Painted Satyxis Blood Priestess

Here is the Satyxis Blood Priestess, a caster attachment for my Warmachine Cryx army. She gives allows your Warcaster to upkeep one spell for free which is quite handy for the Witch Coven – I always seem to be short of Focus for them, despite having literally the highest Focus stat in the entire game. Her main draw is on the sword though, as it has a variety of effects beyond the obvious. Notably, she can dispel ongoing effects on units, which can be quite useful to remove some of the more crippling spells from your own units (admittedly at the cost of stabbing one of them in the back).

The miniature is quite nice, if predictably cheesecake-y; it seems de rigeur for ladies in these games to go about with only a bikini top on. Presumably the Scharde Islands are really warm, and that hat is intended to keep the sun off and not to keep the Blood Priestess’s ears from getting cold. Anyway, I stuck with the black and pink theme that I used for the Warjacks and was rather pleased with the outcome. The skin tone worked out well on the body and arms but I couldn’t seem to get it to look right on her face. I stopped painting eyes on miniatures of this size long ago as they don’t really show up at tabletop distance, though their absence is rather strange looking in these blown-up photos.

Next on the painting table: Troll Whelps.

Warmachine / Hordes tournament report: Southside Steamroller (75 points); 03Nov2018

I recently attended my first ever Warmachine / Hordes (or WarmaHordes, or whatever… just Warmachine from now on) in Glasgow. Apparently this was the first Steamroller in Glasgow for something like five years, so it wasn’t only a first for me. I’ve got to admit that I was a little nervous for two reasons. Firstly, the Warmachine event scene has a bit of a reputation for taking their gaming seriously and I was worried that by going along and being really bad at the game that I’d be effectively denying one player per round a decent game. Secondly, competitive Warmachine is played on a Death Clock, meaning that it is possible to lose the game just by playing inefficiently. Joe helped me with the latter by giving me a timed game to practice, and I’m pleased to report that the clock was not an issue as he’d finished beating me long before time was up.

https://conflictchamber.com/#c7201b_-0b0g0r9DiRjpiXjq7d6R750k0m

Trollbloods Army – 75 / 75 points
[Theme] The Power of Dhunia

[Skuld 1] Jarl Skuld, Devil of the Thornwood [+30]
– Dire Troll Bomber [19]
– Dire Troll Mauler [15]
– Earthborn Dire Troll [14]
– Mulg the Ancient [22]
– Troll Basher [7]
– Trollkin Runebearer [0(5)]
Janissa Stonetide [0(4)]
Troll Whelps [0(4)]
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (max) [19]
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (min) [6]
– Stone Scribe Elder [3]

My list is mainly put together as a combination of things I own, things I think look fun to play and things I think look good in an army. The only concessions to playing competently are the Runebearer (seems like a no-brainer choice for Jarl Skuld but has a boring miniature) and the Nyss Hunters (useful jamming unit in a theme force that doesn’t have any units, and anyway I already own them). The basic game plan is to move aggressively at the start and use Jarl’s Feat to block much significant attacking that turn. Then ram Warbeasts in with Rage applied and hope that the other force runs out of pieces before I do. The Nyss usually either jam or take shots of opportunity as needed.

Having a single list is a bit of a disadvantage as the other player can choose whichever of their lists will be best placed to face it. I did consider taking a second list but decided that would be a waste of time. I don’t have any experience with another list and even if I did, I’m not really sure yet when I would drop one or the other anyway.

Once I arrived in the admittedly rather ropey looking pub that was hosting us, I chatted with some other players and was pleased that I wasn’t the only attendee who was hopelessly inexperienced. I will note that I prefaced each game with an apology to each of my opponents for the likelihood of me getting some of the complex rule interactions wrong and they were all very cool about it.

