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.