Rusty Robots

 

The release of "Reign in Iron" by Snarling Badger games (solo Demons vs Robots gaming) had me reaching into the neglected miniatures drawer to pull out my old Warmachine Cryx Warjacks - ideal for battles against hordes from Hell I thought.

Warmachine - The Final Door is Slams Shut.

It's been about a year since my last game of Warmachine, so MacSver and I dusted off the models for a game. The forces were Khador (MacSver) against Cygnar (myself).  We lined up:.

Khador:

• Kommander Sorscha Kratikoff
• Juggernaut - Heavy Warjack
• Destroyer - Heavy Warjack
• Assault Kommandos
• Widowmakers
• Man-O-War Shocktroopers

Cygnar: 

• Commander Adept Nemo
• Ironclad Heavy Warjack
• Lancer Light 'jack
• Firefly Light 'jack
• Journeyman Warcaster
• Charger Light 'jack (bound to Jr)
• Black 13th Gun Mages
• 2 x Stormcallers

It was to be a straight battle across the Crystal Fields.

Warmachine - Cygnar Warcaster Nemo

Cygnar Warcaster Nemo off the table now. He's the last of the Cygnar splurge started from the Journeyman League in August.  The main difficulty I had was trying to decide what layers of armour should be what colour. So you can imagine how pleased I was after making all my decisions that he came out like everyone else's - oh well!

He signals the last of my official Cygnar models. There are a of trio dino-riders waiting to become Storm Lances (with similar Katherine Laddermore and Jeremiah Kraye), but they're another project for another day.

Warmachine - Cygnar Grenadier Warjack

First of the October table clearance pieces finished, a Warmachine Cygnar Grenadier Warjack.

He's got one foot up a sandbag Bruce Dickinson style (at least in my mind). Partly because I don't like the "standard" pose for the 'jack right side (pick swinging back), but also because I was having so much trouble getting his leg to stay fixed on. Ready now though to take his place with his Trencher brethren.

Warmachine - Cygnar Stormcallers

September's Painting Oath has just made the deadline:

The Warcaster and 'Jack never made it into the final shots unfortunately. Too many nights making Home brew and plum jam cut into the painting time.

i don't plan to pledge this month (October) as I look to clear the paining table of a few things...

Warmachine - August Cygnar Warjacks Complete

My august painting oath and new Journeyman League recruits are finished. Basing the older metal warjacks on their tiles has helped a bit. The Lancer on the left has gained a bit of height parity with the newer Firefly in the centre (although is still of slighter build). Happily the new 'jacks paint tones match the previous ones from over a year ago.

More Cygnar will be on the table for September...

Cryx vs Cygnar

For a quick out-of-campaign casual game my regular SoBH buddy, MacSver, volunteered to dust off his Cryx and have a 25pt Warmachine game. So unplanned was this game that some of his troops were away on exercise elsewhere in the Iron Kingdoms, so compromising his army list.

We lined up as above.

Cryx:

• Warwitch Deneghra
• Nightmare Heavy 'jack
• Defiler bonejack
• 6 x Bile Thralls
• Cylena Raefyll and Nyss Hunters
• Pistol Wraith

Cygnar:

• Commander Coleman Stryker
• Ironclad Heavy Warjack
• Lancer Light 'jack
• Firefly Light 'jack
• Squire
• Journeyman Warcaster
• Charger Light 'jack (bound to Jr)
• Black 13th Gun Mages

The Cryx deployed and went first, hammering forward, with the Nyss Hunter team flanking round the large rock formation.

Cygnar moved forward more cautiously, reorganising slightly due to poor deployment. The Lancer armour was boosted up with Arcane shield and placed in cover further up to ambush with arc node and power shield (or at least that was the plan!)

Deneghra pushed her forces forward, turning the nightmare ghostly for extra flexibility. The lurking Cygnar Lancer was hit with Crippling Grasp from Deneghra and also Death Chill courtesy of the a Pistol Wraith volley, rendering it's attacks null and void next turn. THe Pistol Wraith was now, however, corporeal and was taken out by the Black 13th on the Cygnar right flank. The head was also disabled on the defiler in the same group attack.

A boosted up Firefly (with Snipe for range) took out almost all the Bile Thralls with help of the cannon's Electroleap ability.

Jr's Charger similarly managed to deal with the Nyss Hunter group over a couple of rounds.

