Friday 28 August 2009

Brain Freeze

Tuesday was somewhat comedic. I got left in Clarkston since Jim forgot I existed, then the giant gimp left my miniatures case in the van - which he didn't take to G3. No game for me then. Not to worry, I Googled "Damn you Jim!" and here's a picture just for you Jim.


Now with that over I believe I have some not-quite-news people should take stock of concerning Hordes MKii. Here is what PPS_DC has recently said on the General Forums (and the MKii Field Test Forums... and the PG Forums):
Based on some recent discussions, I've come to realize that some folks are a bit unclear on what this whole MkII thing means for them in 2010. Most of this information is repeated from various other announcements, but to summarize:

2010 is MkII. Officially. All official PPS_Events (including Hordes-inclusive events) will be run in MkII. The Hordes Field Test will be released concurrently with the WM MkII materials needed to play the game (Prime and the faction card decks). TempleCon, for example, will be running sanctioned, mixed MkII events.

Some questions have been raised as to why we said WM Field Test was unofficial yet the H! Field Test will be pseudo-official for several months. For one thing, WM and H! are meant to be fully compatible. We did not wish to promote game play throughout 2009 that leaves a portion of the player base behind. Another major consideration is that the core rules were still in flux leading up to the field test (and even briefly right after the field test during continued WM MkII playtesting). Having locked core rules makes a big difference when it comes to the state of a game. Will the Hordes field test bring us changes? Sure. Maybe the Pureblood Warpwolf will have a stat tweak or the Immortals will have some ability tweak. But core rules will not change - they simply can't. The Hordes Field Test will be perfectly functional for the 6-ish months that it is what is available.

The final Hordes MkII rules will be available around mid-way through 2010. Just as the WM card decks will come out around the time of Prime MkII, the H! MkII card decks will come out around the time of Primal MkII.

And thus, there shall be rejoicing in the land as I continue to buy Whelps.

Sunday 23 August 2009

Lessons in Success

350 Point Hordesmachine Tournament Results

Thomas Rolland and I ran our first mixed Warmachine and Hordes tournament today and it's certainly a learning experience. Firstly we now know that we need to kick the hall organisers into action repeatedly before the event; they seemed to think that we were booked for 10-10:30 rather than letting us in at 9:30 so we could set up boards and whatnot. Due to this we started almost one hour behind schedule and caused some confusion about how long each game would last.

There were 4 drop outs but we still had 20 people playing. First place went to Jim (as usual), with Sean coming second and Lewis coming in third and winning the painting prize for his Protectorate models.

Issues I'll have to address for the next tournament is having specified game lengths and timed turns. Also better communication between the 2 Press Gangers is needed during the event; there were a few cases of Thomas and myself contradicting each other on the time left.

Hopefully everyone had a good time overall and we didn't put off anyone turning up to the next tournament. If there's any feedback to be had please feel free to post it as a comment, we're always looking for ways to improve the tournament experience for our players.

Friday 21 August 2009

Hard Pressed

Behold!

PG_Steamworks

Just in time for the 350 tournament on Sunday. I still need to raid every coffee shop in Glasgow tomorrow for wooden sticks however - Asda proved to be disappointingly lax in their stirrer stocks.

Wednesday 19 August 2009

Condensed Milk

I found this very helpful post in the Warmachine forums that covers all the changes from the MKi Field Test and what was seen at GenCon. Time to get out those red markers and make lots of corrections.

http://www.privateerpressforums.com/index.php?showtopic=185091

Tuesday 18 August 2009

Summer Rampage 2009

August 17th to September 6th

I've *finally* found the map used for this year's Summer Rampage (is it still Summer?). The number of regions has been dramatically cut down from last year it seems, which makes things more competitive - if the laws of supply and demand are anything to go by. I'm not sure how well the Summer Rampage or even Call to Arms would play out in Glasgow, the format supports the LGS (that allows you to play games in-store) very well but does almost nothing for gaming clubs only meet up once a week. A question to pose to Johanna.

The order that the Warmachine factions end Summer Rampage in will determine the order their Forces of Warmachine books are released in. From what I can see so far (halfway through day 2) is that Khador and Mercenaries seem to be doing well. Go Mercs! Only have to keep it up for 3 weeks.

