Creativity

In many forms, I've always been the creative type. Starting back as early as my first decade I was painting models, but todays imminent posting of my latest work on Lost Hemisphere has me very nervous, and thus I'm comforting myself with a stroll through the past.




Part of my first real foray onto the internet was with Baldur's Gate. Still one of the best RPG series of alltime, I loved the Infinity Engine games, and ran a small website hosted on (and eventually deleted without warning by, insert long standing grudge) Gamespy. House Atreus was dedicated to portraits, voicepacks, strats, and scripts, the only legacy remaining a single voicepack on Fileplanet.




The community I was first really an engaged part of was the online Spelljammer community, now carefully cached at Beyond The Moons. I wrote a metric fuck ton for my campaign setting, Star of Enerithon, including character prose, mass plotlines, and even worked on some 3d art. Not a lot of it made it online to my webpage House Enildarion, but between that and BtM I still get a good nostalgic surf every few years.




My boy Korgesh here, named for one of the main Enerithon villains, became a focus for many years when World of Warcraft came out, but even there the muscles flexed. I made a few boss fight videos in my raiding days, including a Kael'Thas kill vid with a voiced in character intro by Korgesh still possibly available. Most of my work on videos was fairly standard, and again not all of it made it to the intertubes, but I have a dvd of a score or so videos I pop out occasionally and watch, glass of Jack in hand.

The less said about Korgesh and Demron's RP days on feathermoon the better ;)




The last big creative project was The Morrowguard. I began work on them around a year ago, after a long desire to paint Precursors, and it was my first in depth creative strike upon the world of Warmachine. I'd been a PG for 5 years at the time, and I'd painted nearly every army in existence, but this was my showcase army, and has reinvigorated my enthusiasm for Cygnar overall. I'll be fielding elements of the Morrowguard this weekend at our Longest Night event, so maybe it's fitting that I should start on some fiction for them now that Clad in Iron is about to hit the public?

Time will tell, first I have to finish Seething with Rage, then Unstable Cortex, and there's still A Faithful Reckoning and Clad's followup to write.

Circle of Journeyman

This last month saw the end of the Infinity Games Journeyman league, and the start of The Hobby Matrixs league. The blessing of two stores and two leagues means still earning those patches while getting to play something different. I'd had my partner, Nailyon's, circle sitting at my place for some time, so I thought it was time to slap some paint on Kromac and eat some hearts. Tuesday night is random gaming night at Infinity, so I warmed up with this list. I had to proxy a couple of figures, as the photos will show (one Whitemane in first game, two Tharn in the second)

Army Name: 35 Kromac Eat Your Heart Out
Circle Orboros
Theme Force: Heart Eaters Tier 4
35+4 points, 17 models

Kromac the Ravenous +4 points
* Gorax 4 points
* Warpwolf Stalker 10 points

Lord of the Feast 4 points
2x Tharn Ravager White Mane 3 points each
4 Tharn Ravagers 6 points
6 Tharn Ravagers 9 points
* Tharn Ravager Chieftain




I got two games in before switching to a pre arranged Dystopian Wars game. The first was against Khador, my old buddy Kristian (the most enthusiastic man you'll ever meet) did great against my list (which had a third Whitemane instead of extra Tharn in the chief's unit). Despite early heavy losses of his IFP to the non chieftained unit, Irusk1's troops turned the tide and gave my boy a fair whalloping, my erstwhile opponent completely tabling me.




The second game was against Shaun and Siege. Shaun's one of our newer players, joining up around six months ago. His boy, Harry, had done us all proud coming 5th in the Infinity league, but unfortunately his old man went down against the Ravager army. Highlights included a Ground Pounder/Arcane Tempest against the pictured Tharn swarm on Siege's feat turn, after I foolishly clumped them up to take down a Stormclad. In the end the Stalker got up and Trampled across the gun mages with the Goraxs Primal animus on it and chopped Siege in two with a Berserk hit and a purchased attack, nabbing the win.

Tonight I'm heading to Hobby Matrix, so here's the list.

Army Name: 25 Kromac JM
Circle Orboros
Theme Force: Heart Eaters Tier 2
25+4 points, 13 models

Kromac the Ravenous +4 points
* 2x Argus 4 points each
* Feral Warpwolf 9 points

4 Tharn Ravagers 6 points
* Tharn Ravager Chieftain
4 Tharn Ravagers 6 points




Ignore the Whitemanes and LOTF in
The pic above.

Obviously I've got a bit of painting to go, but I'm really happy with how Kromac turned out, so after some fun games tonight I'll head home, throw a movie or two on, and see if I can't at least get one unit finished. I'm loving Kromac's theme, although I don't expect it to do as well with the Circle BB tonight. My rollings been particularly abysmal lately, but Wild Aggression, Heart Tokens, and the ravenous one's feat should help make up for that.

