use some textured plasticard bought out of a local Model Shop. Great, however Warmachine models are based on round bases, not square ones; and I can barely cut a straight line with a pair of scissors at the best of times (I’m even quite rubbish with left handed scissors).

So the next problem was to cut a reasonable circle. Enter the compass cutter pictured here, a fantastic little device that with a bit of practice, and set to 24mm diameter, cuts perfectly sized inserts for 30mm rounded bases.

Problem solved and I have some nice paved effect bases!

The other use for the compass cutter (and in fairness, why I bought it in the first place) is for cutting normal plasticard for my eldar bases where I’m after a broken wraithbone effect. These take a little longer because I am scoring a pattern into the plasticard, however the theory is much the same.

More Coal Please!

The move to Warmachine is well underway and I’ve got a fist full of toys. In the end, I’ve gone for the Cygnar faction because I love the magic/tech crossover. As I’ve mentioned before, it has a lot in common with Final Fantasy video games (I have fond memories of FFVII, having I burnt far too much time playing that game).

So what’s first up? Well I’ve definitely gone for a theme and it is not a traditional Cygnar gunline. I’ve only got one warjack at the moment plus some foot troops; and I’ve only just start getting these models together (undercoated the first batch today). So far I have to say I really like Privateer Press’s stuff. Compared to the Games Workshop Wood Elf I’ve recently put together, the PP stuff is surprisingly flash free and at least as well cast.

I’ve also being spending a lot of time reading through (and really enjoying) the main Warmachine rulebook and the Cygnar faction book. In particular, the detailed background and army entries in the Prime rulebook are great and really flesh out Iron Kingdoms world as well as giving a good overview of how each faction works in the game. The game itself looks pretty straightforward although the unit rules seem to add a huge amount of complexity. This is very much in keeping with the heroic nature of the game and quite different to the Warhammer games (Warmachine looks very character driven).

Anyway once I’ve finally decided on a colour scheme, got a couple more Warjacks, and find some time (which is the difficult bit); I will be ready to start playing. Can’t wait!