Game 1: Andrew Murchie, Convergence of Cyriss

Scenario: Recon 2

https://conflictchamber.com/#cc201b_-0ilIdndndBd9d9dbdCdedfdfdgdz___-0id8dndBd9d9d9dedfdfdgdgdzdFdF

Convergence Army – 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Destruction Initiative

[Locke 1] Aurum Lucanum Athanor Locke [+29]
– Conservator [12]
– Conservator [12]
– Corollary [6]
– Inverter [15]
– Inverter [15]
– Prime Axiom [38]
Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex [2]
Attunement Servitors [0(4)]
Elimination Servitors [0(3)]
Elimination Servitors [0(3)]
Reflex Servitors [0(4)]
Optifex Directive [4]

Convergence Army – 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Destruction Initiative

[Axis 1] Axis, the Harmonic Enforcer [+30]
– Conservator [12]
– Corollary [6]
– Inverter [15]
– Inverter [15]
– Inverter [15]
Attunement Servitors [0(4)]
Elimination Servitors [0(3)]
Elimination Servitors [0(3)]
Reflex Servitors [0(4)]
Reflex Servitors [0(4)]
Optifex Directive [4]
Transfinite Emergence Projector [19]
Transfinite Emergence Projector [19]

Andrew selects the Axis list, presumably on the basis that it is better for dealing with a smaller number of tough targets. I choose to move first.

Trollbloods turn 1: My Theme Force benefit allows me to start the game with my Warlock’s upkeep spells cast. I have Quicken on the Bomber, Tactical Supremacy on the Krielstone and Weald Secrets on Jarl himself. Most of my force runs forward at top speed; Jarl dumps most of his Fury into the Krielstone.

Convergence turn 1: Many clockwork robots run at me. Iron Aggression is cast on one of the Inverters and a cloud of Servitors spread out to make my impact shooting irrelevant with all the Shield Guards.

Trollbloods turn 2: I think that I can take out the right side Transfinite Emergence Projector. The Nyss drop some Reflex Servitors on the left (they’re quite good at this since they ignore Concealment) and try not to line up too many nice sprays from the second battle engine. Jarl Feats to put his cloud wall in the way of Andrew’s central advance and casts Quicken on the Mauler. The Runebearer then casts Rage on it and the Mauler smites the Transfinite Emergence Projector with some Fury to spare. This does mean that I can’t manage to get the Runebearer onto my flag as I had originally planned.

Convergence turn 2: Axis Feats and swaps Iron Aggression on to the Inverter on the right; it makes short work of my Mauler. The remaining Transfinite Emergence Projector lines up shots on Nyss via the Conservator and kills a few. Convergence score a point from the flag and the right zone; 2 – 0.

Trollbloods turn 3: There’s not a lot that I can do this turn thanks to Axis’s Feat. I back off a bit to limit the damage those Inverters can do to me. Jarl kills a couple of Servitors with Magic Bullet to at least allow me to score my own flag but I can’t get anywhere near the other one. 3 – 1.

Convergence turn 3: Andrew could kill a load of my stuff here but he realises that he can just win the game via scenario instead. Axis casts Bulldoze. The Transfinite Emergence Projector clears the rest of the contesting Nyss. The Conservator pushes the Bomber out of the zone and the central Inverter kills the Runebearer; this allows Andrew to score both zones and his own flag. Trollbloods lose on scenario; 1 – 6.

Despite the one-sided nature of the game, I really enjoyed this. Andrew didn’t have to do anything particularly clever but he was very clear in his explanations as to not only what he was doing, but why he was doing it. This was really helpful – I learned a lot, and hopefully I can apply it in future games. In particular, it seems that I need to be a lot more aggressive against this kind of control list and just suck up the damage that inevitably comes after it.

Game 2: Stuart Fraser, Cryx

Scenario: Spread The Net

https://conflictchamber.com/#c4201b_-0B0WkA1u1hi22nf0f0dWhZh-h_h-h____-0UbY1k1f1t1e1u1u1v1v1v1h2k2nf02B2B

Cryx Army – 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Dark Host

[Terminus 1] Lich Lord Terminus [+27]
– Barathrum [15]
– Seether [13]
– Stalker [8]
Bane Lord Tartarus [0(6)]
Necrotech [2]
Soul Trapper [1]
Soul Trapper [1]
Bane Riders (max) [20]
Bane Warriors (min) [10]
Bane Warriors (max) [16]
– Bane Warrior Officer & Standard [0(5)]
Bane Warriors (max) [16]
– Bane Warrior Officer & Standard [0(5)]

Cryx Army – 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Black Industries

[Asphyxious 3] Asphyxious the Hellbringer [+24]
– Cankerworm [9]
– Nightwretch [0(7)]
– Reaper [13]
– Ripjaw [0(7)]
– Seether [13]
– Seether [13]
– Slayer [10]
– Slayer [10]
– Slayer [10]
– Stalker [8]
Machine Wraith [2]
Necrotech [2]
Soul Trapper [1]
Warwitch Siren [4]
Warwitch Siren [4]

Discussing before the game, it seemed that Stuart was rather more at my level of experience than other players attending, so I had high hopes to make him work for his victory here. He selected Asphyxious and I ended up with the first move again.

