A Smattering o' Hordes

Up top we've got a four-player double header of Hordes, it's not something that has been as frequent on the table as we'd like, but it's on the table so that's saying something in and of itself.  A lot of the guys in the groups have bought the plastic starter boxes that contain two factions, so we're set with loaner armies and have plenty of choices to pick from.  One of the guys in the group (the only other Trollblood player besides myself) has been around the block a little more than the rest of us, so not only does he have plenty of excellently painted models, he can help with the rules to boot.

Here's a couple of my Trollblood warbeasts getting stuck in with some Circle hoodlums.

A converted Rök crashes into an albino Carnivean

Here's my fledgling warband so far.  I know I haven't posted any progress pics because I'm not painting them!  The Pyre Troll in the middle (which looks awesome) was a gift a while back from rare blog art contributor Miller.  The fig looked so good though I couldn't hope to match it, so I just commissioned him to paint all of my beasts.  I've got a scads of troopers in the works too, but keeping in my no-trollblood-paint embargo, I've commissioned those out to none other than Joe 'Mezz', but more on those later, when I have pics to show of those!  Moral of the post; there's minis stuff happening, slowly sure, but slow is better than not at all!

Hordes Beginnings

 

Only because I love it when I quote my friend Rucht, and it bugs him ever so slightly, I'm going to quote from his opening the other day with his awesome Warmachine post.

"Well, the other night we had an unprecedented event. [Hordes] has caught so much fire [around] here that we had six people over for [Hordes], meaning we were able to host three one-on-one matches. Three matches, lined up on a big table, all going at once - it was like we were at a tournament."

At this point I need to point out that Rucht and his buddies were actually playing the game with large, gully painted armies, and they knew the rules.  What we did was on a much more tentative scale.  Sure, we had six players throwing down at once but we were using partially painted figs (at best) and learning the rules as we went along. 

  

This is what got me looking at the Privateer Press arena once more, the integration of both systems; Hordes and Warmachine.  The concept is cool, each is a game in its own right, but each is completely compatible with the other while remaining distinctive to one another.  Here we see Andy's Warjacks clash full on with Jeff's Warbeasts.

 

My headless, amputee Warlock carelessly ventures too close to Mike's Argus.  My "charge in head first swinging" mindset is going to need a little bit of refining.  I also need to remember that my models aren't the only ones with tricks up their sleeves.

 

Speaking of tricks...as Madrak was squaring off with a fairly low-threatening Argus (relatively speaking) Mike used a spell to teleport his heavy Warpwolf *behind* my Warlock, surrounding him!

 

 

Here's the view from the far right side of the table, you can see my Warlock about to get a sound thrashing atop the ruins.  With its two clawed hands the Warpwolf just kept picking up my guy and throwing him all over the battlefield, then my downed model would get charged with other beasts.  I was able to shunt some of my damage off to my beasts, but it was taking its toll and I was about dead by the time it was all said and done.  Of course I forgot to make any of my 'toughness' rolls the entire game, but that's just part of the learning curve.

 

In the middle of the table Miller and Taylor were duking it out; Miller with his partially painted Circle and Taylor borrowing a Legion starter.  They wrapped up their first game rather quickly then began a second game, that time using the units that also came in the battle box.  

Girl-on-girl action ended tragically for Kaya Windborn.  Out of fury points to use she succumbed to the withering arrows of the Everblight Legion's blighted Nyss Warlock.  

All in all it was a great night.  We had a huge turnout of folks, which is very exciting as it means this endeavor has a lot of interest, which in turn means it will be seeing heavy rotation.  Not to mention that it's good to just get some figs on the table finally and rolling some dice.  Hopefully the next time you see my Trollbloods out there they will have some paint!  Until then, enjoy!

Hordes: Local Forces

So we've thrown our lot in with Privateer Press' Hordes and Warmachine.  Technically the two games are interchangeable, but separate.  As broken down here we've got a strong handhold in the Hordes corner of things, but I think a lot of old WM armies could be brought to bear if need be.

Andy is the first up with his 'starter box' for the battle intro night we recently did.  He was the was the only only representing WM, here with his tundra themed Khador led by the Butcher.  Andy's in good shape because not only does he have all of his old models from the first time we played, but the majority of them are painted to boot.  He doesn't have any Hordes stuff, but really he doesn't need any.  He does have to learn the new rules, but we're all in that boat as it is.

