German - Conquest

Hey Folks...

The first game of our club Warmachine tourney happened this week and I managed to field my newly painted Conquest.  Needless to say that "newly painted model" syndrome hit and the big bugger didn't do anything.

Conquest

Having been off the hobby for a while with my shoulder injury I really felt rusty. I thought my 35pt Conquest list was a real winner but I played like a complete noob. I did have a chance to win the game as my Conquest had three chances to hit and kill the opposing Warcaster but he managed to miss with each swing.

Looking back at the game I don't think Irusk is the best caster to use with the Conquest, Fire For Effect is a good spell but Irusk cant really get anything else out of the big boy, I have a few candidates for my next caster which can utilise the Conquest so I have them ready to be painted up. I think the first one I will try with him is the Butcher, nice simple run and hit stuff. I think his buffs and feat will work better with the Conquest. Irusk is a finesse caster, the Butcher - not so much.

This month I also managed to paint up my IronFang Officer and Standard, the rest of the unit currently sitting in their box waiting to be assembled.

IronFang UA

As well as the Warmachine stuff I have been painting up some WW2 models of various scales. I have always had an interest in WW2 and have been reading up on it more and more over that last few years so I thought I would try out some WW2 gaming which I haven't ever really got into before.

German Infantry

A while ago I bought the new Flames of War (FOW) stater set, for the money its really good value. You get a bunch of models infantry and tanks for both the Germans and Americans plus some scenery, dice etc. Its a game I have looked at but never really liked the look of due to the infantry models, but the more I have looked at it the more I fancied having a go. I watched a few videos on YouTube and liked the look of it so I thought why not. The starter set isn't that expensive so if I don't like it, then I haven't wasted too much money. I painted up some of the tanks a while ago and now I have finished my first unit of Troops. This is one of the basic German infantry units, the beauty of 6mm is that you don't have to spend a massive amount of time on them to make them look good. I found that a basic paint scheme and then a wash with a basic highlight is enough to make them look pretty good. I also painted one of the big artillery pieces. I am looking forward to getting them on the table, one of the other guys at the club has the same set, so he is painting up the Americans so we can play our first game. I also picked up one of the "Army Books", these focus one one particular period or operation and give army lists for the forces that fought during that time. The first book I got was the one focusing on Operation Market Garden, there are two books, one looking at it from the German point of view and then the other from the Allies perspective. As well as the army lists there is a lot of interesting info on the history and people that were involved. They are well worth a read.

Pak 40

On the WW2 theme I have also picked up the rule book and some models for Bolt Action. This is a 28mm WW2 game and is very popular at the club I go to in Brighton. You don't need a massive amount of models for a decent game and the models do look very nice. I am in the middle of painting up my first German officer as a test piece before assembling the units and planning out my first 1000 points. Warlord actually have a 1000pt German Starter army that actually looks pretty cool so I might just invest in that.

So to finish off here are another couple of pictures of the Conquest. So whats next? Well I have a couple of new Khador casters to paint, also a couple of Warjacks in boxes namely a Spriggan and the character Jack Drago. I will also be aiming to finish off the rest of my Flames of War Germans so we can play our first game. The Bolt Action Germans will also get some attention purely because I really like the models.

Until next time...

One Warcaster and his dog (and a horse)

Hey folks,

Ok so yet again I am very late with another post, but this time I have a really good excuse. I am a very keen cyclist and about four weeks ago I got a bit too keen going down a hill and ended up having a bit of a crash which resulted in a broken collar bone. As you can appreciate this put a bit of a dampener on my hobby time. On the bright side once I got to be able to move my arm enough to get in the painting position I had enough time off work to actually get a lot done. What I had to do was get everything out with my good army, sit down and then with my good arm move my bad arm into position with the brush (after a bunch of painkillers). Then when I needed to dip or wash the brush I would take the brush out of my bad hand with the good hand, do what I needed and then put it back. This was slow, but I had plenty of time to kill.

