Almost Finished with my Leviticus Crew

First the 4 Steam Punk Abominations. These guys painted up pretty quickly, They looked a lot like my Necro Punks, so I went over them with more highlights and I think they came out great.






And the Hollow Waif, she has been done for a while, but i forgot to snap a photo of her.

Warhammer Fantasy Battle Report

I played a game Wednesday night. I hadn't planned on being free, but Ellen was very sick and could barely even stay awake, so eventually I left her to sleep it off, grabbed my ogres and hit the GW store.

There was a guy looking for a game and he had 1500 points of dwarves. I pulled out my 2k list, made some cuts and had a nice 1500 list to play with.

His List looked something like
Lord with runes
Thane with Runes
BSB with Runes
20 Long Beards
20 Hammeres with runed banner
10 Gunners
15 Miners
1 Cannon
1 Catapult

My List was
Bruiser with Items
Butcher
5 Ogers
5 Ogers
4 Iron Guts
2 lead Belchers
2 lead Belchers
3 Maneatters



Set up & Turn 1
So I felt like I had a nice advantage. We were playing a mission called mountain pass. You play long ways. Get a 24in deployment zone, and the long edges are impassible terrain. He set his gunmen up on a far flank so I was able to avoid them most of the game. He started moving up very agressively so I moved to match him. He didn't get very good shooting off turn 1. Only managing a few wounds.

Turn 2
I moved my Leadbelchers up and charged my unit of Bulls with bruiser and Maneaters into his long beards, who were joined by the BSB and Runesmith. In the shooting phase I killed a few hammeres, My magic phase was basically ignored since he had a decked out runesmith. On to combat. I wiped the floor with his longbeards, I won by 9, mostly due to the casualties I caused, he fled and I ran down the unit. But the real gem of it was His Hammers Fled from Panic, it was priceless. He was in deep trouble as turn 2 ended.

Turn 3
His Hammeres rallied and stood tall and his warmachines were kicking my butt. I moved as quick as I could to take out the stone thrower, but as I was closing in the Miners popped up and got in my way. They tried to Charge my Maneaters, but failed. His cannon fired off and killed 2 Ogre Bulls, leaving my Bruiser without a Unit. His Gunners dropped a Maneater. I moved a Lead belcher to block the Hammerers from charging my Bull Unit. I shot in with the other belchers and managed to kill a few. In my Magic Phase the Butcher Killed himself with Gut Magic.

Turn 4
So I charged the Miners and failed to wipe them all out with the Bruiser and Maneaters. His Hammerers had their best charge lane blocked by a single leadbelcher, so he charged his lord out of that unit alone and over ran into the middle of my Army. He shooting was hilarious that turn, he failed to wound with ST 10 like 3 times, it was priceless.

Turn 5
I charged his Lord with my Ironguts, and stood ready to shoot more with my last 2 Leadbelchers. His shooting was laughablly bad again, and I was able to Wipe out the Miners and Cause his Lord to run from Combat with my Ironguts. I ran down the Lord and ended up killing 3 more Hammeres from shooting. It was a very good turn for me.



Turn 6
The Hammerers charged and killed the Leadbelchers. I countered with a charge from my last Bull unti and rolled out my butt. On 9 attacks I killed 7. His unit Broke and was run down. He hit my Bruiser with a Cannonball to the chest, but only did 2 wounds. My Bruiser responded by charging into his Catapult and wiping out the Crew.

We ended up playing another turn since he didn't think it was turn 6, but It didn't matter, the Cannon ball killed 1 Irongut, and the gunners were out of range.

So I ended up with a Very strong Victory. My Maneaters lived, I captured 3 banners, Killed his General, and only left him with 140 points of the 1500 he started the game with.

I was thinking about it on my trip home last night. I have played 5 games of Fantasy since 8th Came out. Here is my break down

Vs Dwarves 2-0-0
Vs High Elves 1-0-0
Vs Dark Elves 1-0-0
Vs Skaven 0-0-1

4 Wins & 1 Draw in my first 5 games. *pats self on the back*

The Lament of a Redskins Fan

So this has been on my mind for a long time and I would say our recent trouncing at the hands of the eagles made me want to get it off my chest. The Redskins are the most frustrating franchise in the NFL. Now that doesn't mean we have the worst team, and its argueable that Dalls is more frustrating to their fans this year, but over the last decade there is no doubt that the Redskins take this mantle. Lets look deeper.

The NFL is divided into 4 sections. Elite, Good, Mediocre, Awful.
Examples
Elite: Indianapolis, New England, Pittsburgh - (Playoff Lock, super-bowl contender)
Good: Tennessee, San Diego, Seattle, NYG - (Likely Playoff Teams, outside superbowl)
Mediocre: Washington, Miami, Chicago, Tampa - (Maybe playoffs, likely wildcard exit)
Awful: Buffalo, Carolina, Detroit - (No playoff hope, maybe building towards future)

You see when you look at Detroit you know they will suck this year. They admit they are rebuilding and are a year or two outside of honestly competeing. But you look at all the young talent they have, Suh, Stafford, Johnson, Best, and you see that they are building to maybe compete in the future. You look at the Steelers, Colt, and Patriots, they expect to be the best every year. They build from within, and keep the talent coming, they don't rest because they have the best at a position, they try to create depth, and youth.

