2015 Hobby Wrapup and 2016 January Goals

2015 is done! Hooray! But before we put last year completely in the rear view mirror let's spend a bit of time in reflection.

Everything I painted in 2015

I managed to play only a handful of 40K games. They were all fun, but difficult to arrange and took much too long for the points values (many hours for 1500 points to a side).  All but one were also four player games which is probably why they took a bit longer.

Fantasy suffered a bit of a blow with the introduction of Age of Sigmar.  A buddy and I had been collaborating on an empire army themed around witch hunters, and even had a plan to run something like a campaign with them. With no more GW support for proper Warhammer Fantasy we're not likely to do that anymore.  We've played the Age of Sigmar rules but we're not terribly impressed with them. We're just not sure how best to organize a battle so the fight isn't lopsided. We did play around with counting wounds and whatnot but it's just not the same as having points values and force org charts.  We'll see.  I think the rules themselves play fine, but I'm not sure I want to spend a bunch of money for scenario rules or that it has legs enough to keep me interested.

In Warmachine territory I only played a single game even though most of my painting time was put into Privateer Press models. So that's a bit lopsided.  I'm sure I can arrange some more battles this year.

Hobby Scorecard! A lot of this year's hobby was spent finishing models that had been started a long time ago. This is another trend I expect to continue in 2016.  I'm resolved to make a dent in the pile of half finished miniatures I have lying around.

Here are the models I completed in 2015. Twenty-nine total, which comes out to about one model every two weeks.

     12 Empire Swordsmen

     Dark Angels Azrael

     Rhyas, Sigil of Everblight
     Rask, Hordes Warlock

     6 Tau Stealthsuits

     2 Tau Drones
     3 Tau Battlesuits
     Bull Snapper, Hordes Warbeast

     Journeyman Warcaster
     Harlan Versh

Looking into 2016, I'd like to do more one on one combats across all the rule sets that I have armies for, even Infinity. I'm also looking to expand my Tau collection and finish up a few of the half-started armies that are lying around. Setting a goal for the month seemed to work well leading up to the new year, so I think I'll keep that around and try to make it a thing.

Here's a picture of the January goal:

In the front there is a half-finished Cairn Wraith and an assembled and primed Empire Master Engineer. Then of course there's a Tau Riptide taking up most of the picture. I'm building my Tau force very deliberately, only adding a new model to the army once all the other models are assembled and painted.  The only exception I'm making is for drones.  Drones will be saved up to be assembled and painted once I have a sufficient number of them.

Painted: Bull Snapper

2016 is rapidly approaching and I've got the Bull Snapper checked off my project list.

I don't have much use for him in a game of Warmahordes. I simply don't have enough Minions models to put together a worthwhile force. Bull Snappers aren't one of my favorite units anyways. Why take a light warbeast when you can have a heavy for twice the price? But he does look good next to Rask, and if/when I get a chance to play the Hordes version of the Iron Kingdoms RPG I'll be rocking a fish man character with attendant hungry crocodile.

Now to close out the year I just need to wrap up the Tau battlesuit weapons and finish Harlan Versh.  Versh is starting too look like a stretch goal at this point, but the battlesuit weapons just need one more line highlighting pass and they'll be set.

Been Painting

Despite the lack of activity on the blog, I have in fact been paying some attention to my hobby work. It's been sporadic, but I've manage to get paint on a dozen miniatures in the last few months.  I like the results and wanted to share them here.

First up is Azrael for Warhammer 40K.  Occasionally a buddy and I team up and combine our Dark Angel forces.  We both usually run Belial as our Warlord when not teamed up, but taking two Belials in one force feels a little silly.  Now I have an alternate warlord that provides some serious buffing to whatever unit he joins.

A new Khador miniature to go along with the rest of the band.  He's actually been done since last year and has even seen combat since he got paint.  I see in the picture there's a tiny spot of blue on his base in the back. I'll have to fix that up.

I've owned the Rask model for a while, but was inspired to get him painted up when some friends of mine started started playing the Hordes RPG.  I've got a half painted Bull Snapper to go along with him and I have yet to use either of them in any sort of game.

Getting Rhyas finished brings me that much closer to being able to field the Legion of Everblight army that I've always wanted to have. Rhyas has a theme force that lets you run blighted ogrun, typhon and a whole bunch of other cool models with lots of synergies.