Either way, feels good to Play like I've Got A Pair.

Journeymany

I'm on my way out to Fairview park this evening for Hobby Matrix's first night of Journeyman tonight. I've decided to go with Circle, because I know I won't get out there much to play, but I have a ton of Daniela's bare metal models at my place to paint up. In particular, I want to work on the following list, of which only the Stalker & Weavers are painted.

Army Name: 50 Kromac TierA
Circle Orboros
Theme Force: Heart Eaters Tier 4
50+4 points, 30 models

Kromac the Ravenous +4 points
* Argus 4 points
* Gorax 4 points
* Warpwolf Stalker 10 points

Lord of the Feast 4 points
6 Tharn Bloodtrackers 5 points
* Nuala The Huntress 2 points
Tharn Bloodweavers 5 points
2x Tharn Ravager White Mane 3 points each
4 Tharn Ravagers 6 points
* Tharn Ravager Chieftain
4 Tharn Ravagers 6 points
* Tharn Ravager Chieftain 2 points

It's Tier 4, giving me a Stealthed battlegroup first round, and Advance Move on one warbeast. I had the pleasure of facing a Trampling Stalker with an Argus' Animus on it this week, with that and Berserk it made a mess of some of the Morrowguard, so this will give me a good project for a bit. I'll get a bunch of Hobby Points, a nice heavy infantry theme list, and a ton of fun painting the autumn style Circle I can picture in my head. After Kromac I want to hit Cassius, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.




Infinity Games' Journeyman league is in week 5, and as you can see Connie got out for some fun. I'm currently in the lead on 45 Game Points + 14 Hobby Points, winning the former thus far but too far behind on the latter to catch Ross on 19 points without literally buying models to paint.




It's been fantastic, and I've really enjoyed the push it's given me to paint. Here you can see the latest additions, Sword Knights for the Morrowguard, my Runewood, and another Gallant inspired conversion - Itkovian. I gotta say, the new plastic light jacks are huge, he really dwarfs my old Charger, but considering he's taken down a handful of beasts already, I think he deserves that fourth Gallant kit I purchased. Itkovian was the Grey Swords' Shield Anvil in Memories of Ice, the fourth (?) Malazan novel, and this guy has taken it on the chin a bit like his namesake, but done well enough in his own right.




Lastly, I got my second game of Unbound in last week against our mad Scottsman, Kris. All looks shiny and rosy above, but unfortunately every plan failed me as every dice roll went the wrong way, from fleeing Trenchers, to Overtake Stryker2 completely fluffing his assassination run on Barnabas. Conny I lost being too ballsy early on, and not only did Mulg Crit:Slam the Centurion into Gallant on top of a Stormsmith finishing the three of them off, he later used a similarly propelled Haley1 to get Runewood, massacreing the remnants of my command as my last warcaster fell. I tell you, I love Unbound, but so far the game has taken a sharp nasty turn the minute a Warlock or Warcaster is down, I hope it's not going to be a continuing trend.

Hobby Matrix 25pts

This weekend was my young PG apprentice Nic's first tournament, which turned out to be a great showing. The Hobby Matrix is relatively new to Warmachine, but they had six locals and four of us interlopers from the long standing home of Warmachine & Hordes in Adelaide, Infinity Games.

The veterans, myself included, ended up taking the top three spots, but far more importantly we had a ton of fun games, and the newer crowd learnt a few tricks.

Here's my list.

Army Name: 25 Conny
Cygnar
25+6 points, 25 models

Constance Blaize +6 points
* Gallant 9 points

Harlan Versh, Illuminated One 2 points
10 Precursor Knights 8 points
* Precursor Knight Officer & Standard 2 points
Trencher Chain Gun Crew 2 points
Trencher Chain Gun Crew 2 points
6 Trenchers 6 points




Check our that dice roll! Against one of the newest of the new, a Precursor got an incredibly brutal charge in Morrows Name on Stryker1 and ended his life with no less than 3 sixes and 1 five on the damage roll. We had a great game, I taught my opponent a few things, and was incredibly impressed with his skill, doubly so when he later revealed it was his first game ever. You wouldn't have known, I expect this bloke (whose name escapes me, I'm going to have to go back to keeping a log) to fight fierce in coming weeks.




Next up was Aleks, with a Mangler heavy Magnus1 list. Unfortunately he'd purchased out of store and been sent the wrong thing (like everyone I've known to do so recently) - most people would love a free heavy for a light cost, but when it's Magnus and that light was a Renegade, not so much.

