Painting Update - Wrath of Kings, Guild Ball

Let's take a look at the models that have passed through the painting queue in the new year.

I've finished another set of the Shael Han infantry for Wrath of Kings - the Dragon Legion. Like the Children before, this includes the two leaders and the Character leader.

I also completed Veteran Harmony for the Masons in Guild Ball.

Painting Update - Guild Ball, Arena Rex, Kings of War, Horizon Wars

We're back this week with some single additions and half of a "big" project. 

Gen Con has come and gone, and thanks to some ninja-shopping from Kevyn, I managed to get my hands on some exclusive releases.

Wrecker is the Season 2 mascot for the Masons, and hasn't been released yet. He's an interesting addition (with a somewhat boring model), and I'm curious as to how he works in the team compared to Marbles. The baboon is a damage modifier, while the giant armadillo seems to occupy the footballing space more, with some methods to push models around as he moves.

Lupa is a gladiator for Ludus Magnus, and was originally available only through the Kickstarter. Now she can be bought exclusively at certain conventions. She brings some hitting power to the Magnus ludi, but can be stopped by the opponent by spending Favor dice - which can put the Magnus player at a Favor advantage. She's also a pain to take a picture of thanks to her stance.

Although I lost interest in Kings of War as a fantasy mass-combat ruleset earlier this year, I'm planning on attending a local tournament just to get some games in and support the local scene. The problem is, I no longer have an army for the game, having sold off my League of Rhordia/Kingdoms of Men force not too long ago. Luckily, Kevyn's letting me borrow his Ogres mega-army. As a thank you, I picked up this Reaper Bones giant and will pass it along to Kevyn, after using it in the tournament.

As for the "big" project, I completed half of the forces I'm putting together for Horizon Wars. The above miniatures are all from the Army of the Reach, the military force of Harker's Reach, one of the most powerful manufacturing cities on Kressidia. They're the main opposition to the UMC (United Mercantile Consortium) and their mercenary companies.

This is a big force; an average game of Horizon Wars may range from 15 to 30 points, and what I've painted adds up to 67 points!

The armored elements of the army consist of Mobile Infantry, Light Cavalry, Heavy Cavalry, and Armored Artillery. The vehicles are from Brigade Models, as are the infantry.

There are plenty of foot infantry options; Light Artillery, Recon, Airborne Infantry, Special Forces, Light Infantry and Heavy Infantry. Again, these are all from Brigade Models.

These Heavy Gear mechs have been repurposed as paratrooper variants of medium Gator and light Caiman mechs. I'll be adding more when Dream Pod 9 releases their plastic starter set, which contains 30 mechs!

Now that the Reach forces are done, I'm starting work on the UMC, which is made up of various private military companies. This should break up some of the monotony, as everything in the faction won't need to look alike.

Painting Update - SAGA, Old West, Guild Ball

Today's update sees the completion of a project that started three years ago!

With these Warriors for the Normans (borrowed from Gripping Beasts' Breton range), I've finally finish all of my miniatures for Saga. That's a combined 26 points across the original four factions - Vikings, Anglo-Danes, Welsh, and Normans. And thanks to the somewhat fluid alliances and group movements, most of these models can potentially act as other factions in the game.

This group of gunslingers will be used for Fistful of Lead and other games set in the Wild West. They're a mixture of Knuckleduster Miniatures' Heroes and Bad Men sets from their 28mm Old West line of gunfighters. I may have to grab another set, as there's a distinct lack of rifles and shotguns amongst all those pistols.

I also completed the special "Show" version of Flint for my Masons in Guild Ball, given to me by another local player (thanks Jerry!), who won the mini after placing second at a recent event. Jerry fields the Alchemists and Hunters, however, so he was kind enough to pass the miniature along to me.

Unfortunately, the newer version of Flint highlights a current problem with the Mason miniatures. Back when Guild Ball was first released, the Masons were actually sculpted by a different person compared to now, and were done in 28mm, compared to the larger 32mm used currently. This is pretty obvious as the newer Flint is a giant compared to his older sculpt. Even Chisel, who is by no means a tall person in the game's universe, is larger than the older version of Flint.

