Switching from Warhammer to Warmachine: I Just Lost the Game!

In what might turn out to be a pretty interesting series of articles, I'm going to share with you my experience of slowly departing from my days of shouting "WAAAAAGH!" and gradually getting to know the glory of Warmahordes. While I still love Warhammer 40,000 and even Warhammer Fantasy I can't help but feel alienated by Games Workshop's policies and just general business presence. I could go on and on about the things that went wrong, but I don't want waste your time with my rants.
It is what it is.

And now.. Warmachine! 

If leaving the Warhammer 40,000 scene and getting into this whole Warmachine business has taught me ONE thing, then it is the following: I am no longer the top dog. Gone are the days of me knowing the outcome of a game long before it even began. I can no longer underestimate my opponents. I don't have a superior understanding of the rules which can give me an advantage against my opponents. I no longer look at an opponent's list and see all the wrong choices. I can't win games by making mistakes or expecting my opponent to make more mistakes than me. The list goes on..

I guess what I'm trying to say is that.. there is challenge for me in Warmachine. I might sound a little snobbish at first, but 40k had been very stale for me.. for quite a while, actually. I did keep on trying to motivate myself by thinking big. I wanted to have an army of 100 Deff Koptas.. but that never panned out. I wanted to re-do my Space Wolves - to finally highlight them and to get my army up in points. I wanted to have an Apocalypse-ready army of Space Wolves. That's probably never going to happen with the current prices on things and the fact that there's no way I can duplicate the paint scheme for my armies anymore. But I digress. Again.

So true..

Like I said..
I am no longer the top dog.
I don't have the confidence that I'm going to win anymore.
I do win some of my games, though!
But then I lose just as many. I lose a lot.
I make mistakes.. and I lose.
I get outplayed and outsmarted.. and I lose.
I decide no to boost that one attack.. and I lose.
I become too confident and reckless.. and I lose.


There has been a whole lot of losing as I'm dealing with the learning curve of this game. That was not the case of my Warhammer 40,000 days in which my Orkz dominated the Ultramarines and Necrons of my gaming buddies. Hm, I guess my whole wargaming career so far has been an avalanche of success due to a lack of challenges. Oh, I've had my ass handed to me more than once, naturally.. but not enough. Once again, this is not the case. 

So.. I've been learning how to lose properly while enjoying the game as much as I can.
I can't say that I don't play to win. I enjoy winning! Victory achieved by outplaying and outmaneuvering your opponent is awesome.. Which is why Warhammer 40,000 was getting boring - victories were just victories. I wasn't getting anything out of winning anymore, I wasn't losing enough to learn from my mistakes and when I did lose it was more often than not due to time, a rules dispute or Matt Ward.


Of course, saying that I don't mind losing would be a lie. Losing still really rustles my jimmies sometimes and I mean.. that's normal. I put a lot of thought into the game and I really do my best, but sometimes even my best is not enough. I'm still learning, though, and will be learning for a long time.
There are so many armies out there and just changing a warcaster or a warlock completely changes everything. So many lists to win and lose against, hahaha...
I've been learning how to lose. I always do my best and when I do lose a game (again - that happens a lot!) I always try to leave the store with at least one important lesson learned.

I have made it my mission to only feel defeat if after a game I cannot see my own mistakes and the things I could have done better. That's why I really like Warmahordes, guys. Even losing is awesome!

Here are some of the lessons I have learned by losing..

• Charging pStryker with pSorsha when Stryker has 20 ARM, even if made Stationary is a bad idea..
• Relying too much on 'jacks and not enough on the Old Witch's toolbox to save her when being surrounded by Mercenary Steelheads, when an Iron Flesh and dropping a Murder of Crows on her could have saved her..
• Being too aggressive with Scrapjack and getting it killed on turn 2 on more than one occasion.
• Putting too much focus on 'jacks while preparing for a possible charge on a Getorix after a nice Gallows without boosting the attack roll with the Old Witch, causing Gallows to miss. 
• Allowing pSorsha to get knocked down by slammed 'jacks.

