Paint log for July 2012

Sometimes I feel there is something lacking from this blog and it is something that will help me through what is my least favourite part of the hobby: painting (a fact that is well publicised on these pages). So with no more free time for the rest of the month, here are my painting achievements for July:

Rasyat x 2 (combi rifle and spitfire) and Kurgat x 2 (MK12 and autocannon) undercoated à finished and based

Destor Thane, Sylys Wyshnaylrr and Nayl undercoated à finished and based

Viktorias, Taelor, Bishop, Johan, Student of Conflict, Misaki, Ronin x3, Von Schill, Freikorpsmann x 2, Freikorpsmann Trapper, Freikorpsmann Specialist, Freikorpsmann Librarian, undercoated/partially done à finished and based

Road Hog x 2 and Dr Arkadius unassembled bare metal à basecoated

Flameguard Cleansers + UA assembled bare metal à undercoated

22 models completely finished and 14 more on their way to being done. Not so bad for me really, although it really helped having some wonderful Infinity models to paint. These Morat models are some of my favourite and have really motivated me recently. Another motivational tool I’ve been using has been my paint spreadsheet. I keep track of what I’ve done and it helps me plan what I need/want to do nest.

	Total	Painted	%	To go
Menoth	184	110	59.78261	74
Mercs	6	0	0	6
Minions	58	40	68.96552	18
Retribution	112	57	50.89286	55
Skorne	92	58	63.04348	34
Trolls	14	0	0	14
Outcasts	46	16	34.78261	30
Combined Army	22	21	95.45455	1
Yu Jing	7	0	0	7
Tau	42	0	0	42
Total	583	302	51.80103	281

The plan for August is to finish off the Cleansers, and then paint up my second unit of Daughters and finish off eFeora for the upcoming Steamroller qualifier. Then I would like to try and paint up a second unit of Zealots, second Errant UA, Vindictus and a Reclaimer while finishing off another Errant Seneschal. If there is any more time in the month, I’d like to try and finish off (a lot of them are partially finished so shouldn’t take much work at all) as many of my Menoth jacks as I can and get Amon painted. A very big ask, but we’ll see what can be done.

My Malifaux beginnings (second time around)

My proposed Warmachine break started with a bang as I finally got round to playing my second game of Malifaux. This game was scheduled for the week before but I had to bail out due to work. But I got there in the end and our resident Henchman Cunning Stunt (Aiden) showed me the ropes.

We played a relatively small game at 25SS so that there weren’t too many models on the table (a really refreshing change from fielding close to fifty Menoth models over recent months). Aiden chose to field his Ramos Crew (thingy, thingy, thingy and thingy) while I used my Von Schill box set (Von Schill himself, two Freikorpsmann, a Librarian, a Trapper and a Specialist – which comes to 22SS meaning I had 3SS to use throughout the game).

We chose a fairly simple scenario (Destroy the Evidence – three objectives on each half with one in the centre of the table) and chose to forgo strategies. Going through the first round or so was slow going as I typically ignored the fact that reading a rulebook is always a good idea. The game got easier to go through as it went on. Although there was on particular turn where everything I wanted to do seeded to always fail (just how many low cards are there in the deck?). Add to this, the fact that Ramos kept summoning an Electrical Creation to keep me occupied in the middle of the table. By the start of turn six, I had lost my Trapper, Librarian and a Freikorpsmann while Aiden had only lost his Electrical Creation (three times). I was slightly ahead on points (I had destroyed the centre objective while Aiden had destroyed one on my half of the table – the centre objective was worth more). I had already hurt Ramos by sending in Von Schill himself the previous turn and finished him off with a Freikorpsmann dealing a bit of damage (damn Ramos’s Armour) and then Von Schill finished the job. We played out the rest of the turn which saw Aiden placing his Steamborg Executioner on top of an objective to claim during the next turn. Unfortunately for me, this was well out of range of any of my crew for me to do anything about it. However, fortunately for me, there was to be no turn seven meaning Aiden couldn’t destroy his objective and that I won on points.

I really enjoyed the game (winning didn’t have anything to do with it, honest) and liked how it all progressed in a very fluid manner. Like any other game there are abilities that are less or more effective than others when it comes to dealing damage to your opponent. I think I lucked out a bit when choosing my crew, I could have chosen my Viktorias. If I had then they probably would have been a bit more susceptible to Aiden’s Electrical Creation (all Freikorpsmann are immune to the blast damage caused by its attacks). While I haven’t properly read up on all the actions and triggers my models have, I think maybe the Viks probably would have been a little more mobile. Hopefully I’ll get to see this when I get to play my next game.

