Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Work-in-Progress Wednesday - 14 February 2024

Last week... I kind of did a thing... 

I sort of went ahead and bought myself a bit of an early birthday present... 

I had told myself that I wouldn't buy any miniatures unless I'd already painted more than I'm going to buy... so this kind of puts me in the red... (kind of... I mean, I DID finish those Basilisks! But when we're counting 28mm foot as a category of their own... I'm a bit behind on that) 

They're for a specific thing in a few weeks - my birthday weekend I'm running two games of the Soulbound RPG (one in person and one online) and I wanted some squigs to use as opponents for the heroes (Along with the Grinkrak's Looncourt!) So... these WILL be painted, pronto (like, by next week, for sure...) 

They are assembled and primed already! (but now currently wainting, patiently, until I am absoloutely finished ALL the stuff I need for this weekend's tournament! 

Things I still need to finish for that

Scout Sentinel

I also have some "Missile counters" - to mark which vehicles still have Hunter Killer Missiles... Which I forgot to take pictures of... They'll be done soon and I'll include them in a post - perhaps with the Scout Sentinel

Other Things still on the bench...

There is a bit of a void left with all the Basilisks and Manticores moved off... 

Ephilim's Pandemonium is still on the top of my list of things to finish after the Scout Sentinel... 

Blackpowders Buccaneers is SO CLOSE... SOOOOO CLOSE to being finished... I really need to just finish them up... but I'm just not feeling it... 

Pair of Warhammer Quest heroes that are likewise SO CLOSE to being finished... that I might use in Soulbound... but man... just don't care... but too close to remove from the table... (Maybe I should check what the players want to play... if any are interested in a Warpriest of Fyreslayer... that might motivate me to finish them up!) 

Myari's Purifiers made their way back onto the workbench this week (because AELVES! Amanda decided she needed NOW AELF OPTIONS for Warhammer Underworlds... that didn't involve buying a whole new warband - like Gryselle's Arenai)

Not one, but TWO, Idoneth Deepkin warbands. After Nic showed up with Cyreni's Razors on Sunday, Amanda decided she needed to try THOSE... when I mentioned I had ANOTHER Deepkin warband, she suggested I should paint both... and Myari's... 

Domitan's Stormcoven... another one I'm not SUPER excited about... but they're close to being done... so they'll probably stay until they are... 

The Vampires are still here from the PREVIOUS week when Orion laid some smack down with The Crimson Court and Amanda decided she needed THOSE... They may go back into hibernations soon as Amanda seems to have forgotten about them for the moment... As long as I finish up 

Heroes and villains of Ulfenkarn: The Cursed City... They might go back into storage too... 

As the dust settles after the mad panic of getting the Tallarn done, I really think I need to spend an evening and do some painting triage an seriously consider what I realistically actually work on and which can just be organized back into "ON DECK" boxes... 

On Sunday, Orion had mentioned that the Warhammer Store had gotten SIX copies of Skabbik's Plaguepack in and still had lots of the free Miniature of the Month... so I vowed to get out there today... 

As it turned out, I had to get Keiran to an appointment in the afternoon, so I made a MAD DASH to hit Dragon's Den when they opened at 10:30 and then hauled ass out to the Warhammer store to get there just after they opened... and then get home a little afternoon so I could catch the bus with them around 1pm! 

My haul from the two stores: Card Sleeves from Dragon's Den... Skabbik's and the free mini (in the red box) and Astra Militarum Data Cards (which I figured would be easier than trying to scribble out all the stats myself for this weekend...) 

Ummm... it... it was a St. Valentine's Day present to myself...?

This puts me a little more in the red (for St. Valentine's Day!) with the painted versus purchased... but I feel like these are extenuating circumstances and I'm unlikely to buy any more minis until Zondara’s Gravebreakers come out... maybe in March or April... or the next two-team core box in April or May...? 

And I'm back painting minis! So hopefully I'll be back in the black by the end of the week and chipping away at the lead/plastic mountain! 

Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Warhammer 40K - Tallarn Manticores

Two more Self-Propelled Artillery beasties finished up for the Tallarn Desert Raiders Task Force! 