So far all of the games that I have played have had that "ARGH!" moment. I bet you know what I'm talking about - it's the turn you fuck up. You either forget to move, shoot, boost or you fail to allocate your resources properly. Or you fail to see a way out of a situation. "ARGH!" moments are always different as as long as you keep them that way and avoid making the same mistakes you should pat yourself on the back, because avoiding making the same mistakes is what makes us better gamers.

So.. that's it from me.. for now.

And until then,
Keep on losing!

Khador Warjacks painted with new Citadel Paints!

This weekend I met with Brian from A Gentleman's Ones for some much-deserved hobby time and for the first time since I've know Brian we actually hung out for a reason that was not terrain-building or Special Operations: KILLZONE. And it was Glorious!

Those of you who read my blog on a regular basis know that I don't usually post about my painted models simply because.. well.. I don't paint a lot. It's not because I can't or I don't want to - it's just that whenever I start an army I can never decide how to paint it. I'm very familiar with color theory and the different types of brushes and paints, mind you. It's just my indecisiveness and inability to commit to a decision that usually leads to a lot of my stuff being factory gray. That is why I decided to let Brian teach me how to paint my Khadoran army. His stuff is always so astonishing and from the few times I've seen him paint, his entire process seems so spontaneous and carefree. I wanted my hobby to be like his, so I made the trip to his place with "Frozencore" Joe to get stuff done!

Green has always been my favorite color and I wanted my Khador stuff to be green. It's not the most original idea, but I like the look of it, so I wanted to do that. I wanted my army to be dirty, gritty and covered with rust and dust from months and months of constant warfare in the trenches. I didn't want pristine-looking 'jacks, I wanted them scratched and damaged, but still ready to punish the enemies of the Motherland!

After I explained to Brian what I wanted, he went and primed the models. He grabbed the Destroyer and I got to paint the Juggernaut. The rest is magic..

What you see below is the result of ~3 hours of painting. There are a lot of touch-ups, highlights and other things to add and fix on the models, but for now I am definitely happy with the results.

Destroyer and Juggernaut - 80% done!
OH! AND THEY ARE ALL PAINTED WITH THE NEW CITADEL PAINTS!!!

Something BIG is Coming!

My love of Warmachine and Hordes has not really been documented on this blog until now, so let me just say I LOVE PRIVATEER PRESS. Yes, I realize that this is "Wolves for the Wolf God," and while I do enjoy werewolf space vikings, every time Privateer Press does something new I just kind of applaud them for their effort.

The First Hobby Day of 2012

.. for me was actually two days ago.

Frozencore Joe and I decided that it was time for us to dust off some models that needed glue and paint on them and we quickly deployed my room, which is juuuust big enough. It's not a dedicated Man Cave (although it sometimes might look like one...) but at least it's not the elevator room from Borat. 

I had plenty of stuff to build. Brian from A Gentleman's Ones gifted me the Khadoran contents from the 2-player Warmachine Starter Box. He's just über nice like that. The box contains the Sorsha model, a Destroyer, a Juggernaut and 5 Man-O-War Shocktroopers to boot! I also decided to finally build the Juggernaut from my very own Starter box, because everyone was sick and tired of watching just a pair of legs not even glued to a base...

I wish I looked like that... *sniff*

I also picked up Koldun Kapitan Valachev (trivia: the word "koldun" is a Slavic word meaning "sorcerer, warlock" ) just because his last name is almost identical to mine. Seriously, I was able to show the miniature at the register when asked for my last name (Games Plus keeps discount cards in alphabetical order) and just told the owner to drop the second "a". I'm probably the only Khador player that has ever been able to do that. Now I just need to get Epic Vlad.. Oh, I bought the trusty War Dog! I know that Silly Wishnailer is the thang right now, but he is just a dirty bald Retributionist elf. Now the War Dog, the War Dog is your best friend. He'll follow you anywhere, he has no other agenda other than protecting your life. Will Silly Wishnailer take a bullet for you?
Will he charge a Warjack to save your life? No, he won't. But the War Dog will. 