What this means, apparently, is that the original Masons - Honor, Harmony, Mallet, Flint, Brick, Marbles and Tower - will be getting resculpts that bring them into scale with the rest of the Guild Ball line. I just hope Steamforged doesn't take too long!

Painting Update - Arena Rex, Blood Bowl, Guild Ball, SAGA

This week's update is definitely sports based, from grassy pitches to the blood-stained sands of gladiatorial arenas. 

I finally received the Ludus Magnus starter set for Arena Rex that I had ordered back in March. I quickly painted that up and, after a few games, decided I definitely needed more, as simple 3v3 games weren't going to cut it.

All of the above models are from the Ludus Magnus faction, the state-sponsored gladiatorial school in Arena Rex's alternate history, where the Roman Republic exists alongside the Roman Empire in 420 AD. I plan on completing the faction after playing a few more games, especially since one of the options is the impressive Titan/Beast/Mount, Nero, a massive bull that can be ridden by Septimus, another Ludus Magnus gladiator.

To the left is an old 2nd edition Ogre I added to the Loch Rysk Warhawks, for a little extra punch against bashy teams.

On the right are Greed and Avarisse, two Union team members that the Masons can take in Guild Ball. I was originally not a fan of the fluff or the sculpts of the models, but after having seen their usefulness at the recent Cleaver tournament, I decided to add them to the team. They have also grown on me as I painted them.

Finally, I also finished a mounted Hearthguard unit for my Normans in Saga.

I've got another mounted Warrior unit to work on, and that'll mark the end of the Saga project, which will leave me with at least 6 points for each of the original factions - Vikings, Anglo-Danes, Welsh, and Normans.

Cleaver Named Guild Ball Tournament - Guild Ball AAR

While enjoying a nice three day weekend, I took part in another local tournament, run once again by local area pundit Alex, who unfortunately failed several times while trying to name the tournament correctly.

 You can also call him "King Typo."

The tournament saw 14 players assemble, from the Liberty and Capital Guild Ball groups, along with some visitors from New Jersey.

I was running Masons again, with the following line-up:

• Honor
• Marbles
• Brick
• Mallet
• Flint
• Decimate
• Mist

Over the course of fours games, I played against Union (12-10), Brewers (6-12), Masons (12-10), and Morticians (6-12). With two wins and two losses, I placed 7th overall - not too bad for a casual player. 

My games mostly revolved around trying to make the Chissile work - using a supercharged Chisel to run up the field and potentially take out multiple players and score a goal if possible. In the two games I won, it worked. In the two games I lost, it didn't, with my opponents shutting down Chisel through movement debuffs.

Now that the tournament's passed, I can really start to play with Hammer, and maybe pick up Avarisse and Greede, who I saw all over the place at the event. 

Overall, I had a great time, and I'm looking forward to Alex's next event. 

Painting Update - Guild Ball

This week's update covers the last few additions to my Guild Ball teams. 

Hammer is the Season 2 Captain for the Masons, and is at odds with Honor with his playstyle. While Honor could take a turn for herself to do some major damage, she can also pass out extra activations, movement, and Influence. Hammer, however, is a selfish player, constantly pulling Influence from his teammates to fuel his own abilities. The end result is a one man wrecking ball. I need more practice with him, as my tactics so far have left Hammer dangling like an unwound yo-yo in front of the entire opposing team.

I picked up Hemlocke back before the Great Blind Nerf of 2016, back when Blind was considered a crippling, incurable status effect that could be thrown out as a 3" AoE. Her usefulness has dwindled somewhat since Blind was changed, but she can still heal and cure conditions with her Smelling Salts play, and can be a semi-capable scorer when the opportunity presents itself.

I've only played with the new version of Rage (the Union's combination Veteran Captain) once, and it seems like the Influence efficient killer has taken some management courses. While he can still hand out a beating when necessary - especially against Union players on the opposing team - his Red Fury can allow other Union players to keep attacking, potentially up to four more times! Combine that with his Legendary Play, and Captain Rage can delegate out some really nasty damage.

