No painting whatsoever.

OK. So I had a goal, a plan, a thing to do. It was simple really. Just paint the seether. Well I failed miserably. It's not even primed yet. Worse that that, the poor brute has taken some battle damage as it spikes keep getting knocked off thanks to my foam not being deep enough. 

One positive note is that I watched P3's Core painting guide yesterday. It was informative. Sadly nothing that I didn't know before. I digress, I admit that my washes had been drying all crazy on me, according to the video it's because of the tap water. They recommend their mixing medium. I used to wash windows for a living and I know that purified water drys real nice and spot free. I wonder if that's essentially what their mixing medium is. I'll have to try it. 

I was going to get some painting done but now that my summer job has kicked in it'll have to wait for another day. Maybe, just maybe by this Wednesday I'll have something to show.

-Cheers-

The Results Are In...

And fist up to be painted is......

I have no idea where to begin but it's going to be fun.  I'll try to remember to take pictures as I go.  I hope to get it primed and ready to go tomorrow and have it finished by next game night.

-Cheers-

MKII Model Review

Jacks rule so they go first.

Deathjack: An amazing brute with a deep grid, terrific stats and a plethora of unique abilities which make this jack the finest in all the IK. With two P+S 18 attacks, arm 19, two free focus every turn and the ability to cast spells and consume. souls the DJ has no equal on the battle field

The DJ suffered a few substantial nerfs in MKII but none are overly worrisome. Firstly the DJ can no longer necrovent but as a trade you no longer have to feed it a FOC to keep it from going crazy. True that loss of fluff tames the dj down a bit but ultimately it's for the greater good, er, bad.

The Nightmare is my favorite jack in the game. This speedy son of a bitch has earned more kills than I care to count. As far as I can tell the Nightmare is essential in almost every cryx list and especially with Mortenebra.

While spd 6 is great for a jack, with Morty the nightmare can potentially move 23" in a single turn. With 2". Reach the nightmare has an effective threat range of 25". Game Over.

The nightmare kept its bond with Deneghra so that while in her battle group it gains stealth. The imprint "ghostly" is fantastic in that it let's you ignore free strikes and terrain. If only it ignored intervening models.

On the down side the nightmare's grid is shallow for a heavy requiring you to play with a tad more finesse than with other heavies. All in all the nightmare is A+

The Seether: was pretty cool in MKI but was rife with issues, namely I played infantry machine and never ran much more than a few nodes and the Cankerworm. That being said, MKII has provided some serious incentive to fielding jacks so now the seether shall see the light of day.

With MAT 8 and one free FOC per turn the seether is nigh but guaranteed to box whatever it charges. MKII granted the seether a chain attack which allows it to make a power attack for free. (With some exceptions). Frankly this jack, while more expensive, has taken the Cankerworm's place on all my lists. So again, great MAT, better DEF than most heavies (irc), decent pow+str, two open fists, a deep grid and decent movement makes the Seether another A+ jack.

The Slayer is still the red-headed stepchild of all Cryx players. Its utility was increased in that it is now cheap as dirt for a heavy and boasts a killer pow 22 combo strike. This little guy on a charge is going to cause some serious grief. Lamentably with low armor and a shallow grid the Slayer isn't going to last long after its initial assault so pick your targets well. Overall rating is a solid "B-"

The Leviathan is a confusing jack. I don't own one, and with its current stats I'm pretty sure that will go on unchanged. There is really nothing special about this maritime heavy. It looks cool. Has a ranged attack with ROF 3 and a cool looking claw. But, well, that's really it; and it's as expensive as the nightmare or seether, both of which I'd take over the levi' any day. Overall grade "D+."

The Harrower is still cool. Pricey and "OK." As of yet I don't know why I'd take it over the nightmare.

The Stalker is perhaps the one jack which benefited from MKII more so than any other jack in the faction. Let's be honest now, the stalker was a sissy, waste of time, no good wreck marker waiting to happen. Now, while still a wreck marker waiting to happen, the stalker comes with a few added tryx and the potential to be an assassin. Honestly though the damage grid on this glorified bone jack is so pathetic that even taking into consideration its high def and cool abilities the jack is still scrap. "C"

The Cankerworm is no more. I'd prefer to not talk about it. You bastards! You know who you are! "F"

Nodes: single in purpose and mind though different in cost. Much energy was spent on an in faction argument concerning the nodes and their steep point cost. Mostly it was one dink saying "they are fine" vs the Cryx community. Ultimately the community prevailed as PP recently updated the stats for the nightwretch and defailer. Same points as before but the defiler finally has the spray attack it should have always had and the wretch has "powerful shot." Awesome. For still being too expensive and because I say so, the nodes get a "B."

To Be Continued...

Choices Choices

Now that I've established my summer goal it's time to jump right into it  

So who's gonna be first?

Well there is no sense wracking my brain on the matter. This seems like the perfect topic for a reader poll!

So choose your doom and there we'll start. 

Until next time,

-Cheers-

Summer Time!

It's good to have goals, they keep you focused and are essential for constant self improvement.

Here is my goal for summer 2009.