From top to bottom: Karchev the Terrible, Destroyer, Leman Russ Exterminator, Juggernaut, War Dog, Koldun Kapitan Valachev

Above you'll see the models that I was workin' on. Karchev the Terrible was actually given to me by Frozencore Joe who had bought him ages ago just to paint him. He's a little chipped here and there but I'll do my best to restore his beauty. This is my 3rd Khadoran Caster - he's joining Sorsha and Harkevich (who I'm starting to resemble, because I've vowed not to shave until the release of Diablo 3. It's been 3 months and a half now." The two resin-plastic Khadoran Warjacks were easy to assemble, but hard to clean.. especially their damned legs, man. Their axes were slightly warped, but nothing nuking some water in the microwave couldn't fix.

The War Dog and Valachev were much easier to clean, but some Liquid Green Stuff was needed to fill in the gaps and I had to pin Valachev's sword-holding arm, which was the most time-consuming part of the day. Twas a tricky pinning..

 Last on the list, but most important (yea.. I know) was the Leman Russ Exterminator which is still very much WIP. So far it has been a bitch to build, but the hard part is done. It's the OLD Leman Russ Battle Tank version and you have to build the friggin treads and all that crap. Oh, and I had no instructions.. So Joe helped. A lot.
There's also no hull-mounted heavy bolter bit in the old kit, nor is there the actual Exterminator twin-linked autocannon turret thing.. sooo for now this Leman Russ counts as a tank with all of its weapons destroyed... probably because there's a crazy Russian robot-man jumping on it.
I am also currently working on an Space Wolves Apocalypse Formation for 3 Leman Russ Exterminators..
Hopefully when I do get the other two kits the assembly will be much easier.
Actually.. I don't know why I'm complaining. I've had to build worse. Way, way worse. Like.. the metal Screaming Skull Catapult-worse. *shudder*

I finally convinced Joe to !@#$-ing paint his Space Wolves that he has had from their 2010 release. He has been talking about how he never got into them because Games Workshop never released the Fenrisian Wolves and Thunderwolf Cavalry models, which while true and unfortunate was still not a good enough reason. Joe is a great painter and I have learned a lot from him, so it was kind of nice to watch him paint his Space Wolves. Plus, I was able to give him a few pointers on how to paint the power armor and fur on the models since I have some experience with that. He's doing Harald Deathwolf's Great Company, which is what I've been doing as well, so hopefully it will motivate me to revisit my hastily-painted Space Wolves and start highlighting and painting their faces.

I am also not going to mention the fact that Joe primed inside my building and managed to get Grey primer all over my door and on one of the walls. Oh, wait.. ;D That's what Safety Deposits are for, I guess.

There's a reason this Khadoran Warjack is Unique..

A White Russian..

I'm talking of course about the Black Ivan warjack: the newest, meanest addition to the Khadoran Empire.
First of all, why wasn't it named Black Jack? Would have been perfect seeing as how it is a black warjack but I guess Privateer Press really wanted to enforce the Soviet vibe of their new model.
But seriously... Have you ever seen a black Russian? I haven't. It has to be a pretty rare sight, right? We are talking about a culture so monochromatic that it has a drink named after its whiteness... ;D

Reminds me of this guy...

There is, however, a legitimate reason for his Unique status. Actually, two reasons in one.
Reason #1: The plastic/resin/whatever abomination that Privateer Press is using is crazy hard to clean! I bet this is not the first time you're hearing this. The Khadoran warjacks are pretty easy to assemble, but getting rid of the flash and mold lines is definitely harder than penetrating their ARM in the game. There were mould lines around and on top of the numerous rivets, around a lot of the fine details as well. Mold lines were also found in places that were hard to reach with a knife but still very visible (behind the knees, feet, etc.). Two big chunks of extra resin were also a pain in the butt to clean - they were located around the head of the warjack. Some pieces like the actual arms had to mold lines at all, but some took hours to clean. Hours. And that's not even including the time I'll need to spend washing them, because.. you know... resin is gross. 
Reason #2: WTF BEAR CLAW? Such a cool weapon, but so annoying to pin. You have to pin all three fingers. That took like 2 hours. The head was a good fit and the shoulder spike thingamajiggers were actually very well done - you don't have to file down the rivets around the shoulders to put them on, because they have little indentations for the rivets. All of the flash is on the bottom as well, so you don't even need to clean it.

Black Ivan fresh from the factory. Pre-paint.