Hopefully I'll have a report after this weekend, as I'll be attending a local Guild Ball tournament with my Masons. I just need to decide who I want leading the team: Honor or Hammer. After playing a few games with Hammer, I feel as though I may decide to roll back to Honor. Hammer just needs too much Influence to be effective, leaving the rest of the team little to work with. Players who can shut down Hammer shut down the team. Honor, however, can pick and choose whether or not she wants to make herself into a wrecking ball, or turn her fellow players into potential threats.

Painting Update - Wargods of Aegyptus, Guild Ball, European Village

Here's another update from the painting table. 

I completed another unit from my Wargods of Aegyptus project. 

This is technically an 11-strong unit of Asar Warriors with hand weapons, shields, and medium armor. The unit Champion, which is bought independently, is equipped in the same way and is placed in between the Musician and the Standard Bearer.

This is the second unit in my small warband of Dispossessed (followers of Osiris and Isis) for Wargods. I know just have to paint the characters - the Harbinger, Hero, Master of Words, and Priestess of Isis - and that'll be the core done. From there, I'll move onto some units and characters from other races. Probably Tethru and Sebeki.

I'm also pretty pleased with the blue/bronze color scheme. I've been considering doing the same for the other races, but decided against it. I think it'll look better if each race has their own scheme. For the Tethru, I'm thinking of using gold and purple, and green and tan for the Sebeki.

I also worked on my Union team for Guild Ball. Including Mist, this puts me at seven Union players - just shy of the eight player limit for tournaments. I'm going to be using this team for the foreseeable future, as I'm planning on running them in a tournament later in April.

One of these players - Decimate, on the right in the back row - can play for the Masons, so that gives me more options for my original team. Gutter, Fangtooth, and Rage (front-left, back-left, and back-middle, respectively) can't play for the Masons. They can, however, all play for the Brewers, as can Hemlocke, the other Union player I'm considering picking up as my eighth. I wonder if that's a sign as to what my third Guild Ball team should be, sometime in the future...

When I put up my blog post about painting Mist, I complained about the quality of the paints I used - Privateer Press' "Beaten Purple" and Citadel's Blood Red. To replace these, I used Vallejo's Game Model "Hexed Lichen" and Citadel's "Wazdakka Red." While the Hexed Lichen is great, I wouldn't want to use Wazdakka Red any more than necessary.

Additionally; back in August of last year, I talked about a few buildings I was working on for some WWII terrain. While other projects have taken up most of my painting time, I have been working on the buildings on and off, and finally managed to finish them.

The fence came together nicely, with some simple painting and washes.

The miscasting is still noticeable on some pieces, however. But it's easy to miss at arm's length.

The Barn House looks great, although I did skip painting the interior.

The same goes for the battle-damaged Continental House.

And a Western European Barn. 

These buildings ended up being pretty great, and I'm looking into picking up at least the rest of the buildings in the series, either whole or battle-damaged. This comes at the cost of realizing that the Battlefront building I bought is far bigger than the MkIV buildings - it's so large, I need to remove the top floor just to get in into scale!

Painting Update - Kings of War, Guildball

As before, I'm continuing to work on my Kings of War project. 

I finished four bases of swordsmen, enough to combine into two Regiments or a single Horde in the Kingdoms of Men list.

Alternatively, these can be used as the back half of Citizen Militia units in the League of Rhordia list. The front half will be occupied by Halberdiers, as the Citizen Militia have the Crushing Strength (1) rule. These Halberdiers are assembled and sticky-tacked to their bases, so they're the next ones on the list that need to be worked on.

I should note that I actually had to re-base these models, along with the Arquebusier/Musket Block units shown previously. I had thought that the models would be able to withstand handling glued down only to the spackle that makes up the top layer of the base. That turned out to be a big mistake, as only after a couple games, many of the miniatures were tearing free.

