Warmachine - The Final Hurdle(d)

Just in at last gasp, not only the final completed mini's of the year, but also the final mini's of my Warmachine Cryx Army. These were very late additions that came in right at the start of the month, but I've got them finished to draw a line under my Cryx force.

First up a Stalker to add to my other Bonejacks. I imagine it will be accompanied by pistol and machine wraiths most time it hits the table.

And last, but not least, >Master Necrotech Mortenebra and Deryliss.


Nearly all thought my force building I have tried to focus (excuse the pun) on building a Warjack centred force. They were the reason I was attracted to the game in the first place. I've struggled a bit, mostly through my lack of trawling fanboy forums, to get something that is effective. Not wanting to open my wallet to the ridiculous expensive of any of the Bane units would have popular opinion saying I've a weak force, it would seem. Also the better heavy warjacks come over my individual model spend limit (Death Jack excluded, but I picked him up £10 cheaper as an Ebay "bargain").
 But at the end of November I finally read up about this warcaster and her 'jack boosting powers. Better than just that, it would seem that her spells will get the most out of the cheaper end 'jacks I've been collecting. So I'm looking forward to her taking the field.

It was also useful that these final last minute additions were such a blooming pain to assemble. Any time I fancy adding to the force I should look at them and remember the blue language that hit the airways!

Frugal Accounting - Year End

Well that's the year over for my accounting. Let the lies and accussations begin to fly.
But first the hard, indesputable facts:

• Total Spend: 417.08 (average monthly spend 34.76)
• Total Income: 411.37
• Net Total Spend: 5.71

Two things stand out here. One is that my net spend over the year is under £6 ( under $9 for those across the pond). if I'd pulled my finger out and done a bit more selling I could have been in the black, but never mind. Still got to be happy with that. Another figure is that I spent over £400 pounds over the year. To be honest this is quite shocking, as I thought I'd been keeping quite a tight lid on my spend, but it just goes to show how it all mounts up, especially with a couple of bigger projects/spends dotted throughout the year. On looking through the accounts the main drains were:

• Cryx: 99.49
• Urban War: 97.91
• 40k: 36.45
• 28mm Fantasy: 44.73

And to think that back in January I'd announced that most of the spending had already been done on Warmachine! This does probably mirror where most the hobby activities have been focused this year, mind you, so I shouldn't be surprised. The obvious exception is Urban War, but that is one really for developing in 2012 (a subject for a later post).

Similarly the number of figures bought this year was unexpectedly high:

• 28mm Bought: 161, Painted:87 
• 10mm Bought: 37, Painted 19

But I have managed to painted more than half the number I bought this year. In some cases the completed models were even some of the models that were purchased the same year - turnaround bonus! It is by far the highest number I've painted over 12 months so I'm a very happy bunny.

But enough of the number crunching lets move onto the nostalgic highlights of the year.

Progress in January's plans were discussed and plans ammended in July at the six month point. Most of my plans for the second half of the year didn't really happen. I've not finished my Space Marines (mostly because I already had enough for my games) and my Doctor Who never took off at all. My Cryx, whilst not played too much are just about finished. My final 3 (another final 3 from before) are at the detail and basing stage, so a good evening should see them good. I'm desperate to get these done before the end of December to draw a line under this force.I did finish off a Future warband for Chain Reaction, and added and started new fantasy models, so on the way there.

Finally getting my ratmen through the "Songs of Blades..." campaign was great. Fun and rewarding. A new map based campaign (laboriously worked out by MacSver) should be in the offing next year. I had great success with the pod racing as well. It's numerous games were played with a variety of players and without exception everyone enjoyed themselves. When I've managed to get a game Arabiansquire this year we've been enjoying using TwoHour Wargames Chain Reaction or 5150 rules with Space Marines & Necrons or generic squads. It had been an ambition since the start of 2010 to use THW rulesets more, so I'm happy that we're managing it now. We could have donw with a few more games, but when times are busy there isn't always time to dedicate 2 or 3 hours in a day to one game. Hopefully there wil be more gaming time next year.

Lord Of The Rings Hexscape

The glorious dark forces stream forward
from their home base.

Halo*Star was doing a pre-Christmas visit so as Arabiansquire still had his Heroscape layout set up on the Hobby Shed table, we had a 4 400pt  force battle. Halo*Star and Arabianaquire were the forces of the Free People, and I played bth dark forces of Sauron.

