War Room follow up

All right, so after many software updates and trying to tell myself I wouldn't do it, I purchased the big bundle for War Room. Yes, I know, that was kind of dumb, but I kept asking myself if I would use it if I bought it, and I had to keep answering yes. So here I am, and I am really not hating it. There are far fewer bugs (though they are certainly not gone entirely), the whole program got a serious overhaul, the UI is still pretty bad for the most part, but the core functionality is there, and that what I wanted. I wanted to have all the rules handy at a glance for when I want to know the exact wording on a spell, and now I have it. Admittedly I'm probably the ideal target for this program - a rules junkie with an encyclopedic knowledge of the game who wants the latest and greatest rules and errata and doesn't need much help with list building, but so be it.

Last night I played my first game with War Room, and I have to admit I was impressed. Both players had War Room running and we connected it over the wifi and didn't pull out a single card. Getting used to not having physical cards to rummage through was weird, but after the initial confusion of figuring out where my rules were for models it was pretty easy. Damage tracking was relatively painless, rules reference was a breeze, looking up rules on my own and my opponent's models during play was incredibly useful at times (getting the exact wording of a spell he had, without tipping him off that I was looking at it was fun), and generally the program performed like it had been advertised originally.

I'm coming around on War Room. It's still not great, I doubt it will ever be a sleek piece of software, and the fact that list building frankly "sucks the big one" all mean that I'm sure a lot of people will not be investing in it. For me personally, though, I feel that I will be making ample use of the ability to access everything in the game at a moments' notice, and having the option (at least in casual play) of just forgoing cards entirely is quite a nice thought.

Kraken Paintjob

In an effort to not get incredibly depressed (tomorrow will be one year since my dad died...) I am trying to do some more painting. Working hard and ignoring emotions is healthy, right? Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight...

Anyway, to that end I've been painting a Kraken for my friend. I'm pretty pleased with how it's turning out for the most part. My pictures are kind of crappy, but the biggest gripe I have is that the rust streak effect I went for really didn't turn out great. Most of the rest of the rust looks boss, but those streaks just look...well, you can judge for yourselves. I'm also accepting any good ideas about what to do to fix them.

Oh, and the blood isn't really that purple in real life. That's totally a weird camera thing.

War Room

Man, sometimes I REALLY hate the internet. I hate the fact that every time there's a new release from Privateer Press I have to circumvent the entire forum system until it stops resembling a blasted wasteland populated by obnoxious 12-year-olds. But I gotta admit - it's not like the complaints about War Room are without merit. I've been playing around with the program since it released yesterday, and I feel reasonably confident in giving at least some initial impressions.

On my iPad 2 the program runs fine. Great, in fact. It's smooth, goes between menus without problems, and generally does everything promised by those videos we've all been seeing. This is in sharp contrast to my Android phone. On my phone the program is incredibly buggy, freezes without warning or reason, crashes occasionally, and you can't use the back button on the phone - only the in-app button. Which only works when you make the proper oblations and ritual sacrifices. And it's feeling generous. Basically the program is un-usably bad on my phone. For the purposes of what I'm talking about here, I'm going to look at this program from the perspective of the iPad, and just really, REALLY hope that in a couple patches the Android issues will get straightened out.

All right, so I fired up War Room after months of hype, create my account, and dive in! I know that only the prime models are available without spending money, so I look at those. The program is actually pretty great as a virtual card system, I gotta say. It has all the cards in full, big formats with all the latest rules and the ability to click on them to learn specifically what certain rules do. Wondering the exact wording of terror? You can have it at a touch, no book flipping required. As someone who frequently references his cards and rulebook to try and work out specific combinations and timing issues, this rules-reference portion of the program is worth the price of admission alone.

Unfortunately, it's impossible to talk about War Room without mentioning iBodger - the free list-building tool for Android and iOS created by a fan, for other fans to use to make a great game better and easier to play. iBodger did exactly what it was advertised to do - it built lists. You could choose theme lists, it would make sure your points were right, it would adjust point values of models if a tier list did so, and even let you email lists. In preparation for War Room Privateer asked iBodger to cease updating the program, the assumption from everyone being that War Room would pick up the slack. Eight months later, now that War Room is out, I gotta say that...well, it kind of does?