Tau stealthsuits!  There's one missing from the picture.  These guys were an experiment in a particular color scheme and painting technique.  I like the results and they deserve a separate post detailing how I did them up, if for no other reason than so I can keep track of what paints I used on them.  There's also a trio of battlesuits that are half finished that will be joining the fight for the greater good.

Warhammer Fantasy army work. I really like the color scheme on these guys.  The witch hunter model was Finecast, which I'll never do again. Thank goodness Games Workshop seems to be phasing that out. This is part of a larger army that a friend and I are putting together.  My half of the force has a steam tank, master engineer and 18 more swordsmen on top of what you see here.  The release of Age of Sigmar as opposed to a proper new Warhammer Fantasy edition has muted our enthusiasm for the project. We do plan to try the new rules at some point but it's not a high priority with all the 40K work that we have on our plates.

Legion of Everblight Battle Box

(image used without permission. Copyright Privateer Press)

The Legion of Everblight Battle Box presents some fun challenges for a Hordes Player. You get a lot of beasts but have a warlock with a low fury. I'm going to talk about my experience with the battle box and some of its strengths, weaknesses and strategies.

Let's talk about the contents, taking all the pieces in turn.

Lylyth - Her primal version has a number of abilities that make up for her low fury stat. Blood Lure on her bow means that you can get your beasts to charge for free, Witch Mark means that you should always be shooting enemies with your bow if you want to cast a spell on them and her feat makes everything in your army more accurate. Her last ability, Bushwack, is mainly used to get her out of trouble in the middle or late game. Just remember that you can't get the aiming bonus for giving up your movement and then use Bushwack.
She's got three spells and most of the time she's only going to have enough fury to cast one of them.

• Bad Blood - Punishes a player for leaching fury and prevents quite a few of the more useful parts about warbeasts. Since it only affects warbeasts it won't do you any good against an opponent using a warmachine army. The damage from leaching isn't as big a deal in battlebox games since most of the time your opponent will be glad to take the four or five damage for leaching in exchange for turn in which he can cripple or kill you. Still, it makes the game more difficult for your opponent, and every little bit can help, so if you have the extra fury you might as well throw it on something you hit with your bow that turn.
• Parasite - Absolutely the best spell in her list. Dramatically lowers an opponents ARM and slightly buffs Lylyth's. Put this on anything that you want to ensure your Carnivean kills. Best is if you can put it on the enemy caster and then upkeep it for the rest of the (probably short) game. You can also use it on one of your shredders the first turn of the game to help keep Lylyth safe from any stray hits.
  
• Eruption of Spines - This is the sneakiest spell in her list. In larger games you'll generally use this to kill off infantry, but in battle box games you can often use it to get some damage on enemy casters hiding behind their warbeasts. Just shoot the low def warbeast, cast Eruption of Spines on it and boost the damage roll when it arcs into the squishy caster behind.

Carnivean - There's not a lot of subtlety to this guy. He has a lot of attacks and hits very hard. His animus is good, and should be used every turn there's even a remote chance that something might hit it. The two extra points of armor will mean it takes your opponent one or two more hits before they can take down the beast down. The only real trick up this guy's sleeve is his ranged spray attack. In combination with his Assault ability, you have a nineteen inch threat radius when you declare a charge and use assault to take your breath attack before your activation ends. The spray hits hard enough that most enemy casters will be in serious trouble from a boosted hit. Remember, too that the spray can hit things that are hiding, so charge assaulting a front line unit to spray something behind it is a possibility.

Shredders - You've get four of these guys. The best way to think about these guys is not as warbeasts, but as a unit of elite solos. Their job is to tie up enemy forces, provide speed bumps and act as bait. They'll have a hard time hurting heavies, but if they gang up they can bring down a light in one turn. Their ideal turn looks like this:

1. Lylyth shoots something, marking it with Blood Lure.
2. Shredder activates, forced for one to go rabid.
3. Charges up to eleven inches to their target. Free charge because of blood lure.
4. Gets forced for an extra fully boosted attack against its target.

Shredders are fast and beasts generally need to boost to guarantee hits on them. It's usually a good idea to keep one of the four back as a transfer target in case Lylyth takes a hit or two.

