Review: Privateer Press Mercenary Warjack Kit – Part 1
by antigonus on Jan.25, 2012, under Reviews, Wargames
During the first year of releases following the launch of Warmachine Mk 2 in 2010, each of the four core factions – Cryx, Cygnar, Khador and the Protectorate of Menoth – received a plastic kit for their original heavy warjack chassis. Each of these kits had the parts to make three or, in the case of Khador, four different warjack variants. If you were good with magnets, you could even build an “omni-jack”, where you could switch the arms depending on which sort of warjack you needed that day.
Now, admittedly, the pansy Elves of the Retribution had shown up with plastic heavy warjacks first, but they don’t really count. However, after this release cycle there was one faction – or, should I say, non-faction – which was missing a plastic warjack kit: the Mercenaries.
A Tale of Warmahordes 2012
by antigonus on Jan.07, 2012, under General, Painting, Wargames
2012 sees the start of a new project – I’m running A Tale of Warmahordes 2012 over on the Privateer Press forums. It is a simple proposition – paint 50 points of models for Warmachine and/or Hordes over the course of twelve months, with an allowance of two months “off”. I take no credit for the concept, as I took part in the 2010 edition, which petered out in August/September as people lost interest.
I had two reasons for starting this up – a mid-year goal and an overall resolution for 2012. The mid-year goal is, surprisingly enough, the 2012 European Team Challenge, a Warmachine/Hordes tournament taking place at Maelstrom Games in July. I’ve attended the two previous years with a Mercenary army (Durgen Madhammer in 2010, and Drake MACBAIN in 2011), but decided in the aftermath of the 2011 tournament that I’d change faction in 2012 – and build a Theme Force instead of a standard army. As a result, I’m building a Tier 4 eNemo army.
Despite my pledge to have the army ready in time, I’ve only managed to get three out of the fifty points painted thus far, in the form of three Stormsmiths. Motivation, then, is clearly not my strong point – and the need to paint a minimum number of points per month from the Tale of Warmahordes so as not to be embarrassed in public should help keep me going.
The resolution aspect is fairly simple – I’ve pledged that over the course of 2012 I’ll buy less points-worth of models for Warmahordes than I manage to paint. From what we’ve seen previewed thus far – and what I’ve seen within Warmachine: Wrath and Hordes: Domination – I reckon I’ll be looking at one or two purchases a month, which should mean staying ahead of the curve is fairly straightforward. Having said that, there are still elements I need for my ETC army that I need to buy, so this may get interesting – I’ll post updates on here at the end of each quarter so you know how I’m getting on.
So, if you’re a Warmachine or Hordes player, why not sign up for A Tale of Warmahordes 2012? We’ve had over 100 people sign up thus far – so if everyone manages their pledge, that’s over 5,000 points of models we’ll have gotten painted – and that’d be a great achievement, wouldn’t you say?
NB: I’m aware that the comments aren’t working on here – it looks like one of my anti-spam plug-ins has vanished, and crippled the functionality. I’m looking into how to fix it.
Why does he game?
by KeeperoftheHDB on Jul.28, 2011, under Board games, General
Since The Renaissance Gamer already knows who I am, having asked me to write this piece as a guest poster, I should probably introduce myself to the rest of you as well!
Online, I’m known as Keeper and I am also a gamer. I’ve played most types of games that there are over the years, but these days I mostly limit myself to painting toy soldiers and playing board games and wargames, with the odd computer game thrown in every now and again.
But why do I game? This is a question that I have asked myself over and over again since before I was a teenager and the simple answer is that I enjoy playing games. (continue reading…)
Five board games I want to play in 2011
by antigonus on Jul.15, 2011, under Board games
One thing I’ve not done enough of so far this year is play board games. While there seems to be a bit of a fad for deck-building games at my local games store, Patriot Games, at the minute, they don’t really appeal to me. I will admit to not having tried them yet, but if I want to play a game where I build a deck I’ll just play a collectable card game. I like the idea and the feel of a board game which actually has a board, whether it is Settlers of Catan, Risk or just plain old Monopoly.