This bloke managed to leave Constance on 6 hit points on her feat turn while she was at ARM25, and would have got her had he gone for her first and her infantry later. I'd have suggested that but I didn't realise he was going for her until halfway through his turn when she took the (lone) Renegade rocket to the face.

A spray from Magnus and even an Arcane Bolt almost finished her off, but unfortunately it wasn't to be, and with Gallant Trampling up over my own Harlan Versh and denting The Traitor a bit, Constance herself brought the man down thanks to Flank and 11 focus worth of swings. Any opponent that leaves me on 6 health while I have ARM25 is worth respect, I'm hoping to get another game against Aleks soon.




Inevitably I had to face her, and Daniela was as unmerciless as I as Shae came to the table. Despite a feat turn and some lucky shots from Harlan Versh I just couldn't blow the man down, and here you can see what happens when a Precursor Knight is slammed by a cannomball into a warcaster, and there's a Freebooter in charge range. I probably should have taken her more west and used Sunburst to clear the models she moved up to kill, so this time it was me doing the learning, and Daniela went on to face Kris for the last match.




My last match up was Ben (I think? Names, argh!) and Khador. With a list only containing Sorscha1, a Wardog, Behemoth, Beast 09, Manhuntress and a Mortar, he did an incredible amount of damage to me. Unpictured is the remnants of my army, a mere handful of Precursors, but I taught my opponent a valuable lesson about keeping that extra 2 focus to Wind Rush away after popping his feat.

Constance finished Sorscha off again thanks to Flank and a ton of focus, but it was a close thing and I only just managed to her the War Dog out of the way to lower his melee DEF, even with Flank Constance needed 7's to hit so it was a very focus hungry strike, one miss and it would have been curtains for me next round.




At the end of the day a rather hungover Scottsman, Kris, won the day, and fun was had by all. I'm hopeful that with the Breast Cancer Brawl this year at 35pts we'll see some of these guys in the city, it's fantastic to play some new people and the BCB is always a fantastically fun event with prizes all over the place, and being for charity never hurts either ;)




I almost forgot - Daniela came second, and I got third! I gave her my winnings voucher for paint, and we spent the evening painting in the loungeroom

Morrowguard Update

Work on Gallant is coming along nicely, I'm hoping to finish him tonight.

MOAB is coming up at the start of next month, so I've put together some lists. Day 1 will just be the 50pt list below, with an alternate list featuring eStryker, Boomhowlers with Murdoch (Murdhowlers?), and some Trencher goodness. Day 2 is an escalating day, starting at 15pts Mangled Metal, then going up to 25, 35, and 50 pts of normal games. Each list must contain what the previous list had, so...

15pts
Constance Blaize +6 points
* Centurion 9 points
* Gallant 9 points

25pts
Constance Blaize +6 points
* Centurion 9 points
* Gallant 9 points
Archduke Alain Runewood 3 points
6 Precursor Knights 5 points
* Precursor Knight Officer & Standard
6 Precursor Knights 5 points

35pts
Constance Blaize +6 points
* Centurion 9 points
* Gallant 9 points
Archduke Alain Runewood 3 points
* Sentinel 4 points
6 Precursor Knights 5 points
* Precursor Knight Officer & Standard
6 Precursor Knights 5 points
* Precursor Knight Officer & Standard 2 points
6 Sword Knights 4 points

50pts
Constance Blaize +6 points
* Centurion 9 points
* Gallant 9 points
Journeyman Warcaster 3 points
* Charger 4 points
Archduke Alain Runewood 3 points
* Sentinel 4 points
Harlan Versh, Illuminated One 2 points
10 Precursor Knights 8 points
* Precursor Knight Officer & Standard
10 Precursor Knights 8 points
* Precursor Knight Officer & Standard 2 points
6 Sword Knights 4 points

Also on the painting table are the Sword Knights, the leader of which has a Gallant shield while his buddies have Precursor shields, a Sentinel with the book and shield of Gallant (did I mention I bought 3 kits? Yeah, I bought 3 kits), and a Centurion with an extended pike, Gallant cowl shoulders, and funnily enough another book on his upper body. I stopped short at giving him Gallant's sword instead of the end of the spear as it just looked a little too silly, but I'm still tossing around the idea of greensing up his shoulders like the Sword Knights.

Jonas Murdoch got painted quickly as well week before last, I'm looking forward to theming my second unit of Boomhowlers (I converted the first into Kriel warriors back in MKI when Boomhowlers were near useless).

Adelaide Championships, more events!