Thankfully now that summer is over and the restrictions on my time are relaxed I find myself in a position to really have some fun painting my small army.

I like to paint, no, I love to paint. Painting and modeling are possibly the two primary reasons I love to war game so much and have pursued it for so long.

I've posted them before but I'll do it again, here are a few of my pieces. Frankly they're nothing to boast about but I like'em and am proud of the job I've done. Just like my gaming venture from casual to competitive I want to take my painting ability to the next level.

I have a problem though, I don't know where to begin.

Here is a list of what paints I have, my tools and other misc odds and ends I use when painting.

• Reaper Honed Steel
• Reaper Cyan Blue
• Reaper Pure White
• Reaper Carnage Red
• Reaper Sunlight Yellow
• Reaper Pure Black
• P3 Blighted Gold
• P3 Molten Bronze
• P3 Jack Bone
• P3 Thrall Flesh
• P3 Khador Red Base
• P3 Bloodtracker Brown
• P3 Ordic Olive
• P3 Necrotic Green
• P3 Cryx Bane Base
• P3 Cryx Bane Highlight
• P3 Thamar Black
• P3 Trollblood Base
• P3 Underbelly Blue
• P3 Beaten Purple
• P3 Midlund Flesh

• Pin Vise
• Round File
• Clippers

I find myself at a loss though. When I frequent such affluent sites such as "Brush Thralls" or "Cool Mini or Not" and even the creative community on the PP forums I hear talk such as:

"Blending"

"Dry-brushing"

"Glazes"

"Smoke"

"Wet"

"Wash"

Etc. Etc.

I have an idea what those techniques are, I've even seen some of them put to use but when I take my turn at it I find the results lack significantly.

So, after that long winded into I present you with my summer goal.

(Drum roll please!)

I am going to finish my Cryx army!!!

And I'm going to do it using they techniques I plan on learning along the way. I hope to be able to document over the course of the next few months is a visible increase in both my own ability and overall fig quality.

The purpose?

1) I WANT to be a better painter and as everyone knows, "a painted army plays better and winz moar."

2) I plan on submitting a piece to a NQ competition. I don't know which nor am I certain there will be one, but I want to be ready in case there is one.

3) Hardcore. I want to play hardcore so incredibly bad my teethe ache. It's speed chess meets Warmachine and by thunder I like it!

The trick will be getting my local bunch of swabs in on the idea. Hey, here's a thought. Mayhaps once my mad painting skills are developed I could start petitioning commissions and help them get on the way to a life of hardcore.

That'd be one helluva road trip for next summer.

-cheers-

Cannibalism

My lack of blogging is due to two factors.

1. I have an insane amount of homework
2. I've spent most my energy trying to deal with the cannibalism in the Cryx community.

Let's focus a little on factor #2

I know, cannibalism. Really? What the hell is that supposed to mean?

Well, taken from my perspective it's when one person attempts to undermine the efforts of his or her own team. Think about it. Was eating your own kind any way to continue the propogation of the human race as a whole? Nope.

It's similar to what is going on in the Cryx community and quite frankly I'm tired of it.

Each post if rife with Cryxian wannabe's and hyperbole. What I'm really tired of is that a few people who don't even play Cryx are spewing their vomit all through threads which started as sincere discussions but have deteriorated into cock fights.

So much energy has been spent gathering empirical data yet the nay sayers remain steadfast in their ignorance.

I'm done. I just wanna play.

-Cheers-

350 MM Tourney Update + MKII Test vs. Cygnar

Tonight was the final games for the 350 MM tournament. I played vs Circle and came out on top.

pDenneghra and the Nightmare are a wicked combo. Cankeworm earned his points easily while the nodes were obliterated pretty easily. Denny used her feat defensively allowing the nightmare to avoid being charged.

Endgame found Baldur being chargede by the nightmare and his only beast left had full fury so he couldn't transfer damage. Game over.

Second game of the night was a MKII pick up game vs. eHaley. Wow, I didn't realize how f'ing annoying she is. Run and spell bomb, run and spell bomb. It got real old real fast. I was literally crippled by my lack of nodes, but at 5 points a piece and at 25 points I had to be very selective about what to take

I ran the Gorgers, Seether, Slaughterborn, Stalker, Cankerworm and Bile thralls.

Gorgers = fail. They killed s storm smith, woo woo.

Slaughterborn was so very close to being devastating to the precursors but failed to hit on his 2nd attack. Seether bust heads but without reach or any follow up wasn't able to do much more than kill 2 knights. Stalker hurt the ironclad but not much. Cankerworm failed to reach the ironclad on his charge. Boo.

After a few rounds it was getting late so we called it a game. Most my stuff was dead thanks to Haley dropping two 4" AoE pow 14 spells per round. It's hard to keep up with that when she's approx 24" away as she casts it. Thankfully eSkarre's feat somewhat negated her feat by making some of my most precious figs immune to damage for a round but still, with him running away most the game it was more or less pointless.

It was a good game though. I saw the need for arc nodes as eSkarre's spell with average range 6" were impossible to cast while keeping her out of harms way. Skarlock was ok, not too amazing but able to cast a few of the unit buff spells helping to manage foc.

-Cheers-