Two Manticores of the 178th Tallarn Artillery Regiment.

Left - Manticore #525 - Hanaq (Fury)

Right - Manticore #525 - Ghayz (Wrath) 

I just have one Scout Sentinel to touch-up (as I replaced it's Lascannon with a Missile Launcher) and a second to finish painting - by Saturday! 

After that!? Age of Sigmar stuff! A mix of things for Warhammer Underworlds and some stuff for the Soulbound RPG! 

Monday, February 12, 2024

Warhammer Underworlds - Yet ANOTHER Four-Player Sunday

For the third Sunday in a row, Nic and Orion came over to play some more Warhammer Underworlds and we played two more four-player games! Honestly starting to wonder if this is becoming a whole "thing"... Which I would be TOTALLY OKAY WITH!!!

As everything seems to be moving towards the Nemesis format of play, I thought I'd help Amanda re-build her deck for Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven to conform to the Nemesis format. We were looking at Paths of Prophecy (as she does like dominating Objectives!). Alas, we left it until Sunday morning and didn't get very far before Nic and Orion showed up, so she ended up just playing with Morgwaeth's Rivals deck... which.. wasn't as bad as I remembered it being?! There are really only a few cards that are total garbage... 

(I even bought Amanda a set of card sleeves with Morgwaeth's symbol on the back. Normally I don't care at all about card sleeves... but since THEY CHANGED THE CARD BACKS when Harrowdeep came out... we kind of NEEDED to get some sleeves as Morgwaeth's deck and ANY of the new Rivals decks it could be paired with to make a Nemesis deck have different card backs!

Conveneintly, our FLGS still HAS a bunch of the Nightvault/Beastgrave era themed card-sleeve-packs as old stock... These worked out well so I may go grab a few of the others that they still have! The nice thing about the Beasgrave era packs is they come with 70(!) sleeves - almost enough to sleeve two entire decks!? (like the warbands AND the generic Rivals Deck!?) for $16CAD. 

The Nightvault era ones only come with 35-39 sleeves - the EXACT number needed for a 32 card deck and clear ones to cover the fighters cards... I picked up one for Mollog's mob... and they had a second pack which I will probably also go and pick up... 

May have to track down some generic sleeves for a few of the other warbands I figure I might play on the regular... The current ones from GW have only 45 card sleeves(30x Power Card sleeves with blue backs and15x Objective Card sleeves with golden backs) for $20CAD!? Almost twice as much per sleeve as the older Beastgrave ones - and the new pack doesn't even include clear ones for the fighter cards!?

I digress... 

So... the games... 


GAME ONE

For the first game, Orion played Hexbane's Hunters, Nic played Cyreni's Razors, Amanda played Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven, and I played Grinkrack's Looncourt

Amanda and I were just playing with the warband's own Rivals decks, and I think Nic might have been too. Orion was, I think, playing with a Nemesis deck using Forces of Frost...? 

Hexbane's Hunters set up on the Soul Refractor board from Nightvault Core Box. Cyreni's Razors were on the The Inevitable Morass board from Nethermaze. Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven set up on The Cursed Oubliette, also from Nightvault. Grinkrack's Looncourt were on Menhirs of Binding from Direchasm.

Nic was playing with the newly (mostly) painted Cyreni's Razors - which Amanda got very excited about and insisted that the copy *I* have should move to the top of my TO PAINT list... 

I still got stuff to finish up for the tournament this coming weekend... and a couple others that *I* want to finish... but maybe after that!

(The Squid did look fabulous!) 

And apparently attracted the attention of Hexbane's Hunters as something clearly HERETICAL as Brydget and one of the doggos charged it right off the hop and tried to blam it in the fact with a pistol! I think she missed...? but Cephanyr the Squid has a fun little reaction that whenever attacked (successful, or not) it gets to squirt ink at fighter within 2 hexes - staggering them - and then blast off to... well... anywhere that's within one hex of no-one's-territory that's more than one from an enemy! 

Not sure what I did on the first turn... but on Orion's second, Quite Poc murdered poor Snorbo... 

