Tournament on Saturday

Well, this is a test of the new Google Chrome extension I installed. We'll see if it works!

 

Anyway, I'm really excited about the upcoming 50pt tournament in Riverside this weekend. I'm making an effort to make less "competitive" lists and more lists that are just fun to put down and play. There's a guy who's been at Brookhurst lately (i should really learn his name...) who is really enjoyable to play against. He marks the game by the pile of dead models on both sides of the table, and how much cool stuff happened. It's something I've kind of lost at times, and it's refreshing to just play to have fun. To this end I'll be running pDoomshaper with a maxed unit of Scattergunners this time around, and I've gotten the entire 50 point list painted up (the most recent of which were the Scattergunners themselves, actually). I still need to base some models, but I'm excited to submit my models to the "fully painted" drawing. 

 

The fact that I'm using Trolls at all is kind of a fluke. I had hoped to start using Mercenaries (specifically Magnus), starting with this tournament, but between needing to get a ton of them painted and simply not being motivated to really get on that, I was already wavering. Then Pat told me that he wanted to play in the tournament, but lacked the models to get from 35 pts to 50. Weeeeelllllllll, that's a max unit of Steelhead Halberdiers and a max unit of Steelhead riflemen, so I decided to give up even bothering with Mercs and just going with Trolls, who I have recently painted and am excited to take out. I'll probably lose disastrously (my test game on Thursday night went...shall we say poorly?), but I think it'll be really enjoyable. There should be several painted armies at the tournament, and that'll make it a really fun and photogenic experience.

Stupid Pigs

Well, I was considering if I wanted to get into the Farrow minions or not...but now it's not a discussion. This event is happening. And it is because of this:


















I'm definitely not going to be able to avoid something this awesome now. Lord Carver is just a matter of time, and with him all kinds of bacon-y goodness.

And boom goes the dynamite

Captain Gunbjorn assembled his forces as he looked at the much larger horde of Cryxian thralls rushing toward them. He had his doubts about the effectiveness of the more traditional Kriel Warriors, but they had been all that Madrak could spare for him for this particular raid. He had plenty of powerful warbeasts, though, and with their combined firepower he looked forward to showing the Cryxians the true mettle of the Trolls.

His men formed up and his trolls began firing into the swarm of steam-fisted thralls surging at him, as well as the large helljack tearing forward with animal-like ferocity. He hit it with a rocket, and through his guiding influence his own beasts finished it and tore through many of the thralls. As many as he killed, though, more just charged forward to replace them.

The thralls hit his lines like an undead freight train, killing his kriel warriors and pounding his Blitzer, while an insidious worm-like machine eviscerated a couple more warriors. Bonejacks with vile corrosive sprays and explosive projectiles hit his left flank, even as he saw their leader, a glowing, iron monstrosity as big as he was with a massive cleft spear. The iron lich summoned green balefire to burn his men, and Gunbjorn knew how he would have to finish this.

While his Blitzer alternately pounded and shot the thralls that were assailing it, he moved up and cycled the next rocket into the chamber, firing it at the lich. The monster was quicker then it looked, however, and his rocket midded it completely to explode uselessly on the ground nearby. Cursing softly, Gunbjorn, raised a wall of stone from the earth to help defend him if this thing decided to charge at him. Then he called on his training with the Cygnaran army to hold his troops together, giving them cover from the deadly magics and bonejacks, if only for a moment. His remaining warriors finished off the last of the thralls on the one flank, while his Bomber killed the last ones on the other.

The next few minutes were a frenzied blur of activity, as bonejacks spewed venom and explosive projectiles, and the worm machine tried to attack him with a deadly looking bite (and missing), and his counterattack proved absolutely devastating. When the smoke cleared the three arc noded bonejacks were scrap piles, the thralls were dead, and only the iron lich, the worm, and a rune-covered thralls were left.

Gunbjorn saw the thrall move up and throw green hellfire at him, but he ducked out of the way. The lich moved onto a hill and Gunbjorn could feel the very earth withering around him and it drew in power. More hellfire came, this time finding its mark and burning him. With the last of his strength he sent it to his Impaler, but he knew he couldn't last much longer. In a blur the worm jack scurried around his Blitzer and bit right into his side, cutting through his protective armor like it was so much paper. He staggered and turned to face it, but it swung its tail around one last time, hitting him on the head.Gunbjorn's consciousness swam and he fell backwards.

He awoke later to see that his enemy had disappeared. Scorched and mangled corpses lay strewn across the battlefield, most of them the undead, but many of his own warriors as well. His beasts had run when he fell, but he could still sense them, and called them to return to him. He wondered at what had just happened, and why the Cryxian had left him alive, but then looked up and realized that the day was much later than he had thought. By the time he re-assembled his forces the defenders of the village he was going to raid would have had time to dig in, and would have heard the sounds of battle to warn them of his proximity. He would have to try again another time, and with more troops. Someday he would see that lich blown to pieces at the other end of his cannon.

