Path of Devastation: More from the Spoiler Vault!

More spoilers from the Riven Bonds vault. Two spoilers, point of fact!

and

Join me after the break for a brief analysis of these spoilers.

Directrix vs. Ossrum - All According To Plan?

It's been awhile since I've had a regular 'ol battle report to post up. Most of my games have been either in other systems (which I honestly should be writing up, at least for variety), tournament games (which are unwieldy to recap in full), or games that I just straight-up forgot to capture at all.

To reboot that battle reporting groove, I made sure to take pictures and mentally note down my most recent game: Iron Mother Directrix vs. General Ossrum. Join me after the break for a rundown of the game and my thoughts about Convergence after a whopping four games with the faction (two each with Syntherion and Directrix at this point).

Path of Devastation: Possible Zerkova2 Spoiler

The Path of Devastation: Riven Bonds Vault has coughed up another spoiler. This one is particularly exciting given recent upcoming 'caster reveals:

Join me after the break for a quick rundown of how and why this could be really fun for all the Khador players out there.

Ruin: Initial Impressions and Theory

By now, everyone should have had a chance to digest the rules for Ruin, Khador's newest character warjack. It's rules were spoiled in NQ #59 which was available digitally last week (and what fueled this post) and in print this week. And if you didn't read either of those, there's also War Room and the various spoiler threads around.

So now that we have the rules for Ruin in hand, how does it stack up to expectations? Where will it be used/useful? Is it another niche model, a new auto-include, or something in between? Join me after the break for my thoughts.

Jamie Perkins and Trent Denison Talk Butcher3 Warjack Heavy Lists

The Butcher3 "warjack heavy" list I've tried in the past (and am strongly considering returning now that Ruin's rules have been spoiled) was a list that originally came from two well known Khador players: Jamie Perkins and Trent Denison. Their lists have been floating around various forums for awhile, but now we have an even better resource - Jamie and Trent put together an article (hosted on Muse on Minis) discussing the idea behind this list build, their lists, how they play the list, and how they've each found it to be effective.

The article is a fantastic resource for anyone looking to improve their Butcher3 knowledge (using or fighting against), and is a great example of what can come out of poking at the edges of list design theory:

http://museonminis.com/the-butcher-unleashed-running-heavies/

As of this posting, the article has some formatting issues that make each player's Butcher3 list a little hard to read. For reference, I've cleaned up the lists and posted them below. Make sure to read the article to understand why these guys think these lists are super legit.

Jamie Perkins' Butcher3 List:
Kommander Zoktavir, The Butcher Unleashed (*4pts)
   * Juggernaut (7pts)
   * Juggernaut (7pts)
   * Spriggan (10pts)
Iron Fang Pikemen (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
   * Black Dragon Officer & Standard (2pts)
Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (4pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Iron Fang Kovnik (2pts)
Koldun Lord (2pts)
Ragman (2pts)
Raluk Moorclaw (2pts)
   * Vanguard (5pts)

Trent Denison's Butcher3 List:

Kommander Zoktavir, The Butcher Unleashed (*4pts)
   * Beast-09 (11pts)
   * Juggernaut (7pts)
   * Juggernaut (7pts)
   * War dog (1pts)
Greylord Ternion (Leader and 2 Grunts) (4pts)
Iron Fang Pikemen (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
   * Iron Fang Pikemen Officer & Standard (2pts)
Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (4pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Koldun Lord (2pts)
Ogrun Bokur (3pts)
Ragman (2pts)

Warmachine: Reckoning - Cover and Sales Blurb Reveal

So, how about the cover of that new Warmachine book?

Didn't see that coming

And the sales blurb:

"THE KINGDOMS OF HUMANITY STAND AS ONE.

The rising threat of the Cryxian armies has become too great. Death permeates the war-torn region, and Empress Ayn and King Leto themselves chance incredible danger to meet and coordinate their stand. The Protectorate’s Northern Crusade joins Khador and Cygnar in a final alliance of men against the unending armies of the Dragonfather. As these armies combine to expel the deathless forces of Cryx from the mainland, in tunnels below the battleground a lone Khadoran soldier fights to save one of the Motherland’s greatest legends.

WARMACHINE: Reckoning brings you the next thrilling chapter of the WARMACHINE saga. Fight for survival with:
• New warcasters, including new heroes as well as epic incarnations of some of WARMACHINE’s most feared and revered legends.
• A new generation of colossals to level the opposition.
• An array of new warjacks, including the personal warjacks of several powerful warcasters.
• New solos to bring a greater range of utility to the battlefield.
• New narrative fiction continuing the action of WARMACHINE: Vengeance.
• A painting and modeling guide to help you prepare your forces for battle.
• Theme Force lists for each new warcaster, which allow you to create armies based on specialized forces found in the WARMACHINE world."

Join me after the break for my thoughts about what this cover may portend, and a few quick thoughts about the sales blurb.

Plastic Iron Fang Pikemen and Black Dragons

So, yesterday these wonderful things showed up on the PP website front page:

Link to product page

and

Link to product page

These new sets are remarkable. Short list as to why:

1) New sculpts! Some of the poses aren't great (both of the leaders are a little wonky, but at least they're distinct) but for the most part I really like the reposing of the models. It also looks like this version of the models will be much easier to fit into B2B; the old metal ones are much less than cooperative sometimes.

2) Both units are included! A really enterprising/crazy hobbyist could probably magnetize the unit to be able to swap between the two options, but I think that's so impractical as to be very rare. What is nice is that this is one stop shopping: you want either variety of IFP + UA? Buy this box and put them together however you like.

3) The UA is included! This is a first for plastic units, which so far have only included WAs, if applicable. Its more value added, and it makes adding a unit of IFP (or another unit) to your collection extremely easy.

4) The cost is extremely compelling! Getting a full 12 model unit for $60 is a great deal to begin with. When you contrast that with how much a full unit of IFP + UA would currently cost you ($85 for the unