Another wooden spoon

Due to a lack of venue Adam (Christchurch's pressganger) moved Monstercon 3 to Timaru.

Over 4 rounds I watched my score fall further and further behind.

First round, I got a lesson in how tough a gator force is (Hordes Minions).

Second round against Scott, I  had him in position for an assassination victory, but couldn't prevent a scenario win by him.In my turn he would had Magnus catching a Reckoner with full focus to the face, through Testament's feat. I think I will play some more games using Testament in the future.

The Third round was sacrifice, and although I was facing Richard, I felt I was facing Nigel (Gunline does NOT equal funline, unless you play Cygnar). a mistake left Kreoss in the open with a hunter lining him up for the kill.

Fourth round had me facing another Cygnar army, and another death for Kreoss.

I was the only one to walk away from the day with no wins, so I guess that's another wooden spoon for the collection. And my thoughts about the future of my Menoth force? Knights Errant and Idrian Skirmishers for some shooting, and play a few more games with Testament. But more importantly, play Firestorm Armada, I had more fun playing a half game of that than a full tournament of Warmachine/Hordes. (must save money for a fleet)

A quick update

Once again it's been a while since I posted.

Of course things have been a bit busy, with finding a new house, and moving. Most of my wargaming stuff is currently in storage in the garage/basement, so I have very little to work on, and next to no desire to paint at present.

During this hiatus I have added to my collection. My PoM force has just received the addition of the High Reclaimer, and his epic identity as Testament of Menoth.

I have also added two more games from Ambush Alley Games, in the form of Force on Force (AA with regulars vs regulars), and the pre-release PDF of  Tomorrows War - the scifi expansion for force on force. I recently printed them out, and with a little help from my boss, bound them.

Just before Xmas I took the plunge and ordered Firestorm Armada from maelstrom in the UK. After reading the book and seeing the photos within of the fleets available, it seems my main buying project for this year will be my Terran Alliance fleet. I'm that impressed with the models that I've done something I don't normally do. I've offered to paint  Nigel's Dindrenzi fleet when he gets it.

I'm hoping to start posting a bit more regularly once I get the garage/basement sorted, as i hope to set a table up in the basement and be able to play games there without having to constantly move things on off the dining table in the house.

I'm a hopeless blogger

It's been quite some time since I updated this blog.

To be honest, I haven't done a lot with my miniatures in that time, just some sporadic painting, and working on terrain. I'm finding it hard to get motivated to work on anything at the moment.

Since the last update I have participated in the Kiwithralls Nation at War league, finishing around the middle of the field. Although the idea was to start a new army, I continued with my Menoth force, using the league as a means to learn more about my units,and caster. I started the league strong, with a win for my first game, using Kreoss to take out Resnick, and learned the value of Exemplar Seneschals. My seneschal assaulted Troys heavy jack, smiting it directly onto Resnick. It was then loss/win/loss and so on to  the end of the league. Another highlight of the league for me was taking out John's Special K at the Longest Night tournament - multiple hits from jacks leaving him on one box, and me casting around the table, looking for something to deliver the final blow (Sunburst for the win).

I've also looked at Ambush Alley, and played a couple of games of this. I find it to be an enjoyable game. Playing the quickstart scenario both ways left me with two losses. As the insurgent, I got slaughtered, as expected. Turn around and Nigel hammered me when I took the marines, despite my tactics scaring him at the start. Damn his luck with my dice.

The most recent game I've played was back to warmachine - 25 points vs Nigel. The usual debate over his list started the game."My list changes, I'm always changing it." Maybe the caster changes, but almost every time I've faced him it's been two hunters and a defender. Anyway, he took eHaley, two hunters, defender, squire, gunmage captain. to oppose him, I took pKreoss, two devouts, revenger, knights exemplar, exemplar seneschal, and wracks.(yes, all light jacks) Nigels dice were against him, and I capitalised on this. I also played badly, by not moving as fast as i could with the knights. In the end, Kreoss held out through Haleys feat and set fire to her twice before she fell, and once the game was over, I realised that I forgot my feat. oh well, I 'll remember it when I play Owen next week.