The battlebox has two other general rules going for it shared by all models. Everyone has Pathfinder (shredders get it from going rabid) which means terrain isn't going to bother you, and everyone also has eyeless sight, which means that you're going to be able have line of sight on everything unless there's an intervening model or non-forest piece of terrain.

Journeyman League

The journeyman league is going strong in these parts. I'm a part of it at my local game store and I'm using it as the impetus to get the few legion models I own assembled and painted. I've created a bar at the right to track my progress and to help me visualize my goal.

Week three of the league starts on Thursday. So far I've played 3 games, of which I won two, and painted four little beasts. According to the rules that's only 12 points total, so I don't think I'm in the running for taking home any prizes, but it's all about the journey.

I realize I've been slacking when it comes to updates here at Stone Corridors, so at least for the duration of the league I'll be doing regular posts. Next update will be about my thoughts regarding tactics and strategy for the Legion of Everblight Battle Box.

Hordes Wishlisting: Goats!

My regular gaming group has been playing a bunch of Warmachine, and a couple people are starting to dip their toes into Hordes. Two people are starting up Circle of Orboros armies. One is going straight Wolves with eKaya leading the charge. The other has made a completely different army using Baldur and Woldwardens.

It's intriguing to me that two armies drawn from the same list can play and look so different. 40K suffers a bit in this respect. The endless procession of power armor armies and mechanized guard gets a little boring after a while. True, there are exceptions.

I actually own some Legion of Everblight models that I've never put together. But the focus by my group on Orboros got me looking at what they had to offer. That's when I discovered this grumpy looking fellow. I love that sculpt.

Turns out there are quite a few goat looking models in the Orboros line. I thought I'd try to put together a goat-themed army. The idea is to have a shepherd(ess) and her flock of goats. No wolves, no rocks tied to stones, just a simple shepherd tending his flock. I figured I'd see what a 15 point force would look like. I pointed it up trying to make an army that's tactically flexible (has more than just three units in it), cheap (won't break the bank to purchase) and easy to paint (the fewer models to paint the better).

• Kaya, the Wildborne - My warlock. A simple shepherdess character. She's an unassuming model, but her spells, powers and feats support a force with lots of warbeasts, which will make expanding the army fun. An all goat army could have been led by Kromac, but he's harder to use, doesn't offer as many warbeast points, and his spells don't synergize as well with the Satyr's abilities. Also his models are expensive and I would have to paint two models for one unit in my force.
• Gnarlhorn Satyr - Heavy warbeast. That's my boy! Great looking model. Heavy hitter. As long as he's in Kaya's control group her Pack Hunter ability gives him a bonus to attack rolls, making his slams and fists hit more often, leaving more fury for buying extra attacks.
• Argus - Light warbeast. Every shepherdess needs a dog to help guide the herd. He's got a nice debuff, a medium sized base to block charge and trample lanes and most importantly he has a good fury stat to help keep Kaya's spellcasting and other abilities constantly running. I could have added another Gnarlhorn Satyr here, but that would leave me with few leftover points and a very low model count. In small point games its important to have some extra models on the table to grab objectives and tie up the enemie's heavy hitters.
• Tharn Ravagers - 4 man unit. Goat men! Medium bases mean they can't be trampled. Reach, Pathfinder and Treewalker mean they have a great threat range. Standard warrior defense and eight damage boxes mean most things will have to boost attack rolls to guarantee a hit, and everything but a heavy will have to boost damage rolls to guarantee a kill. This is a unit to support tactical play.
• Tharn Ravager White Mane - Solo Goat - All the benefits of the Tharn Ravagers and then some. He can tear through any infantry your opponent throws at you and he boosts the Tharn Ravagers. This guy and the regular Ravagers can be used to choke up charge lanes or they can operate independently to wrap come in on a flank.

So that would be 8 models to paint. From The War Store you would spend about $115 for the models if you bought the epic version of Kaya. This would give you some flexibility to change your play style by switching out your warlock. Alternatively you could get the warpack with the non-epic version of Kaya for just ten dollars more. This has the benefit of giving you an extra Argus and Warpwolf for when you want to make the jump to the next points level. I'd probably try to sell or trade the wolf to get another goat.