Monday, October 31, 2016

Lighted power generator terrain piece.

To finish off the surprisingly post-heavy October, I have one more bit of work that is all built  and should be getting paint soon.

Came about from a contest/challenge on youtube, using what you had lying around. Based on candy containers and using a lot of left overs from the Helicarrier, I built a power generator kinda from Empire Strikes Back with some LED's.

Not much else to say, here it is:


..and a blurry pick to show off the lighting.


That's it for October, pretty busy around here with an AoS tourny and two Attack Wing OP's under my belt, plus all the Blood Angels I worked on.

Still saving for the Stormtalon, I'm hoping my Dropzone Commander auction will pay for it though.

Thursday, October 27, 2016

Quickie: Iron Angels Deathstar

Just a quick post here, while I was putting away the command squad I snapped a pic of the entire deathstar unit.






Captain, command squad and Librarious Conclave. 

Using the Medusa Strike Force, the unit has a 3+ FNP. The command bikes have storm shields for that 3++ as well.  Add in say, invisibility or the re-roll saves power and they are pretty tough. And being on bikes they are hard to ignore.

Just need to save up for another Stormtalon.

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Showcase: Iron Angels command squad

After much trial and tribulation, I finally finished my command squad. So happy they are done.





And with the captain:

Now down to a single Stormtalon to finish my list.  Need money first.

I picked up some Black Reach boyz, and I still have my metal nobs to deal with.  More to come!

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Battle Report: Age of Sigmar tournament

First I have to say the tournament was a bit of a letdown. There was suppose to be a big wind storm blow through Portland today but it was mostly a dud and it looks like that kept people away. Only 6 out of the 26 that signed up showed up.

We went ahead and played anyway, and it was still totally worth it.

Not to mention how happy I was with the way my army looked!


 
Game 1, mission 1 vs Chaos (mostly Nurgle)

A glotkin, plague drones, some Knights, and other misc gribblies.


The game was to hold objectives one in each deployment zone.  I ran up as Orcs are suppose to do and just got wiped out. However he couldn't get to my objective earning only a minor victory.



Game 2, mission 2 vs Death

Vampire on dragon and lots of crypt ghouls that come in on turn 1.

This was quite a bit of a different mission with earning points for objectives. having many units helped out and despite losing most of my army again I still ended up with a major victory simply by outscoring on the mission.

BTW crypt ghouls are very hard to kill.  But don't do a lot either...



Game 3, mission 6 vs Order

Lots of Elves shooting and a dragon.  So. many. bows.

Another one objective each.  I lost almost all my army with just the doom divers, grots and shaman left.  I did quite a bit more damage though this time mainly with the doom divers able to take out the general on dragon.  He made one mistake leaving his objective, and the game came down to a hawk rider vs my shaman..but he couldn't kill him giving me another major victory.


There was another destruction player, playing Ironjaws with about 15 Gore Gruntas and a Maw Crusha. It looked AWESOME on the table, for sure. But He went 1-2 to me 2-1 netting me the Destruction award.


So I learned A LOT today.

What worked:
1. Goblin netters. Holy crap these are awesome. it's amazing how much a -1 to hit really hurts. I am thinking about how to keep some near every combat, it seems to be the way to go.
2. Boys with shields (kinda).  The boys units with shields were quite a bit more survivable then the unit with 2 choppas.  They just simply get a re-roll in close combat (not shooting though, which they need) and made them fairly hard to kill. Using the Great Waggh! banner gave them the same re-roll 1's that the 2x choppa guys had so I don't see any reason to take 2x choppa guys in the future.  The -1 rend on such basic models is also pretty good.
3. Spider Riders. Still an awesome unit.  I ran them into things that they should have avoided but with Inspiring Presence and Bellowing Tyrant they are quite remarkable ..if used correctly. I was super aggressive and of course have no idea what I'm facing but careful use of these guys is well worth it. They are quite spendy at 80pts per 5 but worth it.
4. Doom Divers. Having more then one is the key, and they are basically twin-linked and when they do hit they do a lot of damage.
5. Destruction abilities.  Another holy crap moment.  Giving units a D6 move in the hero phase plus their normal movement is amazing.  Not only for longer threat range but to re-arrange everything if needed prior to moving.  I took bellowing Tyrant which gives one unit +1 to hit..and it's amazing.
6. Grots.  The massive unit of grots were just so fantastic, so many models that they take forever to chew through and with the netters they don't take anywhere near as much damage as you would think.

What didn't work:
1. boys.  SOOO fragile. And then you combine battle shock losses on top of it and once someone starts concentrating on them, the units just melt away.  They need to be immune to battleshock above 10 models. They also don't hit very hard unless they have buffs on them.
2. Big things. Orruk big things have almost no save so they don't last long.  And they are seriously expensive.


Going forward:
If I spend any effort on this army for future AoS tournaments, I will need to replace the basic boys with something better for the battleline requirements.  I think Ogres are the way to go there.  Also leadbelchers could add some better firepower. Something to consider.

Orruks going to a tournament!

The first post-general's handbook Age of Sigmar tournament is happening tomorrow at my FLGS.

