Interesting fact...

So I remembered just today that I had created a forum account on the PP site ages ago when Warmachine first came out. I tried logging in with it, and after a few guesses at the password I found that the account still exists!

Apparently I was forum member number 740. I think the members have gone up to the tens of thousands now.

It's strange, but it's kinda nice being old school yo'.

Grim vs. Harbinger...take three

So I played another game against Broken Zealot again with a melee heavy Grim list vs. an infantry heavy Harbinger list with a few jacks thrown in too. We had planned to play two games, but this first game took an unbelievable four hours to play out. Yikes. By then end of the game, my brain was totally fried. I think I have to chalk that up to us both playing semi-turtle casters. The games that we play with melee casters goes a lot faster.

The list I took was:

Grim
Mauler
Axer
Impaler
Champions
Fell Caller
Swamp Gobbers

We both had pretty bad luck on our dice rolls...I missed several key attacks by one or two most times with low required rolls to hit. I even rolled triple ones with a boosted attack (though Grim actually hit better now that I have him painted!). Scott also flubbed several damage rolls by a point or two (i.e. he's need to do 9 damage to kill the Impaler, but only managed to do 8) This happened quite a lot...it was uncanny.

Anyway, I think the most memorable moment was when the Choir charged Grim, taking him down to 3hp with some crazy Harbinger buffs. That was pretty impressive. Fortunately for Grim, the Impaler was able to thin them out enough for them to flee and free up Grim to move away.

Oh, and one other really memorable sequence sticks in my mind. The Axer, charges in to the Repenter and with the Mauler scrap it. But the Axer in turn is charged from behind by a Dervish, who nearly kills him (1-2hp left). The Axer heals up enough the next turn and pretty much cleaves the Dervish in twain. Rupert charges the Axer and almost kills him again. The next turn, the Axer once again heals enough to attack, but fails to finish Rupert off! He's down to a single hitpoint. Mortally wounded, Rupert summons up all his strength for one last desperate attack. As the Axer is leaning in for the kill, Rupert stabs him through the heart, killing him!

That sequence is worthy of Peter Jackson himself. Well ok, maybe not.

The Swamp Gobbers were again really nice...they blocked off some charges, and with Grim's Spread the Net, allowed the Trolls to actually get the charge instead of the usual being charged. I'm thinking about moving these guys up on the paint ladder due to their total awesomeness in game.

More Grim Angus Work

So I spent a couple more hours working on Grim tonight. I've finished off his goggles (boy what a huge pain that was...I kept messing up the gem effect...I must have done it 5-6 times). I also did the gold/copper metal on his guns. Lastly I finished his pants, the net refills, and his shoulder pads. I didn't really like how the shoulders came out though...I may redo them in the golden/copper color instead. I'm also thinking about redoing his bedroll.

I do think the gold/copper colors came out decently in the NMM style. I used a base of Snakebite Leather, and slowly worked my way up through Golden Yellow. For the very edges and tips I used half Skull White, half Golden Yellow for a very light creamy yellow color. I'll try and get a couple of pictures tomorrow hopefully when lighting is better.

All that's left now on him are his gloves and his kilt. I'm still not sure if I want to do a kilt or just make it cloth. Ah well, I'll decide that later...time for sleep.

Grim Angus Gets Some Color

Here are a couple of quick shots of the work I've done on Grim Angus so far. I've finished off his cloak, skin, bandana, and most of the gun. I just need to change the scope clip to a bronze color and do the medallion. Also, I really like the olive green shirt color. It reminds me of military undershirts. I just need to give it a bit more shading so it looks nicer.

So there's not a lot left to do for him. I'm not sure what color to paint his pants though...and I think I may change his backpack colors...it looks too weird with the beige and red/brown. I also don't like how his sleeping roll looks now that I've seen it on photo. Then it's just gloves, net gun, boots, and shoulderpads. He's a ton of fun to paint too because there's all sorts of things on the model that require different styles/skills. For example, while he has a lot of leather, he's still got troll skin, metal pieces on his weapons, cloth shirt/pants/bandana, glass/gems on his rifle and goggles, etc. I'm hoping he'll be done by this time next weekend or sooner.

I'm also going to get someNMM bronze/copper going on his gun and shoulderpads.

Hopefully with a finished paintjob he'll start doing better in games. :)

Oh, by the way, I tried to make his scope have the reddish-orange reflection found in a lot of sniper scopes these days. Here's the reference photo I used:

Grim Angus...don't go where he goes...there's only death there...

So I played another game with Grim today against a Harbinger heavy infantry list. Oof. I think I did a lot worse in this one than the last game. The hordes of Menite infantry totally overran my lines. Most of my beasts were totally ineffective, Alten couldn't hit anything, and the Champions got munched by Vilmon. All in all, it was a really poor showing for Grim and his warband.

The Pyre troll (which I proxied) was kinda neat...but in the end he didn't really do all that much. I didn't really need the animus at all (no jacks to attack) and his flame breath was only mediocre. This army is really giving me fits...I'm just not sure how to play it correctly...either that or Grim just isn't meant to go up against Menoth. :)

Anyway, I'm not gonna give up on him yet...I'm hoping eventually I'll be able to figure something that works. If I can make it to my normal game next Wednesday, I'd like to give my Menoth box set a go for a change of pace. It's been sitting here in my army box for years...should be well aged enough to play. ;)

In other news, folks on the forums seem to like how my Axer came out! I think I'm improving my painting skills slowly but surely, and it's nice to see folks liking how he looks. I just need to deepen some of his shadows, fix some boo boos, and I'm going to call him done. I thought about doing some bronze/copper armor pieces...but I don't want to mess him up...so he'll be the meticulous troll...always keeping his armor nice and shiny.

What I will try though is some bronze/copper armor on Grim's shoulder...that's suitably small enough to experiment on without needing a lot of effort...plus if I mess up, I just paint it black and start over...it's easy at this point since I've only finished his skin so far.