As a result, I’ve taken a look around and seen what’s either on the market, or coming soon, and I’ve made a list of the five board games I’d like to play before the end of the year – take a look, and let me know what you think of my choices…..
One order, three new lines
by antigonus on Jun.30, 2011, under Reviews, Wargames
With the announcement in May that Games Workshop (GW) was going to restrict sales from EU-based stockists, Maelstrom Games issued a voucher entitling their customers to 18% off any Games Workshop products. It had been a while since I had bought any new GW figures, so thought that I’d take a look at one of the newer Imperial Guard models – especially as the selection of GW Dwarves was somewhat limited. Half an hour or so of browsing later, I’d put together enough of an order to get free shipping, getting figures from a couple of ranges I hadn’t tried before.
What I didn’t realise at the time was that the day I made my order – May 28th – was the day that GW were launching Finecast, their plastic-resin hybrid line which is replacing metal. This caused a bit of a delay on my order being shipped, and ended up with it being split into two. However, I’ve now received my order, and I’m going to take a look at the three new lines I received with it, as shown below:
Reforming the Guard
by antigonus on Jun.21, 2011, under Imperial Guard, Painting, Wargames
Cadian Company Commander
I’ve been an Imperial Guard player for a while, though I’ve lapsed in recent years as I’d been mainly playing Warmachine/Hordes/CCGs/etc instead of Warhammer 40,000. I did pick up the codex for 5th edition 40k, just so I could see what they were doing to my PBI – the number of new tanks, including the return to the codex of some old favourites, was nice to see, but I missed the Doctrine system that had been present in the 4th edition book. The doctrines allowed you to customise your army to how you saw your regiment fighting, and without it you end up with a fairly carbon-copy army – unless you want to use a special character.
While I’d flicked through the codex, I hadn’t taken the time to see how my existing army worked under it. Having been woken up ridiculously early by the sun the other morning, I decided to dig out the army list for the 13th Armageddon Auxiliaries and try to rework it under the 5th ed format.
(continue reading…)
Rationing – Month 2
by antigonus on Dec.10, 2010, under Painting, Wargames
I’ve now completed two months of my rationing, and we’re still going strong – I suspect part of this is due to the fact that I keep finding blisters (or cases, even) with figures from the four factions from Warmachine and Hordes that I’m working on. With the exception of a couple of units I want to pick up for the WAMP Army Challenge I’m working on, I shouldn’t need to buy any news figures for them for a while, though there are some Trollblood figures which tempt me, such as the new Scouts. Anyway, time for an update…
Rationing – Month 1
by antigonus on Nov.02, 2010, under Painting, Wargames
So, I announced at the start of October that I was going to start rationing my miniature purchases, as a way of beginning to clear some of the grey horde. We’re now in the start of November, which makes it a good time to take a look and see how I got on…..
Painting
Cygnar Grenadier Light Warjack
I managed to cross three items off my list during October – Harlon Versh, the Cygnar Grenadier (see right) and the unit of Gun Mages with Officer. I’ve also got lots of bits of work done, without finishing the figure off. As a way of adding further encouragement, I’ve signed up to the WAMP Army Challenge – not once, but six times, which includes all five of the armies listed in the grey horde. Given I have two weeks off during November, I’m expecting to make a bit of a dent in the to-do list this month.
What did I work on, but not complete? Well, there were blood effects on the Mangler, general work on eight of the Western Archers, bits and pieces on Stryker, Magnus, Professor Pendrake. I also assembled a number of bits for the Army Challenge, as well as three entries for the Sheffield Irregulars “Red” challenge.