Wow, what a fun game. I got to play some Warmachine yesterday with Micah, who was back in Elsinore from Ol' New York, and the second game was spectacular. He didn't have any models, so I let him use my Cryx, and I ran some trolls, and man was it fun. The first game was eDoomshaper, and while I won it was short and frankly not as awesome (though there was a particularly rad dire troll mauler trample where he got an entire unit of McThralls). It was the second game, where I had Gunbjorn, that was way more fun.

My list:

Gunbjorn

Blitzer

Bomber

Slag Troll

Impaler

Kriel Warriors (10)

- UA

Stone Scribe Chronicler

His list:

pAsphyxious

Seether

Defiler

Nightwretch

Nightwretch

Cankerwurm

Mechanithralls (10)

Mechanithralls (10)

Bloat Thrall

In summary: Gunbjorn is an absolute blast to play. Shooting rockets, bombs, and machine guns with high accuracy at everything in sight is just mad sexy. I made that other list for Micah in about a minute, and I'm kind of amazed by it. It's tier 1 Asphyxious, which means those mechanithralls are all AD. I'm gonna have to give it more test time, but I think this simple build is a really strong 35 point list.

I had a great time in Lake Elsinore this weekend, though I'm still a little upset I didn't know about the tournament in Riverside until it was too late. Maybe if Shane SAID something to me I could have planned ahead for it...jerk. :-P

"Impossible" Dream all right

Yeah, so this challenge is going poorly so far. It's the 4th of November and I'm behind. I've got 2 of my Krielstone members (the stone and one scribe) done-ish, and I'm hoping that the rest will go faster now that I have the scheme worked out. I've had to simplify the color palette, but I think it's a solid choice and looks pretty good. Once I get the details painted on it'll be great.

In other news, It appears that I'm officially making a game. Not a campaign for D&D or anything, but an actual game, with the intent to sell it. It's called Tir Cayad, and I'm co-creator with Adam Rosenblum. It's a three-tiered game, with an RPG tier, a skirmish-level tier, and a war-level tier. So far we're just looking at the RPG aspect, since it'll be the most complex (and the basis for the higher two levels), but it's shaping up to be something entirely new. I've never seen a system like this before, but it's certainly influenced by other things. The skill tree smacks a little of Diablo II, the attributes are more like WoD than D&D, but all in all it's very original. I'll post more when I have more to show for it, but we're hoping by next week to have a functional system we can stumble through for a basic RPG experience.

The Easy Stuff

Ok, well I made a little progress already on the list, and set myself backwards a little as well.

The Slag Troll is done, even thought I'm not super pleased with him. I don't really care for the model, so it's not a big deal, but I'll probably want to go back and fix him some day.

On the other hand, I painted Gunbjorn up, and he's looking mighty sexy (I should really take pics before I do these posts. Next time!). I really like the color scheme I worked out for him. It's got a military drab look to it, with a little Confederate grey-ish thrown in, but it's got a lot of spots of color so it doesn't look flat. His skin is a good blue color (the one I started with Borka and will now be my whole force's), he's got little brass buckles all over him, and his rockets are white, with yellow tips and red fins. I'm really pleased with him.

I also bought some new stuff from Brookhurst, which I'll have to fit into the schedule. I bought another blister to max out my Scattergunners, bought another Thumper Crew, bought another pack of Welps, the Runebearer (Troll Moses), and a Swamp Troll. The Scattergunners will get added to the rest of the unit when they get painted, and the Thumper will be a priority, not just because I friggin' LOVE that model, but also because it's needed for Gunbjorn's tier lists. I'm really looking forward to running a Troll ranged army with AD Thumpers and trenches.

I need to set an order I'm going to do the rest of these in, however flexible, so that I don't get paralyzed with indecision:
- Krielstone Bearer + UA (7 models)
- Pyg Bushwackers (10 models)
- Troll Impaler (1 model)
- Dire Troll Bomber (1 model)
- Scattergunners (10 models)
- Thumper Crew (3 models)
- Champions (5 models)
- Fennblades (10 models)
- Calandra (1 model)
- Pyg Burrowers (6 models)
- Runebearer (1 model)
- Welps (5 models)
- Swamp Troll (1 model)

Anyway, pics to follow.

Impossible Dream Challenge

Ok, so Privateer Press's Will Schick has proposed the IMPOSSIBLE DREAM challenge - 100 points of models painted in 4 weeks in November. That's pretty ridiculous, but it's some pretty damn good motivation. I have so many Trollbloods that need painting, and I think having a time table for it makes the impossible seem feasible, especially now that the move is done.

