Friday Rucht Hour: Man Cave Mission #1

Happy New Year everyone! 

My buddy Nick just got a new place and with it, a tremendous new man-cave. His priorities being in the right place, he and his dad built a new gaming table as soon as they could. Here's their result….

The whole table is approximately four feet wide and eight feet long. It's the perfect size to have two side-by-side Warmachine games running at the same time. Those familiar with Mik's own man-table may be familiar with these dimensions. I'll get into detail later as to why it's a tad longer and wider than 4' x 8'. 

Now, right away, you'll note that the table is high. Much higher than a dining room table. It assumes that if you're at the table, you'll be standing up. I love that, because when we play wargames, people are almost always standing. When you play, you're not stooping over and killing your back. So, if you guys are thinking about making your own gaming table, consider making it a bit taller than usual. Another side-benefit from its above normal height is that later, Nick can add rolling drawers on the bottom for peoples' books, dice, or even minis. These can be added without worrying if the drawers will run into people's knees if they are sitting at a chair at the table. 

The one downfall I saw with the higher table was that it was more difficult for me to lean over the table to measure or see templates on the field. So, there is that to consider. 

Perhaps the best feature of the table, for me, was this nice touch. A rim! They used a series of 1" x 2" planks to make a small rim all the way around the table so that your minis won't fall off. It's even better for dice! No more running after dice because some of them get knocked off of the table. 

Here's a view of the legs of the table. 

Another nice feature - these blocks have bolts that screw into the table above. So, the table top is secured to the base, but you can take the top off of the table for easier transport. Later, if Nick wants to have different table tops with perhaps different colors or semi-permanent terrain, he can do that. 

The first game on the table! The big, pink disc in the middle is a scenario objective. 

Here's some of Nick's terrain, now properly placed. He's finally got a space large enough to set it out and view it. 

All for now, guys. Look forwards to more terrain talk. As you demanded! 

Snow Day Rucht Hour: 10 Year Painting Job Done

So, back in 2003, I first got into the hobby / addiction known as miniature wargaming. Relative to most people who read this - I suspect - I'm fairly new to the wargaming hobby. Now, I have been painting miniatures for multiple decades, most of them for D&D or other RPGs.

When I first got into miniature wargaming, I said to myself that it would be impossible to paint an entire unit. It would take too long, it would make me bored, I would lose interest and never finish a unit.

Well, that has remained true. I love wargaming, but I have a terrible habit of not finishing my units.

Interestingly enough, participating in the Warmachine tournament earlier this year changed all of that. Sitting across the field against fully painted (and gorgeously painted) armies, prompted me to roll my sleeves up and get busy. So, here's my first unit that I ever started to paint…and never finished until now. 2013.

Friday Rucht Hour: Convergence of Cyriss Unboxing

So, the big news for Warmachine this year was the Convergence of Cyriss. They are a new faction in the game and they are pretty awesome. What I like the most about them is that the Cyriss faction isn't some B.S. dreamed up by the Privateer Press to make money. They were in the Iron Kingdoms from the very beginning. They spring from the original Witchfire Trilogy which spawned the setting in the first place.

Here, I've unboxed their starter set. Unfortunately, however, I cannot give it top marks. Let's start with the good. Here's what you get for your fifty bucks.

Quite a bit! You get the parts and pieces for four complex and interesting minis - the Warcaster, two light vectors and a heavy vector. (Vectors are warjacks, guys. Let's not kid ourselves.) You also get their quick start rules, which contain the base cards for all of the major factions. So, if you want, you can play starter games with all of the major factions.

You also get a miniature copy of their No Quarter magazine. I thought that was a pretty brilliant piece of marketing. No Quarter is a great mag and getting a mini copy in your box is a nice touch. 

Now, let's get into the bad. Pieces and plastic. First of all, the plastic pieces of the figures are loaded with flashing. It's going to take me a long time to get them ready to glue together. Another problem? Tiny, little pieces. You can see this entire bag, here - that's chock-full of little pieces. Below, you can see an example of some of the "larger" pieces. Overall, it doesn't look like a picnic to me. I can certainly conquer this, but it's definitely not noob friendly. And one of our friends was hoping that this boxed set would be his gateway into the hobby. 

Overall, I would say that the box is worth it. I don't have buyer's remorse or anything like that. The minis look amazing, so I'm excited to see how they turn out. But the box isn't noob friendly by any means and may annoy some people with so many pieces and the copious flashing. Only three stars out of five, for me. An "expert level" set is how I would classify this box, due to the amount of work you'll have cut out for you when you get it. 

Friday Rucht Hour: Miniatures Assemble!

So, this past Friday evening, we got together for our usual round of Warmachine, but this time we did something different. Instead of playing a game, we sat, assembled, painted, and chatted. Many of us hadn't seen each other over the winter very much and also - many of us just needed a kick in the pants to get painting again.

Me

For myself, that means the Kraken. Here's where I am with that.