Something a little different.

My enforced Warmachine/Hordes break will hopefully begin this coming Tuesday. I was hoping to begin right after the European Team Championships, but real life conspired against me.

On Tuesday I will be playing my second ever game of Malifaux. I will be using either the Viktorias or Von Schill as my Masters. It’s been a while since I bought my Malifaux minis (except for the Von Schill crew plus a few extras, I got these from a fellow club member) and have done absolutely zero with them. An online store was having a huge clear out with a huge discount. So I filled my boots with all the Outcast goodies I could get, which turned out to be quite a bit (I forget exactly what I bought). But since then I have only managed to play one game. Now that I’ve forced myself to pack away my Menoth and other factions, I have been able to concentrate on painting up enough Malifaux minis to be fairly flexible when it comes to selecting my crews.

I have also gotten round to painting up all bar one of my Infinity minis. Here is another system in which I have only played one game since I bought a couple of handfuls of minis.

I’m looking forward to the change in game mechanics

Breaking the Silence

It seems that I have fallen into one of those silences again. The last intended words here on 237 Dice should have been about the upcoming tournament season but I never got round to it. Well, the tourney season has mostly been and gone, and I met my objectives. Of course, those objectives was to actually better last year’s combined UK Masters/ETC record of 0-13 (previously I have mistakenly stated 0-12 because I just can’t seem to add six and seven properly).

Preparation this year was more solid I as I played my tourney lists week in and week out and made the necessary tweaks (but not too often). I made the decision to go back to my first Warmachine love – Menoth. Last year I took Retribution, and as my record suggests, I wasn’t that comfortable with them. As much as Dawnlord Vyros is one my favourite casters, I just couldn’t really make him, Ravyn and Kaelyssa work. So I literally went back to the drawing board and picked my first ever caster (or at least the epic version). This has been a good move for me (as it has improved my win ratio for the year (at time of writing I’m at 15-34 during 2012) but also because I have managed to get a heck of a lot of models onto my painting table and off again. I have a little spreadsheet which I try and use as a motivational tool to get things done and it shows me that I have fully painted 59.78% of my 184 Menoth minis so far with another 6.52% ‘almost finished’ (compared to about 11% at the start of the year).

This spreadsheet, coupled with these big events have helped me build up some tolerance for painting, An example of this would be the Slow Grow league our club ran at the beginning of the year, awarding an extra point for having a fully painted army for each round. My Gators are all finished apart from a Bull Snapper (who needs and arm) and a Spitter (not sure if I’ll ever get round to using him). More often than not, I usually end up packing away the paints and brushes or pick up my laptop and procrstinate. I didn’t mind that much before about fielding/facing an army that wasn’t fully painted, but that is changing slightly as I am enjoying painting a little more.

I’ve also found another reason to enjoy painting recently; a new games system. I’ve had some Malifaux (Outcasts) and Infinity (Combined Army) minis for some time now, and for a short period after ETC, I’m putting myself in WarmaHordes exile while I learn how to play these games. Over the last month I have fully painted fifteen Morat models to add to the six CA minis I had painted previously. I just have to finish of a Shasvastii Malignos and all of my Infinity models are finished. I’ve enjoyed painting these wonderful minis so much that I am a little upset that I’m done with them. I then moved onto my Viktoria and Von Schill crews, both of which are now done and will require some scenic bases. Most of these sixteen models were partially painted when I bought them so they didn’t need too much work. This means that I have enough Malifaux minis to play around with for a while before I get around to painting my Som’er Teeth Jones, Leveticus and Hamelin crews.

Next on the painting table I have my Flameguard Cleansers and UA, and a half-painted eFeora and Avatar to get ready for the upcoming Steamroller qualifier in the middle of August. I’m not going to hold out any hope of finishing in a qualifying spot (the top four will go on to a the big Steamroller final at the end of the year along with the top four from the other three heats) but will go along to have a final bit of competitive fun for the year. After that, I have now rigid gaming plans. I will try and use those casters that I haven’t used much or at all while attempting to keep up the painting. All the while, I shall be putting together a couple of 50 point Farrow lists. They should be ready by the start of next year.

All that is really planned for the near future is to just enjoy some gaming.