Although we could have played the Hex battle rules, we are are more familiar with Heroscape, so used the stat cards available from boardgamegeek to set the forces up for a "capture the flag" style game.

You'll be glad to here that Sauron's dark shadow will not be falling over you for now, as the good forces eventually managed to flank round the over-stretched dark forces to win.

Aragon and a Rohim guard take on a Troll

The Elven guard flank round and cut off the enemy
from their own home glyph. The game is up!

Zombies and Looting in the Country

After the Zombie Apolcalypse there is no point trying to defeat them, just try to survive around them.

In this "All Things Zombie" 3 player scenario (Arabiansquire, Halo*Star and myself) Arabiansquire controlled the family boarded up in their home, Halo*Star had The Goons, a set of mobsters, and Arabianknight controlled a trio of Ex Territorial Army cadets.
 
The Force makeup was:

• Family: Dad (Rep 5, Shotgun, bat), Ashley (Rep 4 Pistol, Chainsaw), Granny (Rep 3, Shotgun)
• Goons: Steve (Rep 5, Machine Pistol), John (Rep 4, Pistol), Bill (Rep 4, Pistol)
• ex-TA: Sgt Wells (Rep 4, Submachine gun), Terry (Rep 4, Submachine Gun), Spoon (Rep 4, Bolt-action Rifle)

Setup

The Ex-TA came in from the woods at one end of the table. The Mobsters came via the road behind the garage at the opposite end. The family were holed up in their boarded cottage. All the buildings (garage, generator shed, cottage and rear workshop) were considered to be standard ATZ buildings.

Starting Zombies were generated as per the rural rules. Worth noting for history that the large group of zeds on the opposite side of the garage from the Mob were a result of Halo*Star rolling seven consecutive "2"s!

The Mobsters work their way round the area, missing
some approaching zombies.

Meanwhile the TA take cover behind the workshop
as some undead emerge from the woods

As the zombie horde is drawn to the gunfire, most the mob open fire
but one can't fight off a brace of dead and goes down.

The weekend soldiers clear the are and make it to the front door
 of the workshop.

On the other side of the cottage the two surviving criminals
run round the back of the genrator enclosure, hoping their
now ex-colleague will provide a feast distraction.

"One stands guard, two go in" are the orders for the TA.
They bump into a trio of other survivors who, after a tense
moment or two decide to joint the soldiers.

The two mob men make it to the kitchen door...

but are greeted with a pistol blast from Ashley and
forced to duck back.

Ill advisedly, Ashley decides to follow up but
gets gunned down by the goons  reaction fire.

Coast clear, the final soldier enters the workshop.

Not wanting to rush through the door again the mobman
rips off the boards covering the window - only to be immediately
blasted my Dad's shotgun.

All alone the final suited criminal decides to leave.

The group in the workshop make a break, but with a couple of poor
activations are cut off.

They attempt to blast a path clear...

But fail and beat a hasty retreat, leaving the cottage occupants
to patch up.

Warmachine - Necrotech & Scrap Thrall

As promised here are the other two Cryx models who have been staring at me for months now like my dog looking for his dinner. As with the other two I've more battled through with these to the end. Yet another ugly sculpt for the Necrotech, but prefering a 'jack based army it's preferable to have one. This is one of the reasons I like generic rulesets, if you don't like a model just use another one, but thats a different topic for another day...

I would like to say, however, that i DO like the scrap thrall sculpt. Very "in theme" and nicely done without being too cartoony. Pity that they are such minor players really.

This post was meant to be a bit of a triumph, as these guys were my last Cryx models. Unfortunately the thing that spurned me on to finish them - a couple of games last week - had me looking around and I've accidentally bought a couple (Ok, three) more. But then I will stop. Honest. It's easy to buy a couple of extra cheap models, but when you next want is a Heavy 'jack at £17+ it's a bit easier to not get sucked in. Hopefully!

Warmachine - Epic Asphixious and Warwitch Siren

Nothing like lining up a couple of games to give you a push to the painting table. These have been sitting in a partially painted state (along with a couple of others) for weeks. Part of the reason is that I don't particularly like the sculpts. eGaspy just looks awkward and the almost skipping pose of the Warwitch looks strange on the table. As a result these have been painted to a table top finish, with very much a focus on the word finish! They are done, look OK on the table and I can cross them off my list. Sometimes I think you've just got push on.

Two more similar candidates are close on their heals...