The solution was to purposefully rip the miniatures from the base, cut off the hardened glue and trapped flocking, and then drilled down to the plastic underneath the exposed spackle. Then I glued the miniature back down - a much stronger bond formed with the plastic of the base - and touched up the base so that no white was showing.

Although time intensive, I think it worked pretty well.

After acquiring Mist after Snow Ball and playing him in a game (10-12 against Kevyn's Alchemists; Mist did score a goal, however), I painted him over the past weekend.

I'm not totally happy with the paint job - the Citadel Blood Red and the P3 Beaten Purple don't have enough pigment for my taste. So I'll look into replacing them with Vallejo equivalents (Vermilion and Royal Purple, respectively).

This scheme is what I plan on using for my Union. Boring, I know, but it works!

Painting Update - Guild Ball Terrain

My recent experience with terrain in Guild Ball really has me fired up to get some of my own terrain for use with the local players. So, after making sure I knew what the official terrain rules were, I headed out to one of the local craft stores to peruse their shelves and see what I could find. 

I found a baggie of thin wooden shapes - the last one! - and found, after some measuring, that the circles were perfect for what I needed. This gave me four 4.5" circles, four 2.5" circles, and six 2" circles. That's enough to cover two Guild Ball pitches in the maximum allowed amount of terrain (seven pieces). 

So, I planned to have:

1 Forest (restricted to one, maximum 6" area)

3 Rough Ground (maximum 6" area)

1 Barrier (restricted to one, maximum 3" area)

3 Fast Ground (maximum 3" area)

6 Obstacles (maximum 2" area)

The Barrier started pretty simply, with blocks of sticky-tack glued together to form a wall. Mist is here to show the height.

In the next step, I coated the sticky-tack with Citadel's gloss varnish. As the varnish dried, it hardened, making the sticky-tack less malleable. The base was then covered in spackle.

Here's the result after painting, basing, and varnishing. It's not perfect, but it'll work. The sticky-tack has also become much less malleable during the process.

The Rough Ground each had pieces of styrofoam glued down.

And then spackle was applied. I was aiming to show that there's uneven ground in these terrain pieces, while still allowing models to be places anywhere without falling over.

I did take a risk while priming these, knowing that the spray primer I was using wasn't water-based. The resulting melting, however, gave the styrofoam a much more natural look with less sharp edges.

For the Forest, I decided I could spare some trees from my collection, and added these to the base. They won't be glued down, however, so that way the trees can be removed in case a model needs to move into that particular section of the terrain. 

The layer of spackle went on around the trees, leaving holes where they would go afterwards.

Some painting, flocking, and varnishing later, the trees still fit in place!

The Fast Ground pieces were probably the easiest to get ready. They just needed a layer of spackle to start.

And to finish, they were painted, washed, and then covered in a layer of Citadel's gloss varnish (I've used that varnish more times in this project than I had in the past year).

I actually forgot to take mid-build pictures of the Obstacles, but here's the end result - cubes painted to look like crates, and thread spools that (hopefully) look like barrels.

And here's the final result. Compared to the original image, I'd say it's a half-decent turn out for a couple nights worth of work.

Now I can finally get back to painting miniatures.

Snow Ball 2016 - Guild Ball AAR

This past weekend I drove down to Enter the Realm to participate in the Philadelphia area's first Guild Ball tournament.

As I was more focused on playing the games, I didn't take any pictures, but I will be grabbing a few from the Facebook page of the event.

First off, Alex, the TO, did a fantastic job of running the event, and everything went smoothly. And big thanks to Chris, the store owner, for not only hosting the event and providing catering, but for offering really awesome prize support!

The event had 21 players (it did get a little crowded), and was played over four rounds. Chess clocks were also in use, with 45 minutes for each player. You can check out the official tournament rules pack for more information.

The totals for Guild representation were:
Alchemists - 2
Brewers - 3
Butchers - 3
Engineers - 2
Fishermen - 3
Masons - 4
Morticians - 2
Union - 2

So there was a good spread, though Masons were a little over-represented.