Next up is Jeff's starter box of Skorne. I like the look of Skorne, quite a bit actually.  He has a lot of other armies but brought this so as to avoid any (more) doubling of other armies.  It consists of the cool Gladiator warbeast as well as a pair of Cyclops' and their Warlock whose name escapes me but he's just like Voldo from Soul Caliber.

In a lot of ways Mike is really a big factor in this Hordes revival.  I've been gaming with him for a long, long time and the last time I can remember him picking up a mini and painting it was about twenty years ago.  So as you can see here, his Circle starter is almost complete already, really it just needs basing.  I love the design overhaul Circle got with the new plastics, and he's done a great job here for a rusty painter who just doesn't seem too rusty to me.

Miller (yes, Monday Night Miller) can paint, but his speed suffers for it.  Having said that mind you, he seems to be well on his way to cranking out his own Circle starter.  Camera phone pics don't do these (incomplete) figs justice, especially the Warp Wolf.

Is there any surprise these are mine?  My Trollblood Amputee League...for now.  Yes, I fielded an armless, headless warlock.  Yes, my Troll Axer and an Impaler are missing their right arms.  No, nothing is painted.  No, this is not acceptable.  Fortunately all the energy and enthusiasm of everyone else will give me that extra push of motivation.

Speaking of unpainted, here's the other half of the Hordes two-player boxed set' the Legion of Everblight.  Allegedly Hordes is full of grey area factions, but I gotta say I'm pretty sure these guys are just plain evil.  Taylor is a newcomer to the group (relatively speaking) and so far has been just a boardgaming buddy and part-time RPGer.  This was his first hand at a true minis game and he commanded the Legion fairly well.  We're all still learning mind you, but with a little luck he'll be hooked and we'll be adding one more minis gamer to the fold.  The more the merrier.

I know what you're thinking.  "Where's the big battle you promised?  We know you're just inflating your post count!"  Easy there cowpokes!  I just thought I'd highlight some of the critters that will be prominently featured in this new direction we're taking.  Definitely more to come, up next will be pics from the first battle night.  

Until then, enjoy!

Hordes Anyone? Round Two

So for those who have been around for a while the title may sound familiar. Three and a half years ago I posted the exact same thing.

Qalpha said it best recently, we use blogs as a medium to measure "in the now" a hobby that actually takes years and years to cultivate, this Hordes venture is a perfect case in point.

So, as the fortunes and fates of gaming would have it, I have thrown in my lot with the one Hordes faction I never dabbled in but the one faction I always had an eye on; the Trollbloods.

The Trollbloods represent a loose alliance between a variety of formerly scattered and disparate tribal communities. They were forced to band together to survive in the face of humanity’s quickly escalating wars. Trollkin tribes, called kriels, have deep roots in western Immoren, where they have built homes in several wilderness regions the human nations had deemed of little interest. Trollkin are not strangers to human cities, as a number of these robust and hardy people work and live alongside mankind, but the majority remain in the wild, wary of humanity after a long history of frequent struggles, broken promises, and mutual bloodshed.

In a very weird trade gone awry I ended up with the horde of Trollbloods you see above for pretty much free. I was going to trade some Imperial Guard for them, but at the last minute the other party pulled out of their 40k itch. Graciously they still sent their end of the deal anyway. And there was a bag of homemade cookies in the box to boot! Who is such a stand up guy, Eli at I See Lead People of course. I'm going to send him something cool in return as it is, but I don't want to ruin the surprise here.

Anyway. We're playing Hordes/Warmachine again. We had a huge six-player intro-night last Wednesday, and everyone is on board.  It seems I can say it's official.  I'll have a "forces of" post soon with at least those who attended most recently. Those who didn't, well they have tons of stuff too so it's just a matter of learning the new rules and getting down to rolling on the tabletop.

My fledgling warband/collection so far:

• Borka Kegslayer*
• Grissel Bloodsong*
• Madrak Ironside
• x2 Troll Impalers
• Troll Axer
• Dire Troll Mauler
• Pyre Troll
• Krielstone Bearer and Scribes

I added the first two warlocks* to the mix via the Miniature Market, and must say their speed and service were incredibly fast with good prices to boot. There are some other items I'd like to add, and as I said over three years ago, I'm more of a form over function kind of guy.  I like to make my army choices based on how cool something looks not it's statline. Now since the first time I mused on this topic the Trollbloods have receiveda metric ton of new and characterful models, all very exciting stuff.  So keep your eyes peeled; mini-warbands coming up followed by a writeup of our big intro-night, and more.  Until then, enjoy!