Cephanyr  considering attacking the land aelves. 

Cephanyr and Moonface Nagz eyeing each other up... 

Quite the melee occurred at Orion and my end of the table... Pointy Burk charged Poc. Hexbane took a shot at Burk. Grib, da Wonky Lance, galloped in to finish him off. 

The Amos Duncarrow lumbered in and chopped poor grib in two... 

Meanwhile, at the other end of the battlefield... the Aelves were mostly eyeing each other up and shouting rude and abusive slurs at each other.. 

Pointy Burk was cut down in the prime of his youth... and the towering Duncarrow  went after Skolko and Pronk! 

Khamyss charged Cyrenai and took her out of action! 

Pokin' Snark and Moonface Nagz came to Skolko and Pronk aid. The bitey squig on the end of Snark's stick chewed off whatever upgrade Amos had that made him so super murder-y... I mean, he's a beast in his own right, but there's an upgrade (or combo of upgrades?) that makes him just BRUTALLY murderiferous! 

Cephanyr decided to get in on this rumble... or at least sneak up behind and snatch up one of the doggos for a tasty snack! 

Um... Hello...? 

Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven just DOMINATING one entire half of the battlefield. 

Amos had knocked Snark back into Cephanyr! Snark swung around and poked Cephanyr with his squig stick and Cephanyr blasted him in the face with ink and fucked off somewhere else!? 

Someone took out Amos.. and someone took out Pokin Snark... 

Skolko and Pronk had briefly run off into the Soul Refractor board to score a Glory Point from an objective card... and there was NOTHING ELSE TO DO... so returned to fight Hexbane... as that was the ONLY way I could possibly score ANY more points... 

And the were promptly murdered by Haskel Hexbane... Who then found himself alone on one half of the field of battle... 

Elsewhere, Cephanyr tried attacking the Daughters of Khaine... and died in the attempt... 

Leaving only Haskel Hexbane and three of Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven left on the field... 

It was a really high-scoring game! Hexbane's Hunters ended with 18 Glory Points! Cyreni's Razors had 16 Glory Points. Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven scored 13 Glory Points... 

When I say it was a "high-scoring game" I mean it was a High-scoring game of EVERYONE BUT ME.... Grinkrack's Looncourt ended the game with 5Glory points!? Things did NOT work out so well for them as they did in their FIRST GAME!? Yiiiiiikes...

I'd like to see how they play in a two-player game!? I feel like it's been a while since I only played with two players... (I guess it's only been a little over a week and a bit, as i played a two-player game when I showed up for Underworlds Night at the Warhammer Store at the beginning of this month!? I guess it just seems like it's been a while since NINE of the Fourteen games of Warhammer Underworlds I've played this year, so far, have been 3-4 player games?! Of the last eight games I've played in the last four weeks, only ONE has been a two-player game! 


GAME TWO

In the second game we switched thins up a little... 

Orion dug out here Chosen Axes and played them with a Nemesis deck built with Fearsome Fortress! Amanda let Nic try out Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven. Amanda, in turn, decided to do something TOTALLY crazy and tried playing a warband she's never played or even LOOKED at their cards; Xandire's Truthseekers! I was kind of torn whether to play the Thrircefold Discord or the Wurmspat... but went with Thricefold Discord, as I'd had better luck with them, recently... 

I'm SURE I can put a deck together that would make Wurmspat a BIT more competitive... but that will require reading through some of these new generic Rivals decks and coming up with some sort of PLAN... 

Chosen Axes played on The Cursed Oubliette board, Morgwaeth's Blade- Coven played on the Menhirs of Binding board, Xandire's Truthseekers played on the Chamber of Genesis board, and Thrircefold Discord played on The Iceswirl Maw

I started off with charging Lascivyr into Xandire's Truthseekers, knowing she'd probably die - but maybe take one down with her - or at the very least, keep them DISTRACTED for a turn or two? In addition to keep Xandire and her Stormcast distracted, I hoped to inspire Vashtiss, and keep blasting at them for the next four rounds... and cast the one spell in my hand... so I could score an objective requiring making four spell rolls (NOT necessarily SUCCESSFUL ones!) 

