Monday 25 June 2012

Ship of the Line

I have now had a game testing out the Galleon and discovered it is a wonderfully flexible model. Even if it is locked down it can do something every turn.  It also has excellent synergy with Renegades and their obliterator rockets.  I tried it out in a tier 4 Most Wanted (pMagnus) themed force and found that pMagnus does some nifty things with it but the loss of his feat is rather harsh.

The Galleon gives Mercenaries the heavy hitting power they have lacked (outside the Rhulic casters) and it has drag.  You can't go wrong with drag.  Having placed so many eggs in one basket however, I wouldn't leave home without some sort of mechanik or damage mitigating abilities.  I think Dirty Meg will be making more appearances in my Mercenaries lists, and I will have to try out the Galleon with MacBain(!) since he brings Failsafe.  Temper Metal was a very powerful lifesaver in the game I had against Jim last night, with such a large damage grid, every point of damage you prevent increases the lifespan of your colossal.

Having seen the Mercenary colossal in action however, Jim and I discussed at length the impact other colossals are going to have on the game.  The Galleon was a horror to take down, what is a Conquest with its swarm of mechaniks going to be like?  Also, a single colossal cannot take down another colossal in a single turn without some ludicrous dice or some serious buffing, so even if you get the alpha strike, you're likely to be in for some serious pain in return.  This does give me some hope for the Mountain King, since it has enough power and fury to destroy a colossal, especially with the amount of buffing Trollbloods can bring.


Whilst colossals are difficult to kill in one go, they aren't as immune to damage as people seem to think.  Jim's Woldguardian pretty much scrapped the right grid of my Galleon, and a Woldguardian is not exactly a damage-dealing powerhouse like a Warpwolf Stalker with primal on it.  It's very much a case of eggs in one basket, as once you lose your hideously expensive model, you're in for a rough ride.

Now, with the colossals, what will happen to our precious battle engines?

Sunday 3 June 2012

Halls of the Mountain King

Yes, spoilers.  They have arrived and the crowd let out a resounding "meh".  I will admit to being a little disappointed with the Mountain King, but even so it's got two fists that duplicate Mulg's hitting power, and we all know that Mulg ruins just about anything he gets into punching range.  Amuck is a pretty awesome animus for a gargantuan that wants to use sweep.  I was hoping that the Mountain King had more cool things to it, but it's a very bare-bones sort of model.  I AM a bit miffed it doesn't have some sort of regeneration ability though, I mean, it's a troll warbeast right?!

It does make me look back and forth between my Mercenaries and the Trollbloods, the Galleon just does more than the Mountain King.  I'm just not sure I can really get the best mileage out of the Galleon like I do with warbeasts.  The Galleon does come with the great ability to just murder infantry though by spamming AoE templates everywhere.  Both are still nothing on the Stormwall however, which seems to take the prize as being utterly uberlicious.  I will try out both the Mountain King and the Galleon on Vassal and see how it goes, since whichever I enjoy more is likely to determine what I collect for the next year.

Saturday 2 June 2012

Steaming Vegetables

I thought I'd give a mention to Steamforged.com, a website run by Rich Loxam and a couple more of the lads down south - I'm sorry that I can't name more, I just don't know who else runs it.  Mat Hart has a number of very useful modeling articles (I'm a particular fan of the hats one) and they occasionally stream Vassal games.

Originally I wasn't such a fan of streaming Vassal, but it's surprisingly watchable with their commentary going.  Generally I view streaming footage is reserved for real-time events, especially things like e-sports where micro-seconds matter.  The idea of using it for a turn based game made me cringe a little inside when I first heard about it, but I would really recommend watching one of the Steamforged Vassal games, for the banter if nothing else.

More interesting information is coming out of Lock'n'Load.  Such information as Greylord outriders, a light cavalry unit, and the first battle engine warlock - 3Lylyth on a sleigh pulled by ulk.  Try hiding her out of LoS...  Lost Hemisphere has a more concise list of what was revealed here: http://losthemisphere.com/blog/21757

Friday 1 June 2012

Design, Design, Design

So, after playing around with a couple of the basic templates I came up with this almost mono-chrome layout that I actually rather like.  It speaks to the minimalist in me.  I'm removing unnecessary widgets and the like, and generally streamlining the blog.  I've even removed that rather irritating navbar at the top of the page - it was annoyingly well hidden in the blog's code.

I'm going to try to do more stylish posts using such cunning things as "graphics" and "pictures"; I hear both are all the rage to have on articles these days.  Whilst I my camera is AWOL (I think my sister has it) I'm sure I can do sneaky things with Vassal and the like.

Colossal Design Issues

Having now immersed myself in web design, I can frankly say that the blog has a terrible layout/design.  It's something I'll have to do some work on the layout if I maintain it.

In better news however, Colossals spoilers abound!  The book is rather light on new models - in fact there's only a legendary warcaster and a colossal for each faction except Mercenaries, who get a new Rhulic warcaster and eAlexia (and the Galleon colossal of course) in their entry.  There is also an Ashlynn resculpt.  At long last.

As a Mercenary player (once in a blue moon anyway) I am cannot overstate my joy at the Galleon being at roughly the same P+S as the other colossals (19 and 21 depending on which side the Galleon is whacking things with).  Granted it's still 1 less than the other colossals with the harpoon arm but at long last Mercenaries have broken through the P+S 17 glass ceiling.  Also, Ashlynn resculpt.  Did I mention that?

I'm very curious about General Ossram and the Rhulic options he brings.  His themed force is really quite nice, allowing for the full Rhulic options that a normal Searforge list would offer and there are some nice additional benefits such as trenches being available.  I'm tempted to test out a force made up of mostly Rhulic heavies on Vassal.

However, all this Mercenary goodness comes at a price, so I'll have to prioritize Mercenaries or Trollbloods over the next year, I'm pretty sure I can't afford to pick up both a Galleon and a Mountain King (or two).