Most of the last week I've spent finishing off the display board.  The snowshoe middle was done and I had to just to everything else.   It took way longer and was much more work then it should have been, mostly from dealing with the foam board warping from the PVA.


Just recycled the frame from my 40k Ork board.

I'm very much limited to the models I have. If I do expand the army I would love to add some Ogres to the list for some better punch in battleline units.

Anyway this is what I'm bringing:

Orruk Battlehost 
Destruction allegiance.

 Leader: Orruk Warboss:  Boss shield, choppa, great waagh! banner
Command trait: bellowing tyrant
Artifact: Talisman of protection

Leader: Orruk Great shaman

Battleline: 30x Orruks: Shield/choppa, Skull icon, drummer

Battleline: 30x Orruks: 2x choppa, skull icon, drummer
Battleline: 40 Grots spears/shields, gong basher, netters, bad moon icon

Behemoth: Mangler Squig

Artillery: doom diver
Artillery: doom diver

Other: Orruk chariot
Other: 20 spider riders, bows, bone drummer, icon

Sideboard:
Behemoth: Arachnarok spider
Artillery: Grot rock thrower
Others: Orruk Charriot

I don't expect to win any games, as the models are woefully under powered compared to other armies.  The whole scene is very new, especially around here. It's almost like a new game in fact..there is no meta yet.

It's also a potluck!  Tis' an amazing day. 

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Next project up: More Iron Angels

I've been really off my hobby game for the last week or so, mainly because I'm lacking any motivation to finish my command squad bikes. I'm already tired of painting BA again, I normally can only take them in small doses but I've been doing a lot. Considering I only have 5 models left too paint it shouldn't be a big deal.  I'm going to be doing just 2 at a time and basically forcing myself. I also need to finish my display board for Saturday. I was hoping to do a frozen river but time and money won't allow it.  Someday.


Also I tried to match the storm shields to my Thunderwolves..and failed miserably...



UGLY BAGS OF MOSTLY WATER!!!  sigh.  Now I can't decide if I want red, black or leadbeltcher.

anyway that's where I'm at. I still need Frostgrave stuff as well.  Hopefully a full day of AoS gaming will solve all my blues...

Sunday, October 9, 2016

My review of Luke Cage.


Several times while watching it I did find myself actually bored, waiting for something to happen. The first half is well paced, but right about the first plot twist it slows way down to more political pandering and manipulation that stuck me as oddly similar to Star Wars Episode 1. It did pick back up again for sure, however I found the climax didn't live up to the hype. It was over very quickly and then moved all the people into position for a possible Season 2.

The acting was superb all around. The characters were well rounded, deep and interesting. The one exception was the star, who shined at times but had trouble relaying the layers of the Cage character. It might have been the writing as well, but sometimes he was fantastic and others he just wasn't believable.

There is, of course, much more to this series. Harlem itself could almost be considered a character. It was more then the backdrop for the story, but was integral to it. The music also was outstanding with a mix of classic and modern R&B and some stellar hip-hop (of which I am not a fan but I enjoyed it). Racial issues were front and center the entire time, both good and bad. They did not sugar coat anything related to black on black crime, but didn't sugar coat race and police issues either. My favorite line came early "Everyone has gun, no one has a father". There were also several jokes about "nothing police fear more then a bulletproof black man." Overall it was very thought provoking.

Lastly the tone of the show was quite a bit different then Jessica Jones or Daredevil, no where near as dark. The action wasn't as brutal as I found in Daredevil (the season 1 hallway fight is the best thing ever in media IMO), and the themes were not as troubling and damaging as Jones. It was quite refreshing and made it no where near as hard to watch as the others.

I have to give it 3.5 out of 5 stars. the pacing in the second have left much to be desired, and it just didn't hold my attention quite as much as the previous Netflix/Marvel series.

Saturday, October 8, 2016

Second game of Frostgrave!

Got my second campaign game in tonight. Playing first mission, eclipse from lich lord.
Game went pretty well, I ended up with 4 treasures and a bunch of stuff. Didn't lose anyone during the game, as I gave my Barbarian and Knights +2 move so my opponent just moved his casters off the board as I was running full bore at them. My Soothsayer went from level 1 to level 5 in one go! My dice(die?) were hot getting off 10 spells over the game, plus the 50 bonus XP from the scenario.

I still need my own treasure tokens plus something for my Wizard's eye spells. I have 2 weeks before my next game to figure it out.





Right now I'm working on my Orcs & Goblins display board, which may or may not be ready in time for next weekend..

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

More Frostgrave

I said I wouldn't get any more Reaper Bones minis, but they are just so darn cheap it's hard to get anything else. These were not particularly bad, well worth the $2.50 each.

After my first game I had enough cash to re-hire my injured Thug and add these two Knights to my warband, maxing it out. I also gave each of my casters a healing potion. Not bad!

It does not look like I'm going to get to treasure or Wizard's Eye modeling this week, so I'm going to just print up some tokens for now.






Next game is Friday night and this time I promise to at least take some pictures.  I'll try and arrange a full game battle report sometime. Don't know if I have enough SD card or computer space to do it though.

Taking a bit of a break from 40k painting and I've been working on scale models.  But I'll get to my command squad soon enough.

That's it! laterz!