Trollbloods turn 1: Once again I start with Quicken on the Bomber, Tactical Supremacy on the Krielstone and Weald Secrets on Jarl. This looks like quite a live scenario and I know that Asphyxious can make his Warjacks move very fast so I need to get some table position before I get locked out of scenario. Jarl fills up the Krielstone.

Cryx turn 1: Everything moves up but the advance is rather more cautious than I was expecting.

Trollbloods turn 2: With help of Magic Bullet, the Bomber and Jarl clear out the solos on the right. The Nyss do a couple of massive Combined Ranged Attacks and cripple movement on the Stalker and drop Vociferon. I have no idea what Vociferon actually does, but it looked like something that was worth getting rid of while I had the opportunity. Especially considering the Carapace rule on all the Warjacks making the Nyss shooting a bit less effective. Jarl Feats too, covering the centre of the board.

Cryx turn 2: On the left side the Warjacks come in and clear about half of the Nyss; the Stalker and Ripjaw position to contest my flag too. Asphyxious uses his Feat. On the right, Stuart seems curiously reticent to engage Mulg, so I get to score my zone with the big chap; 1 – 0.

Trollbloods turn 3: Janissa charges in and drops the Stalker in one shot while the Earthborn wrecks the Ripjaw. The Nyss ding up the Nightwretch, Seether and Slayer and generally gum things up. The Runebearer puts Magic Bullet on the Bomber which scratches the paint on the central Warjacks and takes out the Warwitch. The Basher gets both Quicken and Rage and rushes over to smack the central Slayer. I’m not actually expecting to kill it; I just want to keep those Cryx Warjacks away for another turn. The Krielstone move into the central zone and I score 3 points; 4 – 0.

Cryx turn 3: The Seether tries to position for a drag on the Mauler but can’t because I explain the Whelp placement will stop it. The Seether comes in and hurts the Mauler anyway and contests. The Basher remarkably survives the attentions of the Slayer due to some bad dice on Stuart’s side. On the left, the remaining Nyss are killed off by Warjacks. I still score 2 point this turn to Stuart’s 1, so I get a rather surprising scenario victory. Trollbloods win on scenario; 6 – 1.

Well, that certainly went better than I expected. Stuart probably was too cautious with his movement, especially in turn 1. I don’t think that I have enough good attacks to deal with so many Warjacks coming across the board at me. By slowing down his advance, especially on my right, I was able to deal with the Warjacks in more manageable chunks. I was quite pleased that Jarl did what I expected of him, i.e. kill off some annoying solos and stop them from scoring or contesting. This was a nice, relaxed, fun game between probably the two worst players in attendance.

Game 3: Shane Frost, Circle Orboros

Scenario: Standoff

https://conflictchamber.com/#c8201b_-0p5v4QjGjF4H4H4Hg4g45gmVmV0U5e5e5f5f___-0WgM4B4B5H5H5H5H5H5H5HmO5g5g5f5f

Circle Army – 75 / 75 points
[Theme] The Bones of Orboros

[Wurmwood 1] Wurmwood, Tree of Fate [+27]
– Megalith [20]
– Wold Guardian [16]
– Woldwarden [14]
– Woldwyrd [9]
– Woldwyrd [9]
– Woldwyrd [9]
Blackclad Stoneshaper [0(3)]
Blackclad Stoneshaper [0(3)]
Blackclad Wayfarer [0(4)]
Gallows Grove [2]
Gallows Grove [2]
Farrow Bone Grinders (min) [5]
Sentry Stone & Mannikins [5]
Sentry Stone & Mannikins [5]
Shifting Stones [3]
Shifting Stones [3]

Circle Army – 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Call of the Wild

[Una 2] Una the Skyhunter [+29]
– Gorax Rager [7]
– Gorax Rager [7]
– Scarsfell Griffon [8]
– Scarsfell Griffon [8]
– Scarsfell Griffon [8]
– Scarsfell Griffon [8]
– Scarsfell Griffon [8]
– Scarsfell Griffon [8]
– Scarsfell Griffon [8]
– Storm Raptor [34]
Blackclad Wayfarer [0(4)]
Blackclad Wayfarer [0(4)]
Shifting Stones [0(3)]
Shifting Stones [0(3)]

During the pregame discussion phase, Shane decided that he would treat this as a teaching game. I get the impression that he’s pretty good (anyway, much better than me) but was having a bit of a bad day at the office with results so far. He chose to use Una on the basis that it would make for a more entertaining game. I get to go first again.