Thomas and I have sat down to figure out what scenarios we'll be using for the tournament on Sunday and there should be at least some variety so that certain warlocks and warcasters don't just dominate the entire thing with their feats of cheese. I'll also have to swat up on errata, don't want to cheat someone out of a victory just because I make a bad ruling.

Things to get:
528" String
∞ Wooden Stirring Sticks
48x 50mm Bases or Templates

Friday 14 August 2009

News from Gencon

Here's the information I've been able to glean from the forums so far:

Concept art of new warjacks

MKii
You can get a free Madelyn Corbeau, Ordic Courtesan, by pre-ordering Prime MKii
Warwitch Deneghra lost Dark Seduction
Warwitch Deneghra gained Influence
High Exemplar Kreoss lost Ignite
Destroyer loses 1 POW on the Executioner Axe
Destroyer's cost reduced to 9
Defile Sludge Cannon is now a spray
Defile now has a melee attack
Boundless Charge casting cost reduced by 1

Retribution Spoilers
Model list
Rules on remaining models (still missing some however)

Themed Army Lists
These have been reworked into a 4 tier system, where you gain bonuses for each tier you complete. Tiers are 'completed' by having the appropriate models (and only those models) in your army list. I'd put links to the known themed lists but then I'd have to sieve through 9 pages of random Retribution comments.

All this information was gained from an internet forum and should be deemed only semi-reliable. I'll correct any information that proves to be wrong as GenCon progresses.

Wednesday 12 August 2009

Spelunking

So today was a day that provided me with a great sense of achievement and relief. We turned on Jim's central heating system and none of my fittings exploded in showers of dirty (and possibly hot) water. In fact there were no leaks from our work - that we found, there is still time to get a call from Jim telling me that I've created the new Atlantis under his floor boards however. There was a minor incident with some old pipework we tried to keep but the old fittings were just craptastic and relics from a bygone era (*cough* MKi analogy *cough*).

Preparation for the upcoming 350 tournament continues. Tomorrow I'm going to buy a giant bag of cocktail sticks with flags on them to make the markers for Destruction (oh no, tournament spoiler alert!). I may even have time to scrutinise the Streamroller 4.0 scenario lists so that everything is covered. I played against Chris (one of the new players) the other night at G3 to give him a practice game for the tournament and he wiped the floor with poor pMagnus. pSorscha's feat disgusts me. Luckily I don't need to worry about it since Shake It Off will provide me with all the opportunity I need to curb-stomp her at a later date. All hail the power of MKii! I want my Trollbloods. =*(

Interesting Scenario Information
All models can contest zones. This includes Shifting Stones, Sentry Stones, Wracks, Scrap Thralls, plaster casts of my middle finger; as long as it's a valid model in your army you can contest a zone with it.
Ridge Raiders is a terrible scenario.
Cocktail sticks with flags on them are hard to find.

Tuesday 4 August 2009

Implements of Impalement

Privateer Press has released pictars of the third fully plastic unit, the Ogrun Warspears. There's also been yet more Retribution models revealed: the Mage Hunter Assassin, the Dawnguard Scyir and a warcaster, Adeptis Rahn (armed with the 'Kill-a-majig').

Now that I'm working almost full-time (depends on the volume of work) I've noticed that my updates are sorely lacking. Also, I've not had a proper game in a while now. I was supposed to play PG Thom tonight but his dad's ill so Thom's going to visit him. I've sent in my Press Ganger application, so hopefully that works out and I can run all sorts of crazy events.

Work on my Impaler is progressing slowly but surely and I've even reached the stage where I've had to glue him to his base since everywhere I can hold him is painted. He's my first experiment with doing metallics properly instead of a black wash or 2 and then baking it. Next up on the painting schedule will be my Slayer for the Halloween survival event I want to run. I plan to do the helljack in full metallics, it will look badass.

If you're in the Glasgow area and have been looking for that long static grass used to make reeds/clumps of tall grass, D&F Models currently has some in stock (since I asked them to get it for me and they went a bit overboard). The tall grass really adds variety to bases, I've already added it to eDoomy's base and I'm pleased with the result.