This may be the biggest gripe people have - after the program crashing on their Android devices and - like me - paying for card bundles and having them just...not show up. (You have my money! I just want to use your program already! /rage) The list building part of War Room works well enough. you can select models, put them in your army, all that jazz. You can save your army, you can save the army of someone else you're playing against. Also pretty rad. My main issue comes in two forms: mercenaries and theme list support. There is no filter for mercenaries, and they show up with all the faction models. It's really unnecessary, and seems like a major design flaw. I really don't want to have to sift through a pile of mercenary warjacks I can't even assign to my caster just to find the ones I can. At least separating them out into blocks within the same category would be a major improvement. Theme forces though...man, I feel like they really dropped the ball on this one. Other than the ability to reference a theme force, there's no support. There's no graying out of models you can't take once you select a theme force. There's no model point adjustments (I get a point off of these two warjacks? Well, I suppose I better just make my list 2 points over and deal with it), there no prevention of those mercenaries, there's...nothing. You just make a theme force and have the rules for it handy. By itself it's not horrible, but we live in a post-iBodger meta. You can't get away with asking people to pay out the nose to use your program and then not give them the functionality they were getting for free.

I think the biggest crime here was the hype, honestly. We've been exposed to the imminent "War Room is coming! It's super awesome!" hype for months. With iBodger not being updated and a new book being out, everyone has been getting more and more anxious for this. No one writes out their lists on paper any more, everyone uses their phones. Privateer constantly hyped how good this program was, and how it was going to be the be-all end-all list-building program. I tried really hard to keep my expectations low - this is a new company making an app for the first time for a game they probably never play for a community that is absolutely rabid at the best of times. It was a recipe for disaster from the start. Do I think it excuses what's going on? No. Do I think Privateer should maybe have held off on hyping this thing until they actually had a working version in their hot little hands? Absolutely. Do I think they should have shut the premier list-building software down 8 months before their own proprietary system came out? Fuck no. It smacks of their dealings with Gale Force 9, except instead of a company they were doing business with it was a single guy doing them an immeasurable service because he loves their game.

I'm hoping War Room shapes up in the next few days with a series of much needed patches. It needs to act and act fast if it wants to succeed - these rabid fans will do their best to burn it to the ground if it isn't working as promised - and they made the serious mistake of promising a whole hell of a lot.

Objective markers

I built 3 Objective Markers for the local League here. From left to right we have a Menoth's Fury cache, a pirate rum stash, and a defiled Menite grave with a ghoulish hand bursting forth. Pics when they're painted.

Welcome back!

All right! So not much to post right now, other then me remembering after the last few months that I in fact have a blog, and should probably update it now and again.

Big news events: My Pressgang application got approved, and I've run a Journeyman league at Blizzard (which I've been pretty regularly going to on Tuesday nights).

I got an airbrush! More on that later, but it's super rad and I've been going a little crazy with it.

I have too many models. I need motivation to paint through some of this backlog!

The Old Republic is the bee's knees. Related: my inability to paint lately...

That's all for now, I'll make a real post later.

Unbound Scenario

After the last post, I figure I ought to do what I actually logged on to do, and that's post up the Unbound scenario I have been preparing to play with Dave.

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Fire and Advance

The rain was miserable, but oddly fitting for the current circumstances. Captain Amador Damiano sat in his command bunker warming himself by the fire emanating from an old Nomad boiler set against the wall when Stannis Brocker came in. He was soaked to the bone and clearly unhappy, but he was a soldier first and foremost, and he was being paid a ludicrous sum of money to be there, just like everyone else.

