Upcoming Event

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Episode 27 - I'm an American

http://heroeshavenmc.com/

Episode 27 - I'm an American
Sponsored by Heroes Haven Comics and Games & A Gathering of Might

Adam and John are back for two hours of WFB talk and hugs. They discuss some recent updates to AGoM XII, including the inclusion of Battlescrolls into the tournament. They also share their first impressions of the new dwarves, talk about what they have been doing hobby-wise, and Adam shares his love for twinkies.

Download: Direct Download | iTunes | RSS



Episode Timeline
00:00:17 - Sponsors (Heroes Haven Comics & Games)
00:01:20 - AGoM XII Updates
00:29:30 - Marshaling the Host (Army Updates, New Dwarves, GW Technical Paints and Twinkies)


Emails
Army Lists, Feedback, Topic Ideas - Andrew@unstabledice.com
Upcoming Tournaments - Chuck@unstabledice.com
John - equinox@unstabledice.com

Show Links


Sponsors
Heroes Haven Comics & Games: Website | Facebook
A Gathering of Might: Website | Facebook

http://www.agom.co.uk/

Monday, February 17, 2014

On the Bench: Ogre Firebelly



With all of the excitement around AGoM, I am finding it really hard to actually sit down and write-up anything I am working on at the moment.  I guess the positive is that I am getting stuff done and should have a reasonably finished army when I step off the plane next week. 



When it came to creating my firebelly/butcher, I was inspired by the Oni from Japanese folklore.  According to Wikipedia:

Oni (?) are a kind of yōkai from Japanese folklore, variously translated as demons, devils, ogres or trolls.

Depictions of oni vary widely but usually portray them as hideous, gigantic ogre-like creatures with sharp claws, wild hair, and two long horns growing from their heads.[2] They are humanoid for the most part, but occasionally, they are shown with unnatural features such as odd numbers of eyes or extra fingers and toes.[3] Their skin may be any number of colors, but red and blue are particularly common

Looking at various depictions of them, I felt that the horns were the primary element that I had to include on my model if I wished to allude to the folklore.  I also felt that by giving him long hair in a ponytail, it would also provide similar visual cues to a traditional Oni.  I did toy around with the idea of painting the model in darkflesh and adding red highlights to it, but I felt that it would clash too much with the color scheme of the army to be worth the effort.






Friday, February 7, 2014

On the Bench: Citadel Technical: Blood for the Blood God Review

As part of the process of preparing for AGoM, I had to complete a couple more ogre bulls to add to my existing unit. One of the new bulls was going to be armed with an ironfist similar to another model in the unit and since I wanted to keep uniformity across the unit, I decided to paint it with a blood splatter like the other one. The original model was painted using a series of Vallejo reds, gloss varnish, and a good helping of glaze medium and thinner. For the new model, I decided to test out the new Citadel Technical: Blood for the Blood God paint.

One of the things about the new paint is that it is advertised as “It's a translucent paint, similar to a wash, but thicker and with vivid colour”. Opening the pot, I have to agree with the word “thick”, as the paint had a consistency that was more similar to a regular paint than any wash I have purchased. I also agree that it had a deep crimson color, but at first glance, I wasn’t confident that it would result in the range of colors that I was hoping to imitate.


When it came to apply the paint, I decided to not thin it like I usually do with paints. Instead, I poured a little in my palette and applied the first layer using a 0/2 liner brush. I gave the paint a few minutes to dry before applying another layer that was “inside” the first layer. I repeated this process a few times until I had enough coverage that I expected the anticipated effect to be achieved.

As you can see from the end results, the effect was fair, but certainly didn’t produce results that were outstanding. I think the paint can be useful for someone that is looking for something simple and quick, but it will not replace taking the time and effort to paint blood using a more “artistic” approach. I would have liked to have seen GW also provide a little free guidance on how the paint should be used as I am curious if the effect would have been better with a little bit of thinning. Maybe after AGoM, I will give it another try and see if the results are different.

Correction: GW does provide a little tutorial video on how to use the paint.  After AGoM, I will give the paint a try after watching the video and see if I can get better results.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Hump Day Heroes - Waste Wars XI - Part 1



Recently I participated in the latest Waste Wars tournament hosted by the Waaaghcast.  Joe and company usually run 3 or 4 tournaments a year down in Bloomington, Illinois (~100 miles south of Chicago).  This one was a 1000 point primer for the Adepticon version of the tournament being held in early April.  This was also my first outing using my Ogre Kingdoms army.

As much as I want to pretend to be interested in competitive play, the reality is that I always build my armies based around what I am interested in painting.  Sometimes this results in me building an army the swings to one extreme or the other when it comes to playability and tabletop efficiency.  When it came to my ogre kingdom army, I was focused on bringing stuff that I liked and playing with models that I have been interested in for a long time.

Firebelly: Gold Sigil Sword; Talisman of Endurance; Ironcurse Icon; Level 2 Wizard. 205
7 Ironguts: Gutlord; Bellower; standard bearer; Look-out Gnoblar; Dragonhide Banner. 386
4 Ogres: Bellower; ironfists. 138
3 Maneaters: standard bearer; 3× additional hand weapon; heavy armour; Immune to Psychology; Scouts. 178
Gorger 90

997 points

For the first round of the tournament, I was paired up against Ryan G and his lizardmen army.  Lizardmen list have always been a bane of mine as skinks with poison tend to ruin elite armies if not dealt with quickly.  The scenario for this game involved rolling off for each unit, including characters, to determine if they started in reserve or on the table.  The scenario also involved capturing an objective in the middle of the board that basically would freeze a unit in place if they touched it. 


When it came to deployment, I ended up not getting to place my firebelly because of the special rule.  I also had to start the gorger in reserve because its ambusher rule.  This meant that I only had two units place during standard deployment.  The ogres were put directly across from Ryan’s saurus block, while the ironguts were positioned to come in from the right side of my deployment zone.  Ryan focused his salamanders and chameleon skinks deployment on the ironguts while I placed my scouting maneaters to flank the saurus block.

Early Turns
The early part of the game was focused on trying to get the ironguts towards the saurus warriors while getting away from the skinks and salamanders.  At the same time, I jockeyed for position with the maneaters and bulls in an effort to get a double charge off with them.  Ryan pushed his block forward to close in on the objective while his skinks proceeded to kill a couple of ironguts.

The second turn saw my firebelly arrive on the table and wipe out one unit of skinks with magic and the other with its flaming breath.  The gorger on the other hand remained off the board due to a roll of a 2.  The skinks had done what they needed to and had delayed the ironguts long enough to allow the salamanders a chance to get into range with their shooting attacks.


Middle Turns
The middle of the game became focused on close combat as the bulls and maneaters charged the block of saurus.  The maneaters were effective at dropping basic saurus warriors, but Ryan’s characters were equally effective at dropping the bulls at the front of the regiment.  Across the table, the firebelly bought the ironguts time by becoming the focus of the salamanders’ shooting.



Late Turns
The late turns saw the remaining ironguts hit the saurus warrior block and pound on them, only to be grinded away as the special rules for the objective ensured that the saurus warriors would not break from combat.  At the same time, the salamanders and firebelly continued to exchange flaming attacks until the firebelly was dropped.  The game ended with the gorger making it into close combat and killing the saurus BSB with a lucky killing blow.


Overall

Overall, the game was really fun.  Ryan is a great opponent and knows how to play his army very well.  I made a number of mistakes looking back on the game and really wish the gorger would have come on sooner.
 


Next Week – Part 2