Still need to finish the body he's holding and the bottom of the figure. Also, I'll need to finish the base, give the whole thing a wash, and the most important thing - add verdigris to the carapace so it looks like it's been in the ocean for a while. 

Rob

Rob's mission was to assemble his fenblades. Now, these were plastics, which was a first for us at the Warmachine table. The plastic figs were rigid and solid. Not as flimsy as some plastic models I've seen, but still not the same as metal for me. The pieces fit together very well, snapping together nicely. We did have to dip a few of the models in boiling water to get them to bend right so that their parts could fit. The big downside I saw to these was they were not as easy to mod. Weaker plastic is actually more forgiving when it comes to modding, but doesn't have as nice a "feel". 

I'm sure many of you are familiar with using rare earth magnets on your minis to make them posable, storable, or easily modified. Well, we have Rob's first models with magnets. This model can be a Troll Bomber or Mauler, depending on the type of head and armaments he chooses. Warmachine is pretty found of this modifiable kits, allowing you to buy a single model body type and mod it to be different things on the battlefield. The pictures below demonstrate a simple hand switch.

Nick

Nick's big project of the night was unboxing and assembling the Mercenary Colossal figure - the Galleon. Here are many pieces of the Galleon....

The pieces were all resin or metal. And there were many of them. More pieces than the Kraken. At least it seemed like it. Also, many of the pieces had large chunks of flashing on them. So far, Privateer Press's work with resin has not impressed me. I love the heft and feel of resin, but come on, guys. The two knobs on these pieces below are flashing, not pegs or intended pieces of the model. 

To give you some sense of the size of the Galleon mini, check out this! The first picture is the Galleon's chest piece and the second is the Galleon's trident, which it can launch against enemies. Finally, it does come with a thick cardboard wreck marker, just like the Kraken did. I must say, these large, well-made wreck markers are a nice touch. 

All right! That's all for now. Let us know what you're assembling! 

Friday Rucht Hour: Position, Position, Position

This battle report is a bit old, but it's about something interesting that I'd love to hear your comments on - positioning.

Positioning your minis on a battlefield is crucial to miniatures based wargame. Whether it be HeroClix or Flames of War, positioning is crucial. And that's as it should be.

The reason I bring this up is that the whole discipline of field positioning has been one that I've been struggling with lately with Warmachine. It's definitely what lost me this latest game while playing my dwarves.

First up, though, another shout-out to Doug, who is continuing to hammer away at painting minis. The guy is new to Warmachine, new to wargames, new to painting minis. And he already has two armies and has over 50% of each army painted. They look fantastic, too! Check out the purple Skorne again:

A little background on the game: We were playing a three-way match up. The scenario was a King of the Hill game, where you scored points if your warcaster was in a square zone in the middle of the field. The zone lay upon a ruined building. 

So, onto my sound defeat. 

Mistake #1 - Misplacing my ranged unit. I completely misjudged by advancement and declared shots on two or three of my opponent's minis, when I could have fired upon all of them. I didn't think I had them in range, but I totally did! The result? I missed an opportunity to fire at my opponent and I advanced too close to the enemy. To my unit's credit, they lived much longer than they should have. But I completely fumbled this flank. 

Mistake #2 - Charging my warcaster up too far, too soon. We were playing a occupation scenario where you scored points my putting your warcaster up on the ruined building that you see here. My warcaster has a rep of being tough, so I put him up on the ruin by Turn Two. And that's with a dwarf! My opponent's forced initially dinged him for a little damage, but nothing I was worried about. Below, you see him - Gorten, painted by Mik, first on the hill!

This flank went okay. Below, you can see my forgeguard before were eventually slaughtered, but they tied up an opposing unit, a heavy warbeast, and a solo. If they were going to be sacrificed, they were sacrificed well.

Mistake #3 - Well, my warcaster was first on the hill and I almost won the game. After two turns, I was one point from victory. It became an imperative for my opponents to kill my 'caster or concede victory. The Skorne warlock marched up into the occupation zone and slaughtered Gorten. My mistake was that I didn't know my opponent's full capabilities. Had I known them, I would have certainly rushed into the zone with more support.

Mistake #4 - This wasn't my mistake. It was Doug's! He was so thirsty to kill my warcaster with his warlock, he charged his own man onto the Hill with little security. Alexia (an infamous Warmachine solo) swept in at last and finished off the warlock with ease. So, the mistake here was being too eager about claiming a juicy prize. Especially disastrous in a three-way game. 

All right, enough about me. How about you? What's your favorite wargame story about positioning? When did you really goof it up? When did you position your forces so perfectly that it lives in your memory? Tell us your story! 

Friday Rucht Hour: Your First Wargame

Well, this was supposed to be posted last Friday, but I messed it up on Blogger.

As we pass through the holidays, it's usually a time where you can get a break, think about things and reflect. So. What was your first wargame?