(In a twist of fate, poor Tom - one of the local guys running Morticians - ended up playing against all three of the Butchers team in the first three rounds. Ouch!)

Teams were mostly good on painting, with most being painted, while some were partially finished and only a few were bare metal. But some of the paint jobs were incredible! And Mike, a local Brewers player, won Best Painted with his team. He certainly deserved it.

I was running pure Masons, and used the same six players in all four games:

Honor
Marbles
Mallet
Brick
Flint
Chisel

Which I felt could either do a scoring or bashing game depending on what teams I was facing across the table.

I played against The Union (12-2), Fishermen (4-12), Morticians (12-4), and Masons (6-12). The Fishermen were the biggest surprise, as I had never played them before. They took my Masons apart and ran circles around me. It's a paint to realize that what should have been a power-turn is wasted because half your team can't move!

Funny enough, my last match against the Masons was a mirror match, with my opponent taking the same players. So at least we knew what the other player's abilities were.

Apart from one other game, these were my only games played on the clock, and it adds a whole new dimension to the game. I've had some games of Guild Ball go 2-2.5 hours due to unfamiliarity with the rules and analysis paralysis. The clocks add a sense of urgency to the game, and make sure that the time doesn't run on forever. I actually think it's much more fun to play on the clock, especially since both players only have 6 models to worry about, while still needing to think about positioning and activation order.

I ended up 2-2 and in 10th place, which I'll take for a first tournament and still being relatively new at the game. I also got a goal token for being the best Mason player that didn't place in the top four (my last opponent got 2nd place). I also decided to pick up Mist while I was there, for potential use in the future, seeing as how Harmony and Tower sat on the bench for the whole event.

Overall, I had a great time, and I'm looking forward to getting out to more events. It looks like there some going on either further north or south of the Philadelphia area, so I guess it all depends on how long I want to spend in the car. 

Painting Update - Guild Ball, Blood Bowl

Even as the new year starts to get settled in, I've been working on getting some painting done. 

The two Orc players are conversions of regular players into Varag Ghoul-Chewer and Ugroth Bolgrot, two Star Players for the Orc team in Blood Bowl. This was just a side project, and something I wanted to do with the extra Blood Bowl miniatures I have.

The little lady with the big hammer is Chisel, the first of the Season Two models for the Masons in Guild Ball. She's an Offensive Midfielder, and primarily focused on doing damage to herself to hit harder when in combat with enemy players.

As for games played, I managed to get in a couple games of Kings of War, with my Kingdoms of Men against a Varangur force (which I lost) and another against a Ogre army (which I won). I also played another game of Guild Ball against an Alchemist team, which I won 12-2. I hope to get a few more games in before the upcoming tournament I'm playing in.

Masons vs. Butchers - Guild Ball AAR

Another Guild Ball post to round out the week.  I played a couple games against Alex and his Butchers at Enter the Realm.

The first game ended with an absolute Butcher blow-out, 14-0. The Masons were torn to pieces during the match, and I ended up losing five players over the course of three turns. Adding insult to injuries, Alex then had Brisket send the pigskin slamming home into the Mason's goal post!

Wow. My first taste of the Butchers was pretty nasty. They can move fast and they really, really hurt when they attack - nothing like the Morticians or Brewers! It probably didn't help that I ended up bunching my team up in the middle of the pitch.

The second game ended in another Butcher win at 12-6, but at least I managed to get onto the board. The Butchers took four Masons players, and Brisket scored again. Flint managed to get a goal in, and Honor did take out Shank, and almost knocked Ox out of the game. Unfortunately, I could never get enough Influence in one place to make a decent play.

And it definitely didn't help that my dice were horrible during both games.

So, what did these games teach me? Well, I know that Masons are definitely at a disadvantage against Butchers. The team needs to be bunched up to get their buffs, but Butchers love having opponents that are close together. And Masons generally don't have the movement or plays to run around the Butchers. I can send Flint or Harmony forward and hope to score, but then watch them get chewed up. The best thing I do can do is to keep playing against the Butchers and learn how to work against them.