Last weekend the Adelaide Championships went off like Hoff, and it was on like Megatron! 22 locals planted their butts and bases and fought it out for a ton of prizes, after having gotten an even larger amount in their player packs, and I hosted my best Warmachine & Hordes weekend to date.



Faces old and new riddle the 80+ photos I took across the two days, including two interstaters, one of whom walked away with the title. Beware Michael Blyth, vengeance will be ours if I can make it to Arcanacon 2012, Great Bears or not!




The side event on the sunday gave me a chance to test some of the Iron Arena style tables I've been planning for my campaign day, the End of the Iron Kingdoms. I've been running scenario and/or table special rules every now and then for years to great enjoyment of my players, this weekends test included a sea battle with converted Uncharted Seas vessels, a four player King of the Hill table, some opposed Grind Jacks on a table with a Grinder, and Vinter Raelthorne himself in the desert akin to the start of Wrath. Al were good fun, so I'm working where I can on planning the event, but unfortunately my work leave has been denied for Arcanacon next year where I was going to run it as part of their '2012 End of the World' theme, so I'll have to make do with the much easier to swamp with my stuff venue here, unless new employment appears.




In between working on more Morrowguard conversions and my recent forays into the WoW TCG, I'm planning the next few months of local events. Breast Cancer Brawl is on the cards for October, while the Journeyman league from PP should hit in September. Everyones chomping at the bit for another tournament, so I'm hoping I can fit something small in during September at Infinity Games, unless The Hobby Matrix un-cancel their tournament plans.




As mentioned I've rediscovered the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game, and you'll note above I've had some nice luck with cards. This $190ish card that turns into a mount for World of Warcraft (online MMO) players is going straight to the loveliest girl in all the land, my darling Daniela, who has put up with the dreaded 'PressGangerus Overenthusiasticus' over the last few months leading up to the Championships. Between that, the flowers, and the repeated beatings she gives me (usually at games), hopefully I'm doing my main calling and priority as well as the others.

Strakhov, Championship plans

I'm slowly getting stuff ready, but the Adelaide Championships at Infinity Games on the 20th/21st August are looking like they're gunna rock. We've got 18 signed up, with a few more lurking about, a ton of stuff for the player packs, and enough tables & terrain sorted. I've been a tad tempted to drop to three rounds on day 1, giving us a possible 4 clear winners to send to day 2 finals while everyone else plays a 35pt side event, but we have several awards for day 1 and I want to give everyone an extra round at them, even if it means someone with a loss heading to finals.




That's one of the new terrain pieces sans paint, which is in my bag ready for some work this week. We've aldo got some new Trollkin huts, a Proectorate fort, and Candy Mountain (from Charlie the Unicorn, I'll let you find the links yourself). I'm working on a sweet Farrow fire pit too, should look great on our desert board.

Meanwhile we have the old Hardcore awards with trophies, some local flavour with the Troll Slayer, Power Player (aka Dire Troll Hulk) and Liberty Prime awards, and for the side event we'll be awarding some Warmachine & Hordes icons to players. Tough will be for the most successful Tough rolls, Commander will be the best Army Points ratio, and Weapon Master will be for the most damage dealt by a warcaster/warlock.




The other thing I got to do this week was pop out to The Hobby Matrix for some games with my new favourite asshole, Kommander Strakhov. Such a bad ass that he needs two different first names, I love this guy, he can Stealth a Gun Carriage, send Great Bears rocketing across a table, or shoot a Warcaster to death after they've been hit by Assault Kommando gas bombs. In the first game, above, Sentry let me get out five rough terrain templates, while said gas clouds & Kommando Carbines ended pHaley, who had the turn before been set on fire before the Flamethrower WA was blown up by my own Great Bears, setting them alight too.




In this game I put a lot of hurt on PG Butler, but mostly just messed with his head in true bastard fashion. Highlights were Gun Carriage shells landing dead center in Trench templates, and my promise I'd kill Gunnbjorn if he didn't do something very specific in his own turn. That thing was move to not be just inside el Grande Bearo threat range, I only got two of them on him but he'd left himself on no fury - one was enough.

Hobby Matrix is nice, it's much smaller than Infinity but it's great to play on a nice table I haven't had to make myself. They have a 35pt Steamroller in September I'm planning to attend, and I'm gunna play in both their and Infinity's Journeyman leagues ASAP. Here's what I used, and will take back for September.

Army Name: 35 Strakhov GC
Khador
35+6 points, 21 models

Kommander Strakhov +6 points
* Berserker 6 points

10 Assault Kommandos 8 points
* 3 Assault Kommando Flame Throwers 3 points
Great Bears of Gallowswood 5 points
2x Gun Carriage 9 points each
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator 1 point

Mmm, Bastardry.