Mine was with little tiny paper chits on a fold out piece of hex-mapped paper down in South Carolina. It's been so long ago that I forget who got me to play it or even what the game was. Because there were dozen of wargames with those little paper chits, it could have been anything.

Anyone remember these?

Anyhow, I remember my experience was mainly negative and it made me not want to play wargames for a long time.

Fastforwards to 2001 or so. By then, I did paint minis, but strictly for the purposes of D&D. I had well over 50 minis in my small collection, but I had a rep for picking out good minis to represent party members and getting them painted up.

I met Mik and they played a lot of different wargames. Everything under the sun. When they invited me to play this or that, I declined. Then came Necromunda. "Come on," they said. "It's just, what, six figures? Maybe ten? You can't paint up that many?"

Sure, I said. I could do that many. After all, I had painted plenty of minis before....

And that was it. I was done. I had drank of the elixir. I had tasted of the fruit. I was a wargamer and that was it. To help me in this long process were many nights spent at Andy's house. Andy had, on his shelf, countless rulesets. Every week, I would show up at his house and down in his basement, we would play a completely different wargame. We played at varying scales. We played with varying rules. It was an amazing time and it opening up new horizons for me in terms of what gaming could be.

Today, I'm a hard-core Warmachine/Hordes man, but that's only because that's what I have time for. There are some games coming on the horizon that I may invest in. In particular, I'm looking forwards to the Batman minis game as well as Kingdom Death.

So - what was your first wargame?

Friday Rucht Hour: Let's Mod up a Kraken

So, as you know, I've recently bought Privateer Press's Kraken. (See my unboxing and assembly posts for more info.)  Well, it's time to mod her up. If I'm going to drop that much money on a figure and it's of appreciable size, you better bet that I'm going to have fun with it.

First of all - if you didn't know before - here's a look at the model:

                 

Now, I started by wanting to put a figure into one of the Kraken's claws. But the question was, how? If you just stick a random mini into the claws of the Kraken, it's not going to look good. The figure will be posed for something else and look stiff while being held aloft. No worries, I thought. I have some figures of dead and dying warriors from another mod I did earlier. There was one problem. Even those figures didn't look quite right and most of them were completely flat on one side, because they were supposed to be lying on the ground. Look below to see what I mean...

So, I proceeded to dig around in my bins for bits and other minis. I remembered that I had an old bag o' zombies. I had always intended on them being grunts for another game, but a zombie would work nicely for my purposes.

Because the zombies were made of soft plastic, I just used the ol' boiling water trick. I bent a zombie in half, to make it look like it was being pinched in the middle. Then I put a rubber band around it, to keep it bent. I put the zombie in boiling water, took it out, let it cool, and voila! A figure bent over as if it were clasped in the middle. Quick work with a drimmel took off the zombie's plastic base. The whole process was about 15 minutes, tops. 

Here, you can see the zombie in the claws of the Kraken. I'll paint the zombie to look more like a human on the final product. 

Next up, salad dressing! The Kraken is supposed to be this menace which rises from the sea so I crafted seaweed from green stuff and draped it all over the model. To make the seaweed, I just made long, thin strings of green stuff and flattened it out carefully. Because green stuff has a taffy-like consistency, I stretched out the strands as far as I could to make them thin. It also helped make the ends of the seaweed taper off. Because most seaweed is twisted, I just twisted the strands around before applying it to the figure. Then, I tamped it all down to give it the appearance of something wet and clingy.

Behold! The modification is 90% done! Now, all I have to do is to add some barnacles to the figure and I'll be ready to re-base and paint! 

Friday Rucht Hour: Happy Thanksgaming!

Hey all! Sleeping that tryptophan off yet?

Let's talk terrain. I wanted to get your guy's perspective and see what you all use for terrain on your own tables. Nick has done a tremendous job with his home terrain, using a great deal of Hirst Bricks (seen below). One of the best pieces of terrain that he has, though, is his self-made rubber mat. Crumbled bits were applied to the mat and then an air brush was used to give it splotchy coloring. The result is that your turf on your table looks fantastic.

Speaking for myself, I'm much more low-tech. Simple green felt to suggest grass is what I use. However, I definitely have bought plenty of train terrain over the years to enhance my table. Below, you can see some of my train kit trees. 

There's also the good old Dwarven Forge tiles. While mainly meant for dungeon crawling, the Forge tiles also double great as terrain. Here, not only do they make some terrain, but they demarcate a control zone for the scenario's objective. 

Finally, one thing we use from time to time are paper cutouts. A number of companies make these. You can see some of mine to the right of the picture. Bonus points if you know where that building came from. Hint - it's seriously old school. 

So, I want to hear from you guys. What do you use for terrain? Paper? Plastic? Only hand-crafted? Just construction paper cut-outs? What do you use for turf? Are there any rules (unspoken or otherwise) at your table for terrain? For example, you may dislike anything you didn't craft. Or anything made from paper. Etc. What do you do at your table? Let us know!