“Just got word that we attack as soon as the rain lets up. Better start prepping your 'jacks. I already let Magnus know.” A nod from Damiano and he slipped back out the door of the bunker. They had all been hired by a mysterious benefactor, who had turned out to be Cryx, to attack a Khadoran fortification. They had rather dismally poor information about their true objective, but what they lacked in information they had been compensated for with gold. Cryx always paid its mercenaries extremely well, and they had hired an army this time. Between Damiano with his warjacks, Magnus with his, and Stannis Brocker and his full contingent of Steelhead Halberdiers, Riflemen, and Heavy Cavalry, Damiano shuddered to think at the full bill for the services of the mercenaries here, and that did not even include the not insubstantial Cryxian forces that accompanied them as well.

It was good that they had an army, though – when they had gotten to their objective, it was an army that they sought to attack. Both sides had dug in quickly, and the rains set in before anyone had the chance to make a move. It had been three days now and the rain was finally letting up a bit, even though much of the battlefield had been turned to mud.

They were woefully short on information about their foe, but they knew about what lay between them – a maze of obstacles, barbed wire, craters, and trenches, with the looming remains of a great cathedral that was now mostly torn to bits. Regardless, taking that structure and digging in would be almost as valuable as taking the command trench the Khadorans were camped in. Further away, Damiano knew that there was a large Khadoran artillery piece that was theoretically still operational. While exposed and not as important for taking the field of battle by itself, commanding the canon would allow them to turn it on their enemies, shelling them with high explosives and clearing the way for their other forces.

Damiano listen to the rain lightening on the roof of the bunker and looked out. Visibility was improving, and he could make out the shadow of the cathedral ruins ahead of him. He mentally connected with his warjacks and prepared them for battle, their furnaces roaring to life. His troops began to stir from their shelters and ready themselves, and he was sure the Khadorans were doing the same. It would be a bloody day, and one that he felt would end with their gold being hard-earned.

Synopsis:

Two armies try to take the opponent's command trench as well as fight over a ruined building in the center, all while under heavy shelling.

Terrain and Objectives:

See map below. Each side has a command trench 14” from the side table edge, with the front of it 10” from the back of their deployment zone. There is a 50mm objective in the center of the table, surrounded by a large ruined building. There is a Khador Avalanche-class canon on the far side of the field (opposite the trenches). Terrain should be trench warfare type and/or ruined city type (barbed wire, sandbags, ruined walls, shallow water, etc).

A player scores 1 point when he has models in the opponent's command trench at the end of the round and his opponent has no models in the trench.

A player scores 1 point when he has a model in B2B with the center objective at the end of the round, and there are no enemy models within 4” of the objective. If the model is part of a unit, all remaining members of the unit must be within 4” of the objective to score the point.

The first player to score 3 points, and have more points than the other player, wins.

Special Rules:

Heavy Artillery: If there is a friendly non-incorporeal model in B2B with the Khador canon and no non-incorporeal enemy models in B2B, the model can perform a Fire! Special Action. Designate a point on the map. This point cannot be closer than 12” from any part of the canon's base. Roll a d6 for deviation direction (oriented facing directly away from the canon) and a d6 for distance. Center a 5” AOE on the resulting spot. All models in the AOE take a POW 14 blast damage roll.

UNBOUND! Rules

A player gains +1 to round initiative for each territory he controls (has models in it and there are no enemy models in it).

My dad, and my relation to Warmachine

So for those of you who read my blog and don't know, my dad died on Sunday. It's been a real shock - he wasn't sick or anything, had gone into the hospital the Monday previous for some gastrointestinal surgery, and was doing great. He was supposed to come home on Sunday. I got a call early Sunday morning from my mom saying that he had died. The autopsy revealed that he had a pulmonary aneurysm. He died very quickly, and was not in much pain. I'm still in shock about the whole thing - it doesn't really seem real. I haven't really been able to figure out what to do, or how to handle it, so my plan for the time being is to just try to keep myself in as good of spirits as possible.

And that generally involves Warmachine.