First post in a while

Since my last post I have acquired my new Blood Agels codex, along with the new miniatures.

But I have also been occupied with another project that came to fruition on april 13,the arrival of my son Lachlan. Of course this has meant that I haven't been able to put much time into gaming, so I have only had one battle in the Kiwithralls Nation @ War league.

During this time my Menoth collection has expanded with the addition of eKreoss, Covenant of Menoth, a second sunburst, Zealots with a monolith bearer, a choir, and Resnik. The last three thanks to Troy, fro a deal with a friend of his in Christchurch.

My N@W list for april consisted of pKreoss, Crusader, Revenger, Devout, and a Seneschal.I'm not sure of my expansion for may, but I am thinking of adding the choir (probably half) along with the covenant, and a sunburst. Other options include knights examplar, a Paladin, or even bastions (if they are still at comics and i decide to get them)

Sludged

Kill the caster, or kill the jacks. Sounds easy.

I fought Owen in a battlebox game last night, and came out the other side with a bit more knowledge, and another loss.

Using his Cryx against my Menoth, Owen took the first turn, advancing quickly across the table. I responded by marching my jacks forward, and Kreoss opening up with his Lamentation spell, with Deneghra inside his control range

Two turns later, my revenger had lost his halberd to the slayer. Seeing a possible quick end to the game, I ran the damaged revenger past the Cryx jacks to within three inches of Deneghra. Kreoss fired Menoth's wrath, knocking down all the cryx jacks, and pushed immolation through the revengers arc node. The spell missed as I didn't have the focus to boost it. Oh well, time to do as much damage as I could to the jacks.

Kreoss charged the slayer slamming it quickly but not finishing it. The Crusader tore the head off one of the Deathrippers.

Owen finished the game by having the slayer pick Kreoss up, and throw him toward the crusader. Kreoss fell short, and to the side. One obstacle in area, a wall, and of course Kreoss lands on it (half his life gone). The defiler moves across to get a line on the fallen Kreoss, and promptly fired its sludge cannon. Game over, Kreoss lies dissolved in a puddle of goo.

Kreoss Marches on

I've put in a few sessions on Project Menoth in the last two weeks, and the Battlebox is beginning to take shape. Kreoss has now been assembled, basecoated, and now his robes have been painted along with his armour. The jacks have had their hydraulics painted, armour finished, and now the trim on the armour (red) has been completed.

Obviously there is still a lot more work to do on the battlebox, but they will taken on their second outing tomorrow. Their first was about a week ago, against Nigel's mangled metal list. naturally that was not a battlebox list, at least 50 points more than my list, but it taught me a few things about the game. I also learned that lamentation is very good spell against Haley. Once Kreoss was in range for the spell, he shut down her turtle very effectively. I did get hammered, as the long guns on his two light jacks put my jacks down quickly, but they did provide enough cover for Kreoss to close with the ironclad, and pound it into scrap metal.

Despite the defeat I enjoyed the game, and am looking forward to many more games of warmachine. Tomorrow is my training game with Owen before the battlebox tournament, which takes place on the following 2 wednesdays.

Finally back to this

It's been a while.
In the time between this post and the last I have ventured into TAGCon with my uruk-hai.

My best result in that was a draw (due to time) trying to break into Helm's Deep. Despite all the losses I still walked out with two prizes from the LoTR tournament - Sportsmanship, and (big surprise to me) Painting.

Both prizes were $20 gift certificates from Comics Compulsion in Christchurch, and I spent them recently, expanding my Menoth army by a Reckoner, a Devout, and Amon Ad-Raza.