Here are the models that need painting, as well as their point costs, to my knowledge:

Impossible Dream Challenge

• Gunbjorn +5

• Calandra +5

• Slag Troll -6

• Dire Troll Bomber -10

• Troll Impaler -5

• Krielstone Bearer and Stone Scribes (6) -3

  • Stone Scribe Elder -1

• Trollkin Champions (5) -10

• Scattergunners (6) -5

• Pyg Bushwackers (10) -8

• Pyg Burrowers (6) -4

• Fennblades (10) -8

Number of Models: 49

Days in November: 30

Models painted each day: 1.63

Points to be painted: 50 (after adding in Warlock points)

Some of these are partially painted, and some have been partially painted for months or even years. Regardless, this is a chance to make my force complete. There are certain models, like the Scatter gunners, where I actually have 8 (good ol' Mark I holdovers), and I'd like to buy 2 more and then paint all 10. Likewise, I'd like to get the Trollkin Scouts, another Thumper Crew, another Winter Troll, and plenty of other models that I simply don't have money for right now. If I paint up the majority of my Trolls, then I will feel not only less bad buying more models, but also more motivated to do things like complete some of the Tier Lists I'm very close to (Especially Gunbjorn's, Calandra's, and Borka's) with a few more models, which I can paint up when I get them and then have a largely completed and painted force. I'll also be free to do things like repaint my Mauler and some of my other stuff that simply hasn't held up to my more recent paint jobs as well as some other things.

Plus, then Jackie will give me less crap about all my unpainted models. And I gotta be honest - she's been a pretty huge motivation to paint. I'd like to have the kind of ability to run a fully painted army when I put models on the table that she has. I'm not sure I'll ever be as hard-lined about it as she is, but being able to play a fully painted 35 points in Hardcore at SoCal Smackdown was absolutely thrilling.

It's not even kind of 100 points, but it's far more important for me than an arbitrary army size. It may be an impossible dream, but it's one I'm going to try for.

That Old Pub Idea

Heh, I gotta say, an idea like this future pub is really tenacious. I've been thinking about it a lot, and getting some good ideas from people I talk to. This is mainly just for writing some of them down.

Drink Specials

- Stuff with cool names

-- "It comes in Pints?!"

- Wide selection of beers/drinks

- Home-brewed beers

Specialty Nights

- Pirate Night

-- Discounted drinks for talking/dressing like a pirate

- Fright Night

-- Cheesy old horror films

-- Zombie/monster themed drinks

- Star Wars Night

- Mostly just an excuse to have a cantina band

- Lady's Night

-- Costume contests

-- Dancers

-- Impressions?

- Game Night

-- Magic cards

-- Board games

-- RPGs

-- Specials for coming in costume/character

Contests

- Eating Contests

-- Pie eating

-- Wing eating

-- Hot dog eating

- Drinking contests

-- Oktoberfest style

-- Fastest downing of a pint

-- Holding up the beer mug?

Important Features

- Atmosphere

-- Needs to be relaxing, more than anything

-- A place for people to hang out, not to get smashed and yell at a TV/each other

-- Fun, casual

-- Nerdy/Geeky

- Drink Selection

-- Lots of beers

-- Soda fountain

-- Specialty drinks

-- Drink specials

-- Non-alcoholic drink specials (So the DD doesn't feel entirely left out)

- Food selection

-- Actively promoted, especially in conjunction with drinks

-- Relatively cheap

-- Hobbit style - 1st breakfast special, second breakfast special, first lunch special, etc

-- Themed foods

-- Also traditional bar foods (wings, etc)

- Few or no TVs

-- Maybe no TVs at all

-- Projector in the ceiling with pull-down screen

-- Or maybe just 1 TV

-- Possible video game nights?

-- Not focussed on sports

-- Trying to not have bros

- Stage

-- Small, but enough for a band

-- Live music should be important, even if only on weekends or something

-- Also used for contests

-- Big enough for a long table, at least

The Name

- Not entirely sure yet

-- Probably have "Tavern" in it

-- Maybe "Inn"

Anyway, these are just some ideas I've had, and other people have added to. The main idea is to make a place I would want to go to and hang out, and hopefully it'll attract more like-minded people. It might flop horribly, but it'll be years before I am able to bring enough capital and experience together to actually be able to make this a reality. So many people have told me how awesome it sounds, I'm hoping that with a little help from my friends building a fanbase, as well as some luck, and especially a good location (Right now it's seeming that it'll be either New York, Seattle, or SoCal) it could work.

I suppose in time I'll reach critical mass of ideas and it'll start planning itself. I'm not there yet, but hopefully some day all the little bits of thinking along the way will pay off and I'll have a great, detailed idea that just needs implementation.

Mostly I think I just want a drink special called "It comes in Pints?!"