Trevy's Painting Table

Hey all!

Just a quick update on the rare portions of my life that don't involve small toy soldiers and epic battles.  I've recently started to take several summer courses at a local community college.  These are six-week, accelerated affairs, so they should take up a big chunk of my time.  As such, I'll be a little delayed working on projects - not that I won't be working on them, but for the time being the progress will be relatively slow.

Of course, the upside of the courses only being 6-weeks is that a month and a half from now, my life will be back to normal and I'll be able to finish projects in a much more regular manner.

So, I've started playing in a Warhammer Fantasy Battles Warbands Escalation League (quite a mouthful) at my local gaming store.  The league uses a slightly modified version of the old warbands rules (i.e units may consist of a minimum of 1-3 models depending on base size, no characters required etc.).  For those who don't know them, a think a quick Google Search could help you out.

I decided to take my Lizardmen to the league because I had a humorous idea to play an army entirely made up of Skinks.  Enter the Skanky Skink Liberation Front!

The league started at 200 points and will increase every week by 50 points until we reach 500!  I figured that it would be cool to track my progress on this blog as well as show all you guys any models that I paint for the league.

As far as I know, our lists could be changed whenever we wanted to, but I ended up running the same list for the first week (I only played two games, though):

5 Chameleon Skinks w/ Stalker (the Stalker is there to be the army general; considering that Chameleons are slightly hardier than normal Skinks, I figured that it would make sense to have the general in one of the Chameleon units)

4 Chameleon Skinks

3x 3 Skinks

2x 4 Skinks

(since Warbands only requires that units be their normal minimum size if they purchase upgrades, there was no reason to put more than a very small egg in each basket)

Each week, players are paired with another player (who I'm assuming has similar league points to their own) who they have to play that week.  Otherwise, games you play are free-form and count towards a number of points that will determine the winner.  I was first paired off against a Beastmen player...

Game 1

This player was running a Chariot, 10 Gors (w/ Foe-render) and 5 Raiders.  Unfortunately, he didn't use the tiny minimum unit sizes to his advantage.  While his army is very good at accruing combat resolution at a small scale (it's a one-two punch with the Gors and then the Chariot), Warbands is chiefly about maneuvering and damage output.  With their relative maneuverability, I think that small units of 3-5 Gors could have done the job that 10 Gors could not have.  With 2 attacks apeice (w/ additional hand weapons), they can put out a decent number of Hatred fueled swings.  Unfortunately, having put so many points into slow, unmaneuverable units; the Skinks quickly surrounded his army and threw pointy things at them until they went away.

The Ungor Raider did manage to finish off a unit of Chameleons with a charge and the Gors got into combat with a single unit of 3 Skinks before being mown down, but by the end of Turn 6 I had wiped out his entire army.:o

Game 2

My second game was against an Empire player who had the same failing as the Beastmen one; his army was made up of two blocks of 10 troops, one of Swordsmen and one of Halberdiers led by a Warrior Priest.  Like the Beastmen, this list lacked maneuverability and; being a Human army, it lacked speed as well.

As such, I was able to almost completely envelop the army; panicking the Swordsmen off the board and killing the Halberdiers so that only the Warrior Priest remained.

He was able to manage killing two units of Skinks, but because my Chameleon units remained intact he had only netted a fraction of my army and I was able to kill the Warrior Priest as well by the end of Turn 6.

Looking Forward

Given that I'm up 2-0 in the league so far, I don't think that my list really warrants heavy change.  If I continue on the trend of all-skinks, I am going to fall prey very soon to heavy shooting and magic armies.  Because lists can be changed, I'm sure that opponents will soon start taking those elements in games against me.  I would like to take something more heavily armored then skirmishers, but I don't feel that Saurus are viable in a game this small (maybe at 500 points, but not now).  That said, taking 50 points more Skinks is not viable either, seeing as an additional 2-3 units of Skinks begins to clog the board and make Panic a real problem.  Normally I would take a Saurus Scar-Veteran on a Cold One or a Horned One to be a fast moving, heavily armored threat, but again, the points don't really allow for it.  I think that at 300 points he becomes a viable option, but he's too expensive for 250.

In order to maintain some semblance of cohesion, I'm going to try to keep the army relatively compact by spending my points on upgrading the Skink units to Skirmishers.  For an additional 2-3 points (I'm still debating on whether Javalins or Blowpipes are the better option; Blowpipes allow for more shots, Javalins for more hits), the amount of flexibility and maneuverability that Skirmishers have over mundane cohorts is enormous.

I will be away for much of this weekend (also Sunday is Mother's Day, so I will occupied then as well), and as such I will be incommunicado.   I hope you guys will survive without my steady guidance!

Here are a couple Blood Angels characters I finished recently.

First up is a Level 5 Mephiston...

And then there are some Sanguinary Priests.  The ones with the Bolt Pistols have magnetized weapon arms.  These guys are Level 3.

Here's a quick testimonial I received about a recent Blood Angels project I just completed:

Trevy,

Just got my package in the mail.  Two things:

1)  Thank you for wrapping them so well.  Really solid job, all of them arrived intact!

2)  Mephiston looks even better in person!  Super happy with the job you did.  Just wanted to say thank you.