Just over a week ago I started a new terrain project, which can be applied to most of my heroic 28mm armies. From the LoTR magazines I am building Osgiliath, with a mix of ruins and intact buildings. The way I see this, it serves as - Osgiliath for LoTR and the War of the Ring (if I decide to get into that), - 40K as a ruined Imperial City, - Fantasy as a ruined city (if I continue my VC army and fantasy becomes a game at TAG, and finally - Necromunda, as part of my own campaign setting (Cutters Canyon)

Project Menoth begins

I've finally made a start on Project Menoth. Two of the miniatures in my collection have been sprayed, and the first two coats of paint have been applied. I decided to start with the robes of each figure, and work my way out from there.
The first figure is one of the knights exemplar, as a test piece. I have been making notes of the colours used as i go, so I can reproduce the same scheme on the rest of the unit. This is a far cry from my usual painting approach, as I tend to paint an entire unit without a test piece first. Of course most of what I have painted has been for my two 40K armies, and have been fairly straight forward. The scheme for my tyranids was in the codex, and blood angels? Who are we kidding, red with black trim.
Anyway, the exemplar has had his robes painted with Sanguine base, followed by Sanguine highlight. Although its not very clear in the picture, I will build a couple more layers of highlighting on the robes before i am satisfied, as I want this army to be some of my best work.
The cleanser also started with the robes, using Menoth white base and highlight.
The highlight hasn't come out as crisp as I would like, and I will apply another coat of it before adding a final highlight with Tamiya gloss white.
I've also been assembling the minis slowly, so the rest of the two units, along with my jacks, solos, and casters will all be ready to paint after these two figures are finished.
Although I haven't done anything to the bases yet, I've decided to put a layer of sand on each, and then build them up a little with some (unused) kitty litter, and maybe some slab like pieces of plasticard, to simulate a desolate wasteland.
I've also got another couple of figures on the way. A light warjack, able to be configured as two variations. Another Crusader. A paladin of the Order of the Wall. And finally, Kreoss and Severius again.

New Menoth figures for my force

Over the last couple of weeks I came into some extra money, and decided to purchase a few new items for my Menoth force. half price items on Trademe were very tempting, and I bought the extras I wanted.
First purchase was a card deck, along with the Cygnar deck for Nigel. A week later I bought a box of deliverers, (now I need to get a couple of blisters to fill out the unit) and a few days after I bought an Avatar, and a Guardian.
Project Menoth will be resumed after TAGcon, as I plan to devote myself to two game systems only for a while. One of these is Warmachine, and the other will be Necromunda.

I'm back

It's been over a month since I posted anything, due to various things, mostly work taking up my time.
Anyway, at Timaru Armchair Generals we announced our tournament date at the start of april, and listed what games we are planning on running. The competitions planned are :- WH40k, Warmachine, LOTR, and Bloodbowl. It's taken me most of the time since then to decide what i wanted to play, finally settling on LOTR.
I've decided it's to be LOTR because - 1. I can't be bothered learning to play 40k again (5th edition), 2. The chances of my Menoth army being ready lie somewhere between slim and no chance, and 3. I had enough of bloodbowl many years ago, and I don't like some of the changes to rules as they now stand.
At least with LOTR I have about half of my minis painted, and the scheme for the army I'm planning on fielding is reasonably straightforward to paint. I have very little experience playing, but the rules are simple , and it shouldn't take long to pick up, (even if my tactical skill doesn't). And the best thing is, it gives me the motivation I've been lacking to get back to painting. So expect a few articles on LOTR, and Isengard forces over the next couple of months.
Another note on tournaments came up last night at the club. Owen (Payne), has decided to run a Warmachine Battlebox tournament in January. Very simple in idea. No need to build a big army to x points, all you need is a starter box for any particular army. And the prize? a battlebox.

Project Menoth

I'm almost ready to begin assembling my Menoth Army for Warmachine. In the picture above you can see what I now have for my army. The three blisters in the midle are a repenter warjack, The Wrack and Kreoss. The four in the middle painted white a re the Menoth starter box. The two black figures on the right are mercenary solos, while on the left are Severius and the exemplar seneschal. The two boxes are flameguard cleansers, and knights exemplar.