Trollbloods turn 1: I start with Quicken on the Bomber, Tactical Supremacy on the Krielstone and Weald Secrets on Jarl. Jarl fills up the Krielstone and everyone rushes forward as fast as possible. No reason to change a ‘winning’ formula.

Circle turn 1: Shane’s force unpacks. It has a much bigger threat range than my army so the actually movement forward is not so much. Everything is still in range to do horrid things to me next turn though.

Trollbloods turn 2: The Nyss take a massive 10 person CRA into the lead Griffon but roll 1,1 to hit. That’s quite annoying as they could have done some rather good damage if they’d landed it. The Bomber and Jarl land a few hits on the Griffons on the left and Jarl Feats. Shane spends a good amount of time explaining and advising on good places to put my clouds to mitigate the effect of his next turn.

Circle turn 2: Una Feats and puts Hand of Fate and Primal on a couple of Griffons. Despite the inconvenience of the cloud wall I lose the Bomber and Janissa (though I expected to lose her easily) but otherwise get off quite lightly. The Storm Raptor moves to my right in preparation for electrocuting all my Nyss next turn. Circle score 1 points (back zone) while contesting my zone. 1 – 0.

Trollbloods turn 3: It takes a bit of work to unjam myself from the centre Griffon since it dodges away from my first couple of attacks. The Nyss put some damage onto the Storm Raptor. On the left, the Mauler finishes a Griffon and Jarl puts Weald Secrets back on himself and continues to shoot chunks out of the Griffon lurking behind the wall on the left. We both score for the rectangular zones; 2 – 1.

Circle turn 3: The Storm Raptor wipes out all the Nyss in a single go. One Griffon comes into the Mauler to trigger Flank but the Primalled one can’t get the job done and the Mauler survives on a couple of boxes. Shane scores the right and back zones while I score my rectangular zone; 4 – 2.

Trollbloods turn 4: The Mauler heals up by eating Whelps and kills the first Griffon and leave the Primalled one on a couple of boxes. Jarl takes a few wounds off Una with Magic Bullets bouncing off Shifting Stones and the Basher charges in to start hurting the Gorax in the middle. Mulg commits and smacks a Blackclad. Finally, the Earthborn is powered up with Quicken and Rage and rushes over to take a good chunk out of the Storm Raptor. We both score for the rectangular zones again; 5 – 3.

Circle turn 4: The Storm Raptor and Griffon make short work of the Earthborn but a Whelp survives to contest and even the Blackclad misses it. On the left, the Frenzying Griffon fails to finish the Mauler. The Gorax hurts the Basher rather inconsequentially. Once again we both score for the rectangular zones; 6 – 4.

Trollbloods turn 5: The Griffon on the left leads a charmed life; avoiding all my attacks to survive to contest again. Mulg goes in to kill the Objective and contest the rectangular zone and Jarl continues taking potshots at Una (I think I forgot that he has Black Penny so I could possibly have killed that Griffon). I score my rectangular zone and one for the Objective; 6 – 6.

Circle turn 5: The Griffon and Storm Raptor come in and attack Mulg but he turns out to be quite tough. The Mauler finally goes down but the Whelp improbably survives another round. Una pushes Mulg out of the zone so we both score our rectangular zone; 7 – 7.

Trollbloods turn 6: Mulg can’t quite finish the Storm Raptor; the Basher drops the Gorax. Jarl continues to pump bullets ineffectively into the Griffon on the left. We score a point each; 8 – 8 .

Circle turn 6: The scrum in the centre continues without any kind of resolution. The Griffon attacks Jarl but can’t make anything stick. The Whelp gets ignored in favour of the Blackclad desperately trying to deal with Mulg but failing. More scoring rectangular zones; 9 – 9.

Trollbloods turn 7: My last turn. The Basher attacks Una, killing the Gorax through transferred damage. Jarl kills the Griffon and moves to cover both the circular and rectangular zones. Mulg finally offs the Storm Raptor. I score both rectangular zones and the left circular zone. 9 – 12.