Let me know when you receive my next package (with Dante and the Libby's).  Looking forward to seeing you do up my Dante next...really want that gold to pop on him!

-DB

Hey all, no post of worth here; just a bit of an update.

I've gotten several projects that are in the setup/planning stages, so not many cool minis to show you guys just yet.

My weekends for the next couple of weeks are super busy and I'll be away for most of them, so I'll probably be incommunicado on the Sat/Sun of the next couple of weeks.

If you're looking to plan a new project, let me know!  As I said, most projects are still in the planning stages so I'm looking for as many new ones as possible to keep the cycle going!  Let me know via the usual channels if you are interested!

Whew!

Two weekends filled with Warmachine, cramped gaming stores and copious amounts of carbonated beverages are behind me, and what do I have to show for it?

Some awesome batreps, that's what!

And for Tourney number two...

Enjoy!

Whew.

The past two weeks have been super hectic for me.  Why?

'Cause I got a new job.   That's not to say that Commission Painting isn't a job; it certainly is a part-time, after-hours enterprise, but I recently got a day job at a local medical manufacturing group.  Pretty exciting.

Anyhoo, here are some models that I finished up like a week ago, but simply haven't had the time to post up here:

These are some Steelhead Riflemen that have been painted in the awesome purple Menoth scheme like the Avatar and Revenger that I painted previously.  Level 3, so not too much to say about these guys, except that painting tiny Menofixes is kind of fun.

I recently attended a local 35 point Warmachine tournament in which I came 2nd (out of only 4 players, but still...), so stay tuned for some battle reports of those games and some more casual, practice games that I played.

I also have a 50 point Steamroller game coming up tomorrow, so stay tuned for some awesome reports of that!

I've got a 35 point Warmachine/Hordes tournament coming up this weekend; something that I am supremely excited for.  I haven't actually been able to play in a Warmachine tournament up until now, so hopefully this time it'll actually work out.

I've decided to take Lord Commander Coleman Stryker (eStryker) as my primary warcaster; I'm probably the most comfortable with him and I've been refining my list for the last couple of weeks:

-Lord Commander Coleman Stryker

-Squire

-Hammersmith Heavy Warjack

-Journeyman Warcaster

-Hunter Light Warjack

-Arcane Tempest Gun Mages

-Gun Mage Officer

-Hunter Light Warjack

-Archduke Alain Runewood

-Stormblade Infantry

I like the list so far, although I feel that it has a couple bad matchups.  It can deal with heavy armor (via the Hunters) as well as light infantry (via the Gun Mages) and just play the game until Stryker kills my opponent's casters.  The armies that the list has big problems with are high numbers of Stealthed infantry; I generally rely on the Hunters to soften up heavier opponents before introducing my Hammersmith to their face while my Gun Mages mop up their infantry (or push stuff around to keep my Hammersmith safe), but when I can't put damage on their units before contact is made, I have a problem.

So that's why I made my second list!

-Captain E. Dominic Darius

-Stormclad Heavy Warjack

-Hammersmith Heavy Warjack

-Thunderhead Heavy Warjack

-Squire

-Journeyman Warcaster

-Stormblade Infantry

Against anyone with a high incidence of light infantry or heavies (or anything too extreme for my main list to deal with) I'll whip this list out.  While Darius is generally regarded as the worst caster in Cygnar, something about his play style and survivability makes him infinitely appealing to me, and I enjoy just about every game I play with him.  Having three Arm 19 heavies and access to Fortify and Arc Shield allows this army to take a charge on Darius' battlegroup from anything less than a Titan.  If my opponent doesn't manage to wipe out a 'jack on the charge (and lets be honest, Arm 22 is tough to get through), I can use Bodge, Repair or Pit Stop to repair vital systems or even entirely repair damaged 'jacks!

On top of that, the list can deal very easily with light infantry armies with Energy Pulse from the Thunderhead, Electro Leap with the Stormclad and Darius' Steam Cannon.  I considered dropping the Hammersmith down to an Ironclad and taking Reinholdt as well (to allow Darius to fire two Steam Cannon shots), but every time I consider it, my Hammersmith either kills a warcaster or wrecks Behemoth.  I also considered dropping the Stormblades for Reinholdt and the Black 13th, but their inclusion really makes the Stormclad worth its 10 points (accumulator+having electricity immune infantry to shoot at=win), so I think I'll keep them.

I haven't put too much thought about the 7 points of reinforcements that I'll get for each list.  I might throw a Charger and 3 points worth of solos into each force; perhaps Epic Eiryss for Stryker's list (he has a little more trouble with upkeeps and camped focus than Darius) and maybe a Gun Mage Captain or some Battle Mechaniks and Reinholdt for Darius.  I could drop the Charger in either reinforcement for the Black 13th; they fulfill roughly the same roll while taking up less focus (and being generally be easier to kill ).

Anyhoo, that's my enormous text-dump.  If anyone who is better at playing Warmachine than me (so, like everyone ) wants to give me a couple tips regarding my lists, feel free!

Yeah, I've gotten another Spawn done; still Level 5 w/ scenic basing.

This one follows a Khorne scheme rather than the Tzeentch one of the previous Spawn.