Masons vs. Morticians - Guild Ball AAR

Even poor weather isn't enough to stop a game of Guild Ball. With the rain pouring down outside, Kevyn and I met at Stomping Grounds for a rematch. 

With more options than last week (fully painted, too!) we decided to play a 6v6 game. The teams for the match were:

Masons
Honor
Marbles
Harmony
Flint
Tower
Mallet

Morticians
Obulus
Dirge
Graves
Silence
Cosset
Mist

The appearance of the Union player was worrying, as Unions substitutions are potential outliers for team dynamics.

The game started when Mist kicked the ball onsides, and so it was given to Flint.

Players began to move forward. Tower made his way into the center of the field, hoping to use his ability to force another player to go last during a turn on Obulus, but he was out of range. Mist ran up, hoping to get an angle on the ball. Honor went next, moving closer to Flint and giving him both a 2" Dodge forward and the Superior Strategy buff (+1 Influence and another activation during this turn).

At that point, I thought I had screwed up. It was possible for Flint to score on the first turn, but I needed just a single point of Momentum to spend for the kick on the goal. Luckily, Dirge moved up and into's Flint's charge range. With that opportunity, the Mason's striker took off towards the Mortician's mascot. The dice roll allowed Flint to get his "Where'd They Go?" ability off, which resulted in a 4" dodge forward. Still out of range, Flint activated his "Super Shot" ability, giving him another 2" in range - just enough to reach the opposing team's goal. With a snap of his boot, the ball went sailing through the air and into the Mortician's mausoleum, making it 4-0 for the Masons.

The ball went back into the pitch (right after Flint dodged back to the center of the field) and landed at near Cosset, who passed the ball to Mist, who ran up the field. Flint and Marbles, lacking any Influence, moved up to intercept Mist, as Harmony ran up the empty left side of the field.

Having won the Initiative roll for the next turn, and realizing that Mist was in a bad position, Kevyn had the Union player dodge to the left, and sent the ball back to Silence. This was a mistake, however. Flint, refreshed with plenty of Influence, took the hit from Dirge's Parting Blow and ran over to Silence. Even with Obulus at his back, Flint took the ball from Silence and, with another usage of his "Super Shot" ability, managed to score another goal, setting the game to 8-0 for the Masons. The ball came back and landed in the Mortician's control.

Scoring, however, left Flint in the center of the Mortician's team, and he quickly went down, scoring the Mortician's their first points and making it 8-2. In retaliation, Honor went after Mist, quickly bringing the mercenary down to a point where a light breeze would knock him out. A plan was formed, and even as Flint's limp body was removed from the field, Tower, Marbles and Mallet all began to attack Dirge. This gave Silence the chance to launch a vial of Embalming Fluid into the scrum, setting the three Masons alight.

The next turn started with the Mortician's again, and Cosset quickly sent Tower down for a dirt nap (8-4). But then Honor went, knocking out Mist (10-4). Using their sisterly bond, Harmony then activated and sprinted between Marbles and Mallet, both of whom where trying to smother the flames. Sword flashing, the fiery redhead cut the Mortician's mascot out of the air, scoring two more Victory Points and securing the victory for the Masons, 12-4.

As for after game thoughts, it turns out that the Guild Ball community hasn't exaggerated when rating Flint as potentially the best offensive striker in the game. Two goals in as many turns not only put the Masons at a comfortable lead, but also gave the team two more Influence points to work with. My plan with Tower didn't pan out (he never got the chance to make Obulus go last), but as Kevyn point out, he did manage to hold up three of the Morticians players in the middle of the field. Harmony didn't do much as well, as most of the ball control for the Masons was done by Flint.

I'm still looking forward to getting Chisel (although it may take awhile for her to arrive in-store), and I'm beginning to think about potential additions from the Union, even though I should probably focus on learning how to use the in-faction models first. The choice I can really see at the moment is Mist, for another long-range threat for scoring alongside Flint.