Circle turn 7: Una and the last Raptor flail ineffectively at the Basher and Mulg respectively. Scoring is the same as last turn so Trollbloods win 15 – 10.

I know that Shane was going very easy on me, but it still felt nice to come out of that with a win. I was quite close to running out of clock (less than one minute left) but since I had no actions left it didn’t really matter. I got cocky with Jarl a couple of times and Shane did point out twice when he had reasonably good chances to win by assassination so I definitely have some more to learn about keeping my Warlock safe while still being relevant. I’m very appreciative for the teaching opportunity, and I hope that Shane enjoyed the game process as much as I did.

So, in the end I got listed with two wins and one loss, though that should really have been two losses since I’m pretty sure that Shane could have beaten me if it had mattered at all. Either way that far exceeds my expectations for performance here. Overall I had a really good time and I’m especially pleased that the Warmachine gaming scene is indeed not as hardcore competitive as I had heard. Thanks to Andrew, Stuart and Shane for three fun games and of course to Allan for running the event and making it all happen.

Painted Barathrum

Here is Barathrum, a character Warjack to go in my Warmachine Cryx force. In this context ‘character’ means that they are unique for some combination of fluff or game reasons; anyway, I can only have one Barathrum in my army regardless of how cool it is. The main reason I picked up Barathrum as opposed to any other Cryx heavy Warjack is that it is specifically allowed in the Scourge of the Broken Coast theme force, and since that is the one I’ve been buying miniatures for, I figured that Barathrum should also be in my collection. So far, I haven’t seen any particular synergies that link Barathrum to the Satyxis (about whom more later) that make up the majority of the theme force so I assume that there is some kind of story reason for its inclusion.

I really struggled to get started with Barathrum’s paint job since it is covered in various layers and raised edges I was hardly sure how to approach it. In the end, I more or less painted from the inside to the outside with black for most of the carapace and bronze for the edging. Of course, I also used pink for some of the bits and bobs to bring a bit of colour to the otherwise rather drab machine. There are also elements that I assume are supposed to be actual bone so I painted them accordingly; this is probably because Cryx are the baddy faction and prone to adorning their stuff with skulls etc. Indeed, they’d look quite fine in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. One of the things I like about Barathrum’s miniature is that it is rather more dynamic than most Warjacks in the PP range. Barathrum is clearly advancing whereas most of the other Warjacks are just standing around like they’re admiring themselves in a gym mirror (I consider this particularly fitting since they generally give the impression of having skipped leg day a few times too many). There are meant to be a couple of tusks on the side of Barathrum’s head but I couldn’t get them to look good during assembly so they went straight into the bits box.

I dedicate this post to Azazel’s Mechanical November Challenge. I’ll admit that this is a bit of a cheat because I was planning to paint Barathrum anyway and it just happens to coincide with the hobby challenge; still, it’s not like anyone has any money riding on this so I’m going to count it anyway.

Next on the painting table: Hunzakut with Rifle and Light Grenade Launcher

Painted Deathrippers

These lovely twin robots are Deathrippers for my Cryx force in Warmachine. They are Arc Nodes, which means that my Warcaster can use them as casting points for magic. In a game where having your Warcaster killed means you lose, this is quite important; this goes doubly for the Witch Coven since they’re so easy to kill. They are the cheapest Arc Nodes available and as such are pretty useless at actually doing anything on their own.

I stuck with the same pink spot colouring as the Witch Coven but opted for more black and bronze for the rest of the Deathripper chassis; it seemed more fitting for the robot. I’m not sure if the skull at the front is meant to be an actual skull or just a manufactured thing like a ship’s prow, but I painted it as the former anyway (I’m not aware of anything in the Iron Kingdoms setting that looks like it would have such a skull but I’m hardly a close follower of the lore).  Overall a simple but effective paint job; I’m happy with the result.

Next on the painting table: Peacemaker and Auxbot

Painted Witch Coven of Garlghast and Egregore

These are the Witch Coven of Garlghast and Egregore, part of the Cryx faction for Warmachine. They’re Warcasters (i.e. the leaders of your army) but since there are three Witches in addition to the Egregore they break loads of the basic rules of the game. Not least is that in Warmachine a caster kill is an immediate defeat so having three Witches makes it a bit harder to suffer this (though in fairness, they are individually pitifully easy to kill so I guess it works out well-balanced). I’m not familiar with the Warmachine stories so I have to admit to having no idea who the Witches are, where/what Garlghast is, nor why they are being followed around by a big spiky ball. I suppose that they must have some kind of flair for stealth though, since most of their spells involve hiding your own forces or turning various things into ghosts so that they can run through terrain or other models. Overall I have found them highly amusing to play though I probably should have followed the general advice I received when picking them up – don’t use them to learn the game.