But Washington is very different. every year we expect to be good. And every year we are mediocre. If that weren't bad enough we compete in the toughest division if football. Every year its a crap-shoot which team will win the NFC East. Because there are 3 solid contenders... Washington hasn't won a division title since 1999 when the rest of the division was in tatters. But every year is a new hot Thing! Bruce Smith, Deon Sanders, Albert Haynesworth, Donovan McNabb and all of a sudden expectations soar. And thats the problem. We once again expect to be good. I would be much happier with advanced knowledge that we suck, so long as I saw something solid being set up for the future. Maybe our O-line will start to get some youthful energy. A new center and guard could really help liven things up... but wait we don't have a 3rd or 4th round pick. The likely spot that quality interior o-linemen are drafted.

So finally I asked myself a pretty tough question. "Why am I a Redskins fan?" Its a legitimate question, ask yourself. The best reasons I could come up with aren't really valid.

1. "They give something back to me" - ulcers and rage don't really count
2. "They are winners!" - HA!
3. "They are my home team." - Ok thats valid, but why should I be married to a football team simply because of my geographical location.
4. "The ownership cares about the city" - suing ticket holders... really?
5. "They are building toward a strong future" - Oldest roster in the NFL is... well you know.
6. "Im already emotionally invested in them." And I think thats the big one. It would not be easy for me to break up with the redskins. Sure they are basically the wife-beater of the NFL and I'm the battered woman who tells the police I walked into the door or I deserved to get hit because I didn't listen. I mean lets face it I know more about the team then any person rightfully should, I fully believe they can beat any team in the NFL on any given sunday, and I can't help geek out at any mention of them, just last night I drove by redskins park and I was tempted to drive up and see if they were hiring.

I guess its all moot anyways, If I tried to leave them they would sue me anyways. Plus I can live vicariously through secondary franchises, like the Falcons and Colts who are my other favorite teams. Aww I can't stay mad at you... come here.

Rusty Alyce

I finished Rusty Alyce... thats about all I got

Malifools Month 3

I jumped in on the Malifools Monthly painting contest. I chose Leviticus for this one. Here are some pics.

Malifaux Tournament on 11-6

Mr. Anderson took the time and effort to put together a Malifaux tournament for Huzzah hobbies, and decided to use Wyrd's newest official tournament rules. Basics are as follows. 1 hour games, 4 strategies, 5 schemes, VPS determine standings and pairings. Bill also added in a players choice painting contest.



My Tournament:
So a staple of the Wyrd tournament if that you only need to declare a faction going into a tournament. You are allowed to switch out your entire list each game. I was feeling a strange mixture of lazy and Cocky and chose that I would play Kirai every game.

So here is my list
Kirai, 4 Seishin, Datsue-Ba, 3 Gaki, 1 Onryo - 4 Soul Stones

Game 1 vs Dixon (Leviticus)
He took a list I had never seen with Levi before, 2 belles, 3 spiders, levi, and Alyce. I had a mission where I had to have my guys on his side of the board and he had to kill my people. My schemes were Bodyguard, and get a model in his deployment zone. His were Bodyguard and Assasinate. I basically played a slow moving sacrifice game. I would keep him on his side of the board by summoning and dropping models on his side. he would spend most of his turn tyring to kill my new guys and I would keep him back on his side. The game was running out of time so I super summoned Ikiryo into his deployment zone, but Forgot to move Kirai across the half way point of the Board. So I ended up costing myself 4 vps. and I lost 6-5.

Game 2 vs Chris (Pandora)
Chris only owns Pandora so he was playing a single list too. He got Kill my master and I got the same get my guys accross the board mission I had the last game. He deployed first and was in a single corner. I deployed in the opposite corner. I had one goal, just haul it accorss the board and hope I live. I called Body Guard and Breakthrough again, he called Bodyguard and kept 1 hidden. We played a few turns and then Time was called. I kept Kirai away from Pandoa to prevent him from killing her. And sent a few gaki and the Ikiryo over into his lines to slow him down. It ended up working and I won the game 8-3.

Game 3 vs Rockett (Sonnia Criid)
Ryan got Kill my master and I got a strange mission called get the stuff. You place 50mm bases around the board, but placement is REALLY limited, and I have to take (1) action to get the stuff, then I flip and see how much stuff I get. Kirai can be a very fast crew, so I called Hold Out and Body Guard, he called the same. Our game never really got under way. Turn 2 I had already collected all the Stuff I needed for 4 vps. and part way through turn 3 time was called. So Ryan and I never really engaged in our game, and I basically had no chance of losing much that game. I won 8-4.

Game 4 vs John (Rasputina)
He got slaughter, I got get the stuff again. We both called bodyguard and Hold out. Again I had the Stuff I needed for max vps on Turn 2. So I spent the next part of the game trying to break his Holdout. He ended up preventing it and Time was called again before the game really got under way. Strangely we both got max VP's 8-8



Datsue-Ba was my MVP of the day. She made several new Gaki for me and only died once. She was a major thorn in the side of all my opponents. So big props to the old gal.