Less Than Four Percent

That's about all I've put into this place lately, less than four percent.  It's a darn shame really, I love my blog, I love my readers, and obviously I love all the things I do here.  So what's been going on?

This ain't no apology post, life gets in the way of hobbies, that's just the way of it.  Yes, I just used "ain't" too, I don't know why, it just felt right.  I have often seen blogs I follow post an apology that they've been away, or neglected their blogs, hey, it happens.  Without the real life stuff, the hobby stuff ceases to be.

I guess I've been tired more than anything.  I've moved from being a stay-at-home dad to re-entering the workforce so I find myself falling asleep on the couch with Supernatural on in the background somewhere around the 10pm range.

Boardgaming has supplanted a lot of the other gaming in my domain as well.  It's easy to setup, easy to cleanup, and provides a lot of fun in one evening that's accessible by everyone at the table.  I do miss the roleplaying though, however it's hard to get, err, rolling.  I do miss the miniature gaming too, and with a couple of games of Infinity under our belts I am hopeful that is going to rise.

There's also been a crazy (and sudden) interest in both Warmachine and Hordes, so I suspect a lot of content will start focusing (no pun intended) on those two games.  People have bought armies and started painting them and those who didn't buy anything have tons of stuff laying around from our first foray years and years ago.

I myself have thrown my lot in with the Trollbloods, starting over from scratch after selling off everything I had some time ago.  You'll see more of them for sure.

As for the title of this post, my statline so bluntly tells I've painted a mere 3.76% of the minis I've bought this year.  To be fair the Chuhuac 15mm figs and the Reaper Kickstarter have both inflated this number considerably.  This feels about like the effort I've been putting forth though.  All I can do is go up from here on in.  On a personal note I've just accepted a new job, this time getting me back in the classroom a closer reality than where I am now, and with a twist of synchronous irony, the hefty pay increase (37.73%) is strangely close digits-wise to my current painting percentage (3.78%), give or take a decimal point of course.

I'm going to give another nod to my friends, both Miller and Rucht for posting their guest spots Monday Night Miller and Friday Rucht Hour respectively.  They're not just guest spots, they're co-authors.  Without their fresh input things would be downright desolate around here.  My Thor's Day Hero posts are here as well, but remember I wrote all of those months ago.  So where does that put us?  I don't know.  I'm still here, hopefully you are too.  Here's to the future.

Friday Rucht Hour: Nick's Minis

So, I had completely intended to write out a battle report on our latest Warmachine game, but the pictures I took were unfortunately horrendous. Perhaps later. I may "stage" some pictures to get the story across, if people are interested, because it was probably one of the more interesting Warmachine games I've played in a while.

Anyhow, instead I've decided to showcase the work of a good friend of mine here, locally. Nick. Nick does some pretty amazing work not just with minis but with terrain as well. Here's an example of what I'm talking about.

The picture above is of some of his Legion of Everblight models. They're a faction from the Hordes game, which is compatible with Warmachine. The basing of all of the models you see here is home-made. The large model with six wings is the Angelius, a truly hideous powerhouse for the faction. Anyhow, that column that it's curled up on? Totally handcrafted. The base was largely made with Hirst Arts Fantasy molds. Of course, those same brick molds were used in the basing of the other models as well. I especially like the snow on the bases, though. It's very striking and proper for the faction as well, since they all hail from the far north.

The original Angelius has no column on its base.

Some of his work has resulted in some really great photos. If I had a better camera, I'm sure these would look even better. Anyhow, I'll let you take a look at some of the work here. These are all from actual games.
The model above is a Raek, caught trying to sneak around this building to flank my forces. What I like about this picture is that it shows off the steampunk aspects that Nick built into his architecture. By adding in the pipes and liquid tank, he was able to add just a few subtle features to provide a steampunk flavor without overwhelming the subject with it.

This is a shot of our game just after he finished the house you see here. Because the three-story house is to scale, it's pretty big on the table. The entire structure lifts away so that you can place minis in its base. The hill the house sits on comes was crafted as well, and can be used to make a large bridge scene.

Anyhow, I hope to get some of Nick's terrain up close and personal next time.

All for now.

Clash for the Cure

Clash for the Cure 2011 is a benefit for the American Cancer Society.