I very much like the models, even considering the rather silly cheesecake poses, and had a terrific time painting them. I went for pink armour and white cloth because I consider it entertaining to have these people from the baddie faction dressed accordingly. The skin tone is darker to get nicer contrast with the white hoods in particular. As for Egregore, I decided eventually to keep things simple and did it black with highlights in matching pink to link it with the Witches. I did consider giving it some brass banding but an early test didn’t look too good so I went back to black all over.

The Witches have names, although in game terms they are all identical. In case you’re wondering which Witch is which, you can tell them apart by the number of hand on their (somewhat comical) weapons:
No hands on dagger: Helleana
One hand on dagger: Selene
Both hands on dagger: Morgaen

Next on the painting table: Valerya Gromoz.

Painted Gorten Grundback

This is Gorten Grundback (Gorten1 for future-proofing purposes), Mercenary Warcaster for Warmachine. I usually try to write a bit about how my miniatures perform for me in games at this point, but there is a new version of Warmachine coming out shortly so it seems a bit pointless. Anyway, the little chap has been fun to play in Warmachine second edition.

I stuck with green Warcaster armour to tie Gorten in with the other Mercenaries I’ve painted. I felt that greying hair fitted the receding hairline and distinguished feature of the Rhul-man. Since there was quite a lot of bling on both weapons I tried to mix up the colours a bit; normally I assume that weapons are meant to be functional (only) and therefore paint them monochromatic.

Next on the painting table: Tara, Herald of Obliteration.

Painted Cylena Raefyll and Nyss Hunters

Here are Cylena Raefyll and her Nyss Hunters from the Warmachine Mercenaries; they’re not very picky though and will work for quite a few other factions. They have great defence but terrible armour, and are therefore in theory quite nice with the Warcaster Gorten Grundback as he can protect them from blast damage with his Solid Ground spell. In practice, the Nyss are really fast and Gorten is really slow (and wants to be at the back anyway) so quite often they are too far away from him to benefit from Solid Ground. Still, I really like the Nyss as they are fast and have a variety of cool special rules that let them do what I need most of the time, which is usually kill a few things and then be annoying to get rid of in return.

I painted the Nyss Hunters with mostly green armour, partly to match up somewhat with the primary colour on my Press Gangers and partly because even in a fantasy world where giant robots painted in bright reds and blues punch each other repeatedly, it seems worthwhile to dress in mostly natural colours if your plan is to hide in a wood. Putting the Nyss together was rather frustrating as the arms, body and weapons are all separate and have tiny contact points that require extensive pinning. I was quite glad to persevere through it as hopefully it will make the miniatures more robust in play and transport. I also did a little plastic surgery on the grunts (i.e. not Cylena) as they originally came with really big crooked noses that made them stand out as markedly different from their leader. Possibly they are meant to be related to Mortiis. Either way, I trimmed the noses a little.

Cylena Raefyll allows an extra rule while she’s in play and is fractionally better at fighting than the rest of her unit. As a result, she is frequently the first to die; of course this is really due to my poor play. For reasons that are not clear to me, she not only uses a different set of armour to the other Nyss Hunters, but rather impractically chooses to bare her midriff despite the backstory for the Nyss being that they hail from the frozen North.

There are only two weapons, two heads and three body types for the grunts so I tried to put them together to get variety.  Even so I think I did end up with a couple of identical twins.  Still, this is normal in Warmachine; the Press Gangers literally have duplicate miniatures.  At least one advantage to the huge number of bits that needed to be assembled for the Nyss Hunters is that they have a small amount of customisability.

Warmachine seems to be very big on the ‘what you see is what you get’ that was common in Warhammer 40,000 when we played that.  Hence all these miniatures have to have both bows and claymores to represent the relevant rules in the game, even though I think that the bows look a little awkward on the sword-wielding ones’ backs.  I couldn’t think of anywhere more appropriate to put them though.

I tried to emphasise that they are not just pointy-eared humans but giving the Nyss a very pale white skin tone.  This is just white with blue ink, then highlighted back to white again.