The Lancer moved into contact with the defiler to prevent any Cryx spell casting through the bonejack and it's Arcane Shield managed to keep it going (but only just) following a savage onslaught from behind from the Nightmare and Deneghra herself as troop options started to get thin.

The Black 13th took advantage to nip round behind the Cryx Warcaster and blast her from behind in a most unsportsmanlike manner, killing her to win.

Having never played with a Journeyman Warcaster or Firefly it was an interesting game for me. The Firefly proved it's stuff against the admittedly squishy Bile Thralls. For the same points the Cryx could have had 6 Mech-thralls and a Necrosurgeon (who were away this particular night) who would have provided a much more effective rushing screen up the table. I know that would have been MacSver's prefered choice. Good to continue the rules dusting off though.

Circle vs Cygnar

Holidays,work and illness has kept the poor hobby blog in the shadows for the last couple of weeks. There is progress on my Cygnar warjacks from last post (plus a couple of others) but they are pushing the end of month deadline, so hopefully you'll see them in their glory by then!

My assembled 15pt Cygnar force.

I did however manage to get in a game of Warmachine at the local club last Saturday for the Journeyman League. It's take a while, so the army size had grown from just the battle group to 15pts. I already have that painted up  so was OK to go (although their's no requisite that models be painted to play)

Foes meet to battle over objectives.

My Opponent was having his second ever game with his new Hordes Circle force (his first having been immediately preceding our game) so both players were on an even keel on how best to use their forces. To add to the new experience I'd never played against a Hordes force , so the different power mechanics were interesting\suprising, and he'd never played against Cygnar before, so was unprepared for some of the shooting.

Forces close in, with the Cygnar Heavy Ironclad
to provide protection.

Inexperience with the rules (and even reading some of the card effects) led to a few mistakes. To be honest we both made them but I definitely benefited most as we discovered after the game.

The Warp Wolf charges in and completely destroys
the Heavy 'jack in one flurry of tooth and claw!

Being unfamiliar with the opponents forces and special rules also came into play. But it was all in the learning experience.

End game as Styrker unleashes a roll of 6 sixes to
take out his opponent.

The game was played in a friendly manner though and we both took more interest than dread in being ripped open by the "enemy". I the end I technically one, but as one of our errors had led to the untimely death of one of his solos I can only claim it as a technical win. Good fun though, and not as brain crushing as I seem to have remembered. Probably because of the low point cost.

The league will be up to 25pts by the time I get my next game in and then 35 pts after that. I don't know if my brain can handle that much...

Skyclad Warjacks

After a day in the Dettol the paint was flaking off itself so was easily removed. Slight scrub with a firm brush removed the rest (with the odd crevice needing picked up with a knife). There is a tendency for black gunge to start to form and spread on the brush and model, but a quick wash with white spirit cleans both.

I've based the 'jacks on some cork tiling to try and boost their height. The metal models are smaller than the new plastics, especially the light warjacks.

The one on the right is NOT far away.

As you can see the old metals are about a third smaller. Not ideal, but hopefully will look better one painted. The fact I have a plastic Lancer already painted may still look a bit strange on the table. It's a bit of a shame, because the larger sized plastics mean that the Heavy Jacks look less hulking.

Stripping for the League

My local shop FLGS, Worlds At War, is starting a Warmachine Journeyman League this week. This is a basic casual league format to bring in new players and for folk to start new factions. Everyone starts off playing a starter battlebox and then builds on it (with certain restrictions) as the weeks go by. I hardly played Warmachine over the last couple of years, so I'm tentatively entering with a Cygnar force to get my remaining figures painted and play a few games over the next few weeks.

I already have a battlebox painted for Cygnar, but I've a couple of Warjacks from the set picked up from ebay to paint as well. As you can see they need a bit of a repaint.

I've got them bathing in Dettol to remove the paint while I'm at Claymore tomorrow.

Warmachine - Cygnar Black 13th

Glad to get these off my table. I hated painting these all the way until I hit that Sepia wash on them, then the end was in sight. Fiddly, small, indistinguishable detail on them put me off picking up a paint brush for a good couple of weeks, and in the end I just had to sit down with a drink and battle through my paint scheme.

Perseverance won through in the end, though, and they actually look OK on the deck. The light long coats give the figures a nice cowboy western duster coat feel.

I'm not going to forgive them though - I nearly reached for the hammer several times!