It also brought the all in close so i could use a temptation card that would deal ONE of them damage or ALL fighters that were adjacent to another fighter (Amanda chose the latter!?) which helped me score another objective at the end of the first round (That I otherwise would not have!) 

Morgwaeth's Blade Coven mostly hung out in their own territory for the first round... and indeed, most of the entire game! 

It took XAndire's a few tried to take down Lascyvr... 

Kahmyss sallied out of the Blade-Coven's deployment area to take a swipe at Vexmor... she succeeded in dealing him two damage... I ignored her until the next Round (so Vashtiss could keep casting spells!) 

The the beginning of the next round, I went first and Vexmor chopped her in half with a single blow... 

Xandire's Truthseekers and the Chosen Axes exchanged blows. 

Dhoraz Giant-Fell eventually came after the Thricefold Discord, charging at Vashtiss. 

Fjul-Grimnir just kept knocking down Stormcast and building up his wall... 

I kept forgetting that *I* could have been placing feature tokens - to deny them from the Chosen Axes - as that's exactly what they need to win with Fearsome Fortress! Feature Tokens and Objective Tokens all around No One's Territory! 

Vashtiss survived Dhoraz's initial assault and backed off to throw spells at him. Vexmore shuffled up to stab at him from a distance... 

Vashtiss and Luxa Stormrider were taken out and I left Dhoraz and Grimnir to bash each other to bits and fucked off elsewhere... I had things I could score more points on by BEING ALIVE, so... no point in trying to get a few paltry points from possibly taking enemy out... but also possibly being taken out myself... 

Vexmore sitting on a objective scoring points and watching Dhoraz and Grimnir go at it hammer and tongs and giggling to himself... 

I did better in this game... I won with 16 Glory Points. Orion's Chosen Axes weren't far behind with 13. Nic only managed 8 glory points, but was playing a warband they had never played... and Amanda ended with only 5 Glory Points... but was playing a warband she had never played and had only played against ONCE almost a year and a half ago, so had no memory of what they were capable of or supposed to do.. 

I do hope this becomes a regular thing on Sunday afternoons! It won't be happening the next two Sundays, however, as I will be at a 40K Tournament next week, running the Warhammer, Age of Sigmar: Soulbound RPG online the following Sunday... Perhaps we will return to this in March! 

Warhammer 40K- Tallarn Basilisks

Finally finished up the BIG GUNS for the Tallarn; a pair of Basilisks.... for now... I had other plans for customizing these with more kit in custom racks and baskets full of prometheum canisters... and maybe some camo netting.. and some CREW!? But I just didn't have enough time or energy or money... Someday I may get around to upgrading them... maybe... 

Basilisks of the 178th Tallarn Artillery Regiment 

Basilisk #666 - Tahtim (Smash) 

Basilisk #669 - Alfatha (Shaft)

Both of these I picked up used for a small fraction of what they cost new. Both no longer had the steps to the platform at the back, and one was missing the railing... but new ones are $75 and I think I paid about $20 for each of these, so... I thought of trying to rebuild the step ladder on both and some kind of rail for the one missing it... but then said "fuck it, why!? No one will care!?"

I'm not entirely sure what I'd do about crew... I could just model them out of greenstuff.. or use some spare guard as a base and add stuff to make them look Tallarn... 

Victoria Models makes "Desert Scorpion Heavy Weapons Crew", but most of the arm options are carrying lasguns or crate with ammo clearly much smaller than the shells required for this gun (because they are meant to be crew for infantry-poratble heavy weapons - like mortars or heavy bolters) - though ordering from them I could get some appropriate-size shells I could stack on the platform at the back... It would be $50+ to get six crew.. do I really want to spend that much more money on these just to have some crew on the back...?

One option I had considered (and may still do) was drape some camouflage netting from the Gunshield to the back of the platform - to entirely obscure the platform (so I wouldn't really need to put crew on there. I'd probably want to drape some over the barrel too... 

Or... I may just leave these as is.. because how much 40K am I actually going to be playing in the near future... and how many of those games will involve these basilisks!? 

On to the Manticores!!