Buying
When I was at Derby, I was able to buy a figure from Heresy Miniatures – Dark Dwarf Va’durr, who’ll be one of my Red challenge entries – and promised Kev & Sally at Hasslefree Miniatures that I’d buy some figures from them at Fiasco on the 31st. Other than that, the only figures I’ve bought were a blister of Cygnar Sword Knights and their Unit Attachment, which take me to a full unit, which means they’re OK. They also form part of my Army Challenge figures, so hopefully i won’t take me too long to paint them.
So far, then, so good.
Have I lost the plot?
by antigonus on Oct.23, 2010, under Painting, Wargames
OK, it’s official – I’ve gone mad. Over on WAMP, a challenge was set – paint an army (defined as at least two units and a character) by February 1st 2011.
Now, that seemed a little easy – if I felt like it, I could do a Cygnar force like that in 6 models – so I decided to puch myself a little. I said I’d cover that minimum for not one, not two, but three armies – WM Cygnar, WHFB Dwarves and WAB Romans.
It gets better.
Honest.
Having thought about it for a while, I went back and said I might up my aim – to six armies by that date, adding Trolls, Minions and Mercs into the mix.
Anyway, having failed to sleep properly overnight, I’ve moved on to planning for this ker-azy project. In fairness, the minim criteria are fairly straightforward, and I’ve got roughly 3 months – so let’s call it 2-3 weeks per army. Some would argue that it is even easier, now I’ve had clarification that current WIP stuff is OK, and that 2-3 warjacks/warbeasts can count as a unit. So, bearing that in mind, here are my plans for the various armies. Anything in italics is currently WIP, anything in bold needs to be bought, and anything underlined is an if-I-have-time option.
In the order I declared them…..
Warmachine: Cygnar
Commander Coleman Stryker, alternate sculpt
10 Sword Knights + UA (UA and 2 SK need scabbarded swords attaching, all need basing & painting)
Defender heavy warjack, Hammersmith Heavy Warjack, Firefly light warjack (Not really thematic ‘jacks, but they need doing)
10 Longgunners
Warhammer Fantasy Battles: Dwarves
Lord/Thane
20 Miners
12 Thundererererers
Bolt Thrower
Cannon/organ gun (haven’t decided which yet)
Warhammer Ancient Battles: Roman Legion
General
8 Western Archers
30 Legionnaires
Hordes: Trollbloods
Grim Angus
2 x Impaler Light Warbeast
Axer light warbeast
10 Scattergunners
10 Burrowers
Hordes: Minions
Lord Carver
War Hog Heavy Warbeast
2 Gun Boar Light Warbeasts
10 Farrow Brigands
Full unit of Bone Grinders
Warmachine: Mercenaries
Magnus the Traitor
Mangler Heavy Warjack, 2 Renegade Light Warjacks
10 Steelhead Halberdiers
10 Forgeguard
Total (minimum):138 figures
Total (all in): 173 figures
Timescale: 14 weeks, give or take a couple of days…..
Can someone go get me the white jacket with the fashionably long sleeves now, please?
Weekend at Derby
by antigonus on Oct.03, 2010, under Shows
I’ve spent most of the last two days either at, or travelling to and from, the Derby World Wargames* show, where the Sheffield Irregulars had a stand to display some of our work, as well as to run three types of demonstrations. Boris, warhammergrimace and I manned the stand over both days, though Rob Richmond turned up on day 2, which was cool.
Having spent two days demonstrating urban basing, flora basing, and the role of UHU in creating blood effects, it came as a surprise when a small canary clutching a glass of wine came to tell use we’d been voted as having the Best Demonstration stand at the show. I’ll let Boris tell you more about the show over on the Sheffield Irregulars blog.
For anyone interested in meeting up with the Irregulars, then other than our usual painting sessions the next show we’ll be at will be Fiasco in Leeds at the end of the month.
* – Apologies for anyone with design sensibilities who followed the link; unfortunately, it’s the easiest way of getting you the important information about the show. Why do so many shows not get someone who knows what they’re doing to do the website?