So I have been focusing on my Khador arm, there is a Steamroller tourney coming up at the club and I wanted to get the Khador army all painted, as I have mentioned I don't like playing with unpainted models and there is nothing like a tourney deadline to spur on the painting. I have been playing a few practise games and have come up with a list I like, this tourney actually allows two lists, so I am going to take one list that I know will work ok and then something a bit more risky.

Epic Irusk. 

My list is basically a Winterguard Deathstar and this will form the basis of both lists. Then the other bits can be interchanged.

My caster is Epic Irusk. He works really well with an infantry based army, he is not a combat caster
but a buff/support caster. He gives Tough to units and allows them to move through each other and ignore friendlies when determining Line Of Sight. He has a couple of great spells like Fire For Effect which is an upkeep that allows a unit to boost To Hit and Damage rolls for the first shooting attack they make. This is great with a Mortar or Conquest for example.

The main Deathstar is as follows: -

5 Man-O-War Shocktroopers. 
Full Winterguard + Command and Standard + (1 to3) Rocketeers. 
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich.

The tactic is that the Shocktroopers go first and use Shield Wall and the Winterguard follow behind them. The Command and Standard give DEF bonuses and allow the unit spray attacks as well as normal shooting. Jozef has some useful songs to sing boosting To Hit rolls. The unit also has combined shooting and melee abilities so can take Warjacks and Infantry alike. This unit can really lay down the hurt.

The rest of the army changes depending on my mood and what models I want to take, in the main list I suspect I will take the following: -

Juggernaut. (Irusk only needs one Jack and the Jugger is good enough for 7 points).
Widowmakers. (Good unit to knock off some Warjack boxes or to take out some Solos early game).
Man-O-War Drakhun (Able move down flanks, or go after units holding objects, adds a bit of speed and hitting power to the army that largely needs to move as one).
Winterguard Mortar Crew (Big gun with a long range and AOE, whats not to love?).

The Second list will be the main Deathstar but will feature something a bit more risky: -

Conquest (Hard hit, big and shooty, will benefit from Fire For Effect. Downside is that its a lot of points for a 35pt list. If the enemy takes it out thats 19pts from a 35pt list, thats a big hole).

So the full lists are: -

List 1.
Epic Irusk
Juggernaut
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich
Man-O-War Drakhun
Man-O-War Shocktroopers (full unit)
Winterguard (full unit) + Officer and Standard + 2 Rocketeers
Winterguard Mortar Crew
Widowmakers

List 2.
Epic Irusk
Conquest
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich
Man-O-War Shocktroopers (full unit)
Winterguard (full unit) + Officer and Standard + 2 Rocketeers

I am really enjoying playing my Khador army as they are really different to the Cryx I have been playing for the best part of three years. They were very much "run forward and hit stuff", but the Khador army takes a bit more thinking about but also has more options on what it can do.

So painting wise I have got a whole bunch of stuff done whilst I have been off, it has taken longer to do but I didn't really have anything else to do and there is only so much Jeremy Kyle you can take.

The first thing I did was get the Winterguard finished, they are one of those units that you just have to grit your teeth and get done. Models are ok, nothing exciting but once they are done its done.

After this I finished off the trusty Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich to go with the Winterguard, this veteran runs along side the unit singing his tunes to boost their skills.

With the bulk of the army done it was time to get the Warcaster finished. I left him to the end mainly so I can get the rest of the armies colours and patterns sorted so that when I come to paint the main character I wont make any errors.

The army was actually very simple to paint, there a really three main colours (Red, Grey and Gold). Once these have been painted onto the model the areas are washed with black to add the battle grime effect, the areas are then highlighted up using the original colours. The details are then picked out to finish off the model.

So whats next? Well to totally complete the army I need to finish the Widowmakers so these will be next. After that I really want to get the Conquest done, I am looking forward to this. Then I have a unit of Iron Fang to paint and then my whole Khador collection will be painted. I think this might be the first time I have all the models for a specific collection painted. 

So now they are done I am looking forward to putting them on the table at the club tourney, i'll let you know how they get on. 

Until next time...