Man am I happy to be finally done with this model... It has great stats and some great synergies with Kommander Harkevich. I would say something about its fluff but you know.. the book that he's supposed to be in has yet to be released so all I have is this lousy black Russian robot with a bear claw. But hey, that's my first Warmachine model. Not 100% built - still needs some green stuff where the claws are, but he's lookin' alright for now.

Heroes of Armageddon and Games Day!

Q: "Throne, Skarvald, where the heck have you been hiding, you thunderwolf-riding, troll-faced son of lasgun?"
A: Well, I promise you that I haven't been lazy. At all. Between me quitting my shitty job and finals just around the corner (tomorrow, actually) I still managed to keep myself busy with plastic and resin dudemen. The month of July has been.. and still is.. a whirlwind of projects. And I'm afraid that between juggling so many of 'em I still don't have anything to show you..

Games Day Chicago, 2011: This Saturday you can meet me at the convention center where I'll be pretty much the whole day. When I'm not all over the place I'll be at the Heroes of Armageddon table, so make sure you stop by and say Hi! Just ask the people at the event table (especially Brian) for "Vlad" or "Skavald the Troll-faced". You'll see a picture of me later in this article. I'm really looking forward to meeting some of you!

Heroes of Armageddon Tables: I'm proud to announce that besides donating I also managed to get involved with the building of the HoA tables by helping Brian. "Frozencore" Joe was there as well. All I can say is that Monday and Tuesday were FUN. Brian is a very creative man with great vision and not only does he have innovative and grand ideas but he also has the guts to attempt all of this AND be a father, husband and a teacher at the same time. Wow! Each day we spent under the scorching rays of the sun painting, washing, cutting, measuring.. you name it. While there are thousands of pages written on the battle for Armageddon there are not a whole lot of books detailing the construction of its hive cities and the masterminds behind them. It was Brian. Brian built Armageddon so that 12,000 points of beautifully painted models had something to fight for.... and something to grant them cover saves. With every task completed the table kept on evolving into something so much more! When we first started we thought that we would never finished this crazy project, but you'll be surprised what a bunch of dedicated hobbyists can do for the hobby when under pressure. AND it was for a good cause. There is, however, a lot of work left and Friday will be a day dedicated to perfecting the four Heroes of Armageddon tables with what little time we have left.

Left to right: "Frozencore" Joe; Skarvald the Troll-faced (me!)

Warmachine: In my last post about Warmachine I talked about the unveiling of the Khador box. Indeed, it has been an awesome adventure, ladies and gentlemen. My initial thoughts were to magnetize my plastic Warjacks but I really don't feel like drilling all the wholes in each individual arm. Besides, I think I know which Warcaster I'll be using, including my first few 'jacks.
My choice? Kommander Harkevich, the Iron Wolf. And a Black Ivan. And then a Behemoth.... Because blasting the enemies of the Motherland to smithereens before charging them with steam-powered gargantuan robots is awesome.
I know I said that I was going to stick with the Battlebox for a while.. but I lied.

"Frozencore" Joe has been teaching me how to play the game. He plays Circle Orboros and his Thunderwolf-wannabe puppies have been rending my Warjacks to death for a few games now.. But Joe is a great teacher, despite his generous use of the beat stick. So far it has been a blast and each game has been pretty close. There are a lot of things to learn and remember, but the turns are bloody and action-packed, which is my favorite part about Warmachine! I'll be covering some games and models later, though.

Khador!

Comrades, you are to listen to this march while reading this post.  
The Khadoran War Machine demands it! 

Now that you're listening to some good ole classics from the Motherland let me show you what finally arrived to its destination. After some Soviet-style backlogs, delays and shenanigans the precious parcel is finally in my possession! Enter...

WARMACHINE!

.. the perfect choice indeed, comrade. The perfect choice indeed.

After almost 20 days of waiting I finally can marvel at the Khador Battlegroup deal I ordered during the Privateer Press 10th Anniversary deal-thing and let me tell you one thing, ladies and gentlemen - The wait?

WORTH ~IT!