Cygnar Trencher Solo Proxies

The remaining trencher based solo's have now been painted. I've tried to convert the figures to represent to originals as closely as possible (or at least in spirit). The weapons on the proxy are those that would have been on the official Warmachine mini. I've included both pictures for comparison (mine are on top obviously).

Cygnar Rifle Grenadier (Trencher WA):

Cygnar Journeyman Warcaster:

Cygnar Trencher Master Gunner:

Cygnar Captain Maxwell Finn:

Cygnar Trencher Officer and Sniper (UA):

Must say I'm happy the way they've turned out, especially when compared to the style of the originals I don't think they'll be too out of place on the tabletop. Readers of the original proxy post will notice that my Squire is missing. I'm having second thoughts about that one as it's at least twice the size of the official mini (my one is pushed to fit on the 30mm base!).

As for other figures? I've proxies for Storm Lances, Major Katherine Laddermore and Captain Jeremiah Kraye lined up to start, but they are slight departures from the originals (although as before keeping in the spirit & weaponry). They'll be posted as they are ready...

Warmachine - Warcaster Coleman Stryker

Finishing off the Cygnar Battle Box comes its Warcaster, Coleman Stryker. Great sculpt with excellent prominent cheekbones for definition, which really helps as my face paining is rubbish (just ask the poor hobbit from January)

Warmachine - Cygnar Warjacks Ready

Three new Warjacks roll off the Cygnar production line:

Ironclad:

Charger:

Lancer:

All these are from the plastic Cygnar Battlegroup box. Having looked about the interweb I knew that I didn't fancy the standard blue dominated colour scheme so I went with the paler option that you occasionally see kicking around. The lighter colour also benefits from the sepia wash more. They were all painted speed style at the same time, hence the multiple display.

Warcaster from that set (Commander Coleman Stryker) and some more Trencher style proxies are next in line for paint...

Warmachine - Cygnar Trencher Proxies

The pretenders

The real deal

After only a mere 17 months from their "creation" my first Proxy Cygnar troops are painted. I'm quite pleased the way they've turned out, but obviously they'll have to fit in with the rest of my Cygnar force.  But as the colour scheme for the rest of the force is based on these chaps it shouldn't be a problem. The fact that I've also managed to customise these figures to make the trencher based solo's and unit attachments will also help give the force cohesion.

Talking of colour schemes, and again feel free to skip this next part as it's primarily to aid my memory, here's what I used.

• Coats: GW Foundation Dheneb Stone
• Trousers: Miniature Paints Earth Brown
• Boots and Gun Stock: Miniature Paints Chocolate Brown
• Helmet & Gloves: GW Foundation Calthan Brown
• Shoulder and Knee pads: GW Foundation  Mordian Blue
• Bed Roll: Miniature Paints Stone Green
• Backpack and Holster: GW Desert Yellow
• Waterbottle: Miniature Paints Brown
• Front Webbing: Miniature Paints Bronze
• Gas masks: Miniature Paints Mid Grey

Wash with diluted Vallejo Sepia and highlight with original colours again.

I chose to wash with Vallejo Sepia this time as it gives a warmer and less gritty feel.

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!

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...

Re-starting the Warmachine

Deneghra advances with her two heavy 'jacks

Managed to get some time this Saturday to get along to our local club. For a bit of a change (slightly motivated by the chance of a game this week with MacSver) we dug out some Cryx mini's. I had planned to play as before, using the Cryx and Cygnar starter Battle groups , as these reduce the options enough for us to play. Arabainsquire had other ideas and wanted a Cryx vs Cryx battle (no doubt inspired by a couple of games he's seen recently at the club).

Arabiansquire's heavy metal come forward to
meet the challenge.

So I managed to cobble together a couple of 15pt lists that I hoped would work closely enough. The problem was that the new forces and unfamiliarity led to some tactical mistakes (either forces too far forward or too cautious to get into the action), so despite it being fun it didn't quite work out.

The Cankerworm gets reeled in and finished off.

I'll probably go back to the original Cryx/Cygnar combo next time until we can become more familiar with the game again. My bargaining position would probably improve of course if I actually painted my Cygnar!

Warmachine - Cryx Nightwretch & Defiler

The final 'jacks in my Cryx force, a second  Defiler and Nightwretch

Usual rust theme. Not quite as bright as some of my previous rusty beasts, but close enough to match in (older rust maybe?).