Next on the painting table: Death Marshals.

Painted Press Gangers

These are the ubiquitous Press Gangers for Warmachine. They’re Mercenaries by faction, and mercenaries in the sense that they can also be used in four other factions. So far, I’ve only tried them in the Mercenaries faction so I have no idea how they fare out-of-faction. Having said that, I’m pretty bad at Warmachine, so it could accurately be said that I don’t really know much about their performance at all. For me, their main advantages are having Advanced Deployment so they can start scenario pressure, and being cheap so I don’t worry too much when they inevitably die like flies. I initially took them to play with Gorten Grundback (Gorten1) who can cast Solid Ground and stop them being killed so easily by blasts and keep them standing if they make a tough roll. In practice, keeping them close enough to Gorten to benefit from this spell means that I’m not taking advantage of the scenario pressure. Anyway, they’re fun to play and I quite like the idea of starting my motley Mercenary army with a tide of screaming pirates racing across the field.

I’ve picked green as a colour with which to tie this fledgling Mercenary force together, so each Press Ganger has at least a bit of green on them. There are only a few different sculpts so I tried to make each piece at least a little unique by swapping the colours for the various items of clothing. I got these guys at the same time as my Nyss Hunters (more on them later) and the contrast between assembling these guys, who come as single piece to be attached to the base, and the Nyss, who come in approximately 100 fiddly pieces needing to be pinned, could not be more irritating.

This is the Lass, leader of the unit and bearer of a few extra powers like being able to make enemy pieces take actions for her. I love the character of the sculpt, with one hand beckoning and the other holding a cudgel behind her back. Unfortunately, I could not get my camera to take a nice photo of her at all, and gave up after many shots of which these were the least bad.

I really like the various improvised weapons the Press Gangers are wielding, particularly the table leg held by the chap in the middle. The one on the right with the lamp appears to have a squirrel tucked away in one of his coat pockets, which seems an odd choice for the admittedly surprisingly land-based sailors.

The central chap here is the only other unique sculpt in the unit (after the Lass), and I really like the body-in-a-sack he has over his shoulder. I imagine that the hat is some common piratical accoutrement but I can’t help but see it as a bunnet and painted him accordingly.

Here are the final three Press Gangers. They have a rule which allows them, under certain circumstances, to turn a living enemy trooper into another type of pirate. Hilariously, various other combinations of rules means that they can do this to dogs and possessed trees. It amuses me no end to think that the Warmachine world is filled with the kind of magic that allows people to put a trained war dog into a sack and pull out a scurvy sea dog.

Next on the painting table: Francisco Ortega

Painted Feora, Priestess of the Flame

Here is the mighty Feora, Priestess of the Flame (Feora1 for those keeping count at home), the last of the Protectorate of Menoth miniatures I currently own. I played most of my Protectorate games with Feora1 and in general I really enjoyed using her as my Warcaster. Her main draws from my point of view were her Feat (which sets nearby enemies on fire and is therefore highly entertaining even if far less effective in practice that I wanted it to be) and her spell Engine of Destruction (which gives a huge bonus to her combat stats and allows her to scrap things with ease). I didn’t really find the more general play from the Protectorate to be especially enjoyable as all the best abilities seemed to revolve around stopping your opponent from doing very much during their turn. Or perhaps it would be closer to the truth to say that I felt that those I played against had less fun when I played the Protectorate for that reason. Still, I do like the miniatures so I might very easily decide to dip back into the army at some point in the future.

Next on the painting table: Press Gangers.

Painted Thyra, Flame of Sorrow

This is Thyra, Flame of Sorrow, my first painted Warcaster for the fledgling Protectorate of Menoth force. Unusually for me I’ve not got much to say about her playstyle as I haven’t got enough games in with her to make any conclusions. Her abilities make her seem like a turbo-charged Daughter of the Flame. Naturally, I regard this as a good thing. My experience with WarmaHordes has made me a bit cautious about Warcasters with a focus on melee assassination as you need to make sure you get it to work or you’ll surely die in the following turn.

Anyway, painting-wise I loved this miniature; a good painter could really make something special out of it. There is so much bling on her that every edge feels like it is worth an extra flick of the paintbrush. Though I do wonder how she gets around so acrobatically with such armour and robing on. I guess a wizard did it.

Next on the painting table: Mr Tannen (for real this time)