It's kind of amazing to me what kind of effect this game has on my mental health. I've had a lot of hobbies over the years, especially computer games, but I've never had one that allowed me the kind of all-encompassing mental involvement and peace of mind that playing and painting Warmachine and Hordes does. The day he died I spent upwards of 8 hours working on my website on Obsidian Portal for an upcoming Iron Kingdoms D&D game I want to play with some friends. I've spent several hours already this week painting models at my dad's work station in the garage, and have moved a lot of my painting and terrain-making stuff back to my parents' house. I don't know, I guess there's something therapeutic about working on it now where I started it years ago - in my parents' garage, at my dad's workbench.

I guess since I'm in a writing mood, and I've never really talked about it, I'll talk a little about how I got started with Warmachine, and how my dad fit into it. I had several friends who played, and they had been spreading the Good Word of this little wargame among the rest of the group of friends. This would have been...early to mid 2007, I think. Joe played Cygnar (and had some Khador, even though he never played them), Robby had a little Cygnar, they convinced Brian to get into Protectorate, James to buy into Khador, and finally they sold me on Cryx. It wasn't actually a hard sell - they just kind of told me about a faction that had steampunk zombies and showed me a little of the art and I bought a battlebox the next chance I got. I've loved Cryx ever since. I've picked up other factions (I think the total's now 4: Cryx, Trolls, Mercs, and Cygnar, respectively to when I got them), but my heart will always be the Dragonfather's. Not to mention my skin (I got the Cryx symbol tattooed on my left shoulder. I was always so careful to avoid my dad seeing it. Now I wish I'd shown him, even if he would have been upset).

I bought some Apple Barrel paints from Wal Mart and painted the battlebox on my dad's workbench in the garage (he was a huge model railroader, and the garage is about 60% giant HO scale railroad). As I finished the last model, I played a game with them right there against Brian, who beat the tar out of me. That was how it went for months. We played several times a week, almost exclusively at my parents' house (where I still lived at the time), and mainly in the garage. We helped my dad lay carpet in there, and then played games on it. We played on a wobbly card table. We played on the living room rug. There was something kind of pure in those days, something I kind of miss now. It was that "new love" feeling, where everything is exciting and all of us were thrilled to play all the time.

I tried on a couple of occasions to get my dad to play with me, but his poor eyesight meant that reading the cards was next to impossible. He was happy I wanted to share my hobby with him, but he never was able to participate in that way. He taught me bits and pieces about model building, though. He had decades of experience with making scenes in miniature, and what he could give to me he did. He was never stingy with his things, he just always made sure that I gave them back when I was done. I still have a bottle of Solvaset he lent me last month because I had just started using decals, and he wanted to show me how much better they would look when they had set down nice and flush. I suppose it's part of my inheritance now.

Over time the warmachine group slowly faded out. Joe and I were the last holdouts, but eventually even he mostly lost interest. I still burned for the game, but now it took so much effort just to find a game, and for quite a while I couldn't. I didn't paint much during that time either. Finally last year I started getting more involved with Brookhurst Hobbies' newly reopened Warmachine game nights (I had been a part of the Friday night Warmachine nights when I first started out, but I'd never really felt as welcome in that group - they had their own groups, and they weren't as inclusive with newcomers). I went to the first KingdomCon and the first SoCal Smackdown. I started painting more. I got most of my Trolls painted, and now I'm nearing the light at the end of the tunnel for my Mercs. I went to KindomCon 2 and am ready to go to SoCal Smackdown 2 in 2 weeks.

I suppose this rambling post is just my way of saying that for a long time, Warmachine has been very near and dear to me. It's a world I love, and a world I feel I can fall back on when things get bad. When I was lonely, when my friends left to do other things, or when my dad died, it's a place where I can go to get away. I can still paint models and get lost in my thoughts, and for that time, no matter how brief it lasts, things are all right and I can pretend that when I'm done I'll still get to show off my painted model to my dad, who would dutifully admire my work, no matter how sloppy or amateur, and then ask "So what's this guy do?"

I'll miss you, dad. You were my inspiration, my teacher, and my friend. This is going to be really hard without you.