So the Top three shook out like this
Dan the amazing - 29
Rockett - 28
John - 26

So I took home the gold, or in this case the gift certificate along with a cool piece of terrain, and I ended up winning the Players choice painting award. All in all it was a damn fine day for Kirai and Me.


Ok, so Bill wanted feedback on the Tournament format, as I believe it is still in Beta. So here are my likes and dislikes.



Likes - VPs for standings. I like this over the 3-win, 1-tie, 0-loss because in the last game John and i each took max points. Had that given us a tie I would be pretty upset. It also means there is always a chance to come back because if the top player losses big, it puts everyone else right back in the runnings.

The Bye system. In this format you take the average vp's won by every player in the round and that is what the Bye player ends up with. It ensures that the player with the Bye isn't screwed out of a chance to win the tourney. Most times the buy player got 5-6 points. Which is a respectable game.

Bill's painting contest. I do not think Painting should decide who wins a tournament. That said I spent a crap load of time painting my models and I was very glad to get some recognition for it. I really liked painting contest as a bonus to the Tournament.



Now the unfortunate side of things. My Dislikes.

1 Hour games. A normal Malifaux game is 6 turns. I got to turn 4 once this weekend. It gave me a serious edge because Kiria is the queen of snagging objectives at the last moment, and VERY tough to kill quickly. This game NEEDS 1.5 hour rounds.

No defined number of rounds. For 8 or less people a tournament should be 3 rounds. Bill said this wasn't well defined. But I think the Ideal tournament would have had 3 1.5 hour rounds.

5 Schemes aren't enough. I only called 3 of them all day, and I used 1 of them in all 4 games. A little more variety would help I think.

Bonus points for preventing called Schemes. Im pretty sure outside of the time limit this is the one that bothers me most. You are already at a disadvantage for Announcing your scheme to your opponent, and now he gets an additional an advantage for stopping it. Rockett got 5 bonus vps for preventing his opponents Schemes. Its pretty lame in my eyes. I could have been a dick and prevented several of my opponents Schemes through out the day, but I decided against it.

Get the Stuff, this mission is butt easy. I never in either game felt I would not get 4 points with it. Its way too easy and doesn't require interaction.

FSA Painting

So a while back I painted up some Aquan ships for Brian's Birthday. Jay bought him a few more ships, but then Brian decided to became a loser and stopped playing, so I never painted up those last ships. Last night I got the itch to finish off the last few ships, maybe in the hopes that it will re-vitalize Brian's desire to play FSA. Here are the 6 Escorts and the Carrier



Also since I love myself and all things I do I painted up a Gunship for my Sorylians. These guys are amazingly badass, so I really want them table ready asap, especially since Warstore has shipped my heavy Cruisers already and I think they will be in before the weeks ends.



*Super Special Edit!* As of 11pm last night my Heavy Cruisers are in Virginia!

Board Game Review #4

I think today will be the Long awaited reveiw of Hex Hex XL. At least I've been waiting, I doubt anyone else has.



Hex Hex is best described as a far more complex version of Hot potato. You get a deck of 150 cards and pass 5 to each player. Each person begins the game with 5 voice. You then pass the Hex around using the cards in your hand until the Hex lands on a person who can't play a card to pass it. That person is then hexed, and loses 1 voice. The person who sent the Hex to them gains 1 voice. That is a bare bones easiest possible way for the game to go. You player a number of rounds equal to 1+ the number of players. Giving each player a chance to be first, the last round, who ever is losing chooses the first caster. After that the player with the most voice wins.

But its not so simple. In the 150 card deck are several cards that really offer a great twist to the game. Some cards create new hexes, so there are more than 1 Hex bounding around the Board. Some cards force the Hex to move only 1 direction. Some boost the amount of Voice lost by the Hexed player. There are several dozen cards that pop up in the game that help make it fun, random, and always keep it fresh.



The Large box set called Hex Hex XL, comes with 2 expansions. Hexen Sticks, and Hex Hex Vexxed. The Sticks are added into the main game and play the same with 1 exception. You place a number of sticks in the center of table equal to one less then the number of players. Then there is a New Card called Grab. Once its played there is a mad scramble for the sticks. Once all sticks are claimed you flip a card from the special Hexen Stick Deck. It gives reweards to certain players and penalties to others. Usually the Penalty falls on the player with out a stick. But not always. Its a nice addition as it keeps everyone paying attention to whats going on in the game. Hex Hex Vexxed, adds in the Vex Deck. After each round who ever was Cursed, is then Vexxed. It adds a hinderance to that player for 1 round. It can be that they can only say words like Ping, ZZzzzt, and Pa'keew. Or other random obnoxious things. Its also a ton of fun, but mostly we just use the Sticks.



Hex hex is very fun and random game. Most times we play ditching any ideas of strategy for plays that will cause more chaos and ridiculousness. And at the moment it is my personal favorite of all the games in my Library. Hex Hex is an A+ in my book.