It is to be held in Waco, TX at the Game Closet. The tentative date (and it may vary by a week or so) is October 15th. It's early, but to get this thing moving in the direction with prize support, terrain, and a venue...a date had to be set. It is close to convention season and they needed to see what kind of feeling they could get from some gamers in the area and abroad.

So the plans are for a four-game tournament with lots of prizes, trophies, and just an awesome time of playing Warmachine & Hordes all day.

Hordes Giveaway Winners!

A winner is you (again)! Hot on the heels of the 200th Blog Follower giveaway is the big Hordes poster giveaway. Well, "big" may not accurately describe it! Anyway, I was able to dig up some more Hordes goodness in the forms of three Skorne blister packs. So not only did someone get the poster, but there were three runner-ups!

Hordes Poster Giveaway

The title says it all. I got the above 24x36 Hordes poster during a tournament years ago and it's been rolled up in a cardboard tube since then. Do you like Hordes and/or Warmachine? Big posters with fantasy armies duking it out? Just need something new for your game-room, store, or garage? Leave a comment below, I'll give it a couple of days to collect as many requests as possible. Then I'll pick the appropriate die, and roll off to see who gets it. I'll mail it to you wherever you live. Global, local, whatever. Enjoy!

Hordes Anyone?

Everyone should know Hordes by now, a rip-roaring, beast-infused testosterone smack 'em up by Privateer Press who broke onto the miniatures scene catering to the 18-24 year old, anti-GW demographic. Warmachine came first, and we played it...quite a bit actually, but it tanked locally, and fast. We also played the Iron Kingdoms RPG more than a few times too, suffice it to say we liked the genre as a whole.

Hordes was just being released near the end of the Iron Kingdoms hey-day here. It was cool, it was different, and in a lot of ways it seemed to tweak (and improve) a lot of the rules issues that we found in WM, but I think the timing was too little, too late for us.


The warbeasts of my first foray into Hordes, the Legion of Everblight. I got these thinking they could pull double duty as some horrid backworld Xenos to harass Colonial Marines or the like. The models were certainly cool looking.


Here's a couple of the Legion's Warlocks and a Minion Solo. I was going for an overall desert kind of look, and I was going to paint all of the Nyss (Winter Elves) as Drow. Something about the Legion didn't stick with me though, maybe it was the playstyle or whatever, but I soon traded them off for...the Skorne.


The Skorne were very cool in fluff, of which I only knew a little about, and their visual style was even cooler. They have a whole retro-fantasy Samurai thing going on with the Skorne themselves looking very much like a cross between Klingons and Cardassians. I liked this army even more, but again, it just didn't stick. It eventually ended up in Chris' hands, and unlike the shape they're in above on my shelf, he's done a knock-out paint job with them.

It's funny, because I even went with the Circle Orboros after I tried Skorne. I had bought up a large sized force from Plycon's Keep in the $150 dollar range and had plans to put it together from the ground up. It may work for some people, but buying up a large, unpainted army all at once was just too overwhelming in the long run for me and I sold it off. At this point I sold all of my rulebooks too, and kinda shelved any further Hordes notions.


Now, more than a couple of years later, Eric H. over at the Adept's Forge has this recent post about the above Bear and Dwarf team that really got me thinking. If I were a rational being, which when it comes to miniatures I don't think anyone is, I would just buy this two-fig box, paint it, and be done with it, because the two of these models side by side just look that cool.

We don't play Warmachine or Hordes anymore, but some part of me still would like to put together a small Trollbloods army just for the fun of it if nothing else. Plus, they're the only faction I haven't tried yet, heh. I've ebayed off all of my stuff, it's long gone, but I know a couple of folks in the group still have some semblance of armies, like Oz and Andy. Rucht is still pretty into it, but he moved away, so those games would be quarterly...at best, but I'd suspect closer to bi-annually. When we were playing, it was a blast.

Making a new army for a game we haven't played in a long time? Probably not a good idea, but for the fun of it I did put together a small army list of Trollbloods using the models that I absolutely love the look of and nothing but. They might not have the best stat-synergy or whatever, but I've always gone for aesthetics first, then worry about tabletop effectiveness second. I'm not a huge figure painter, but these are the kinds of figs I would look forward to painting. If nothing else I'll get the above Minion Warlock Dwarf Cragback and his big ole bear, Lug. It might be fun to paint something other Dark Angels for a change...