 Honestly, I've never been so excited to open a box of plastic dudemen, except maybe for my shipment of Mr. Dandy's Thunderwolves. That was also pretty exciting. But I digress.. I actually walked to and from the post office, around noon, under the scorching midday sun just to get my parcel. Wearing black. Uphill. Barefoot. Both ways. ;P I just can't wait to get some magnets to start magnetizing my warjacks.. Just. Can't. Wait. A friend of mine already has his Trollbloods mostly painted and has a few games under his belt, but it won't be enough to deal with some cold, tempered Khadoran steel. I am looking at you, Little Nolan Aximand.

Included in the parcel was a note with an extra Warcaster Kommander Sorscha card, signed by Creative Director Ed Bourelee and Director of Business William Shick, because due to overwhelming demand they ran out of the Privateer Press dice portion of the Starter Bundle.
Um.... Worth it! I will eventually have to get some sweet cutom Khadoran dice, but for now I will use my Citadel green lucky dice to pummel the enemies of the Khadoran Empire! To the ground, baby! Pummel them to the ground. Especially the Cygnaran pig-dogs and the Protectorate Bible thumpers.

And a close-up to make you jealous.

Microwave not included.

I still haven't opened the little baggies to inspect the various bitz and pieces, but for now everything looks okay. There are mold lines, but that is to be expected after all. I already have a few fluff and concept ideas, including an interesting new kind of paint to add to the mix, but for now I will go ahead and magnetize the various parts and play a dozen games to see what works and what does not. There are some units that I'm just itching to try out, but lets not forget that I need to learn how the Khadoran Warmachine works before I try and modify it. That's right. Modify it. In your bionically-augmented face, Adeptus Mechanicus!

Oooh! Oooh! I also got some nifty tokens!

So.. yeah. I guess I am starting Warmachine. Hopefully you will enjoy reading about my journey as much as I hope to enjoy building, painting and playing with Privateer Press' fantastic models. That will due until Games Workshop releases Finecast Vostroyan models, pig, that will do.

Something Warjacked This Way Comes!

Just ordered my first Warmachine product lured by Privateer Press' 10th Anniversary Sale! What did I get?
Oh.. nothing. JUST A FRIGGIN' KHADOR BATTLEGROUP!!! That's right. I chose to answer to the Motherland! With a Warcaster sharing my first name and a character almost sharing my last name HOW could I resist?

Weeked: Warmachine Tourney, Deathwatch WIP

I "accomplished" a lot this weekend, I more or less finished my deathwatch sergeant, and participated in a Warmachine/Hordes tournament for charity.

After finishing the highlighting on the armor, I painted all of the purity seals and the strap on his gun. The base was deffinately lacking something so I got some advice from a few friends and decided on some rust effects for this particular base. I have to say that it was a great idea, and just adding a little splash of color makes the black model stand out because the base isn't all gray anymore. I plan to do caution stripes and sewer water on some of the other bases but the pipe and its connections really screamed rusty to me.

My photgraphy skills aren't the greatest, as I really lack consistency on picture tone. This one is very yellow, and a little blown out despite my best efforts monkeying with my camera settings.


As for the tournament, it really showed to me how much more I have to learn about Warmachine and Hordes, and even what more I have to learn about my own army. I had been planning on expanding to a second force, but I think I may have to put that on pause until I can really say I have mastered my original faction. The turns were timed, which was something very foreign to me. With only have 10 minutes to perform every action for your entire army I found myself mid turn on more than one occasion. As someone who really likes to think and plan ahead of time, which is especially important in a game like Warmahordes where order of unit activation can be crucially important, that turn stopping buzzer snuck up on me.

Speed, I think, will come in time as I learn to better assess the tabletop/battle situation, which will hopefully happen when I have an intrinsic knowledge of my units. While I don't have to look on my cards to know the stats of my models anymore, I can't quite play with my gut instinct like I can in 40k. In two games the dread of the timer caused critical errors, fortunately my warlock allowed me to "come from behind" as he has on so many occasions.

Killing Kromac's friends makes him angry...you won't like him when he's angry.

I was fortunate enough to be the lucky winner of a raffle for the rulebook to Dystopian Wars, a steam-punk naval game that has been getting rave reviews. Perhaps we will see some boats approaching on the horizon? While my tournament score wasn't the greatest, I won the award for biggest charitable donation, which meant I received a copy of the Hordes rulebook signed by Matt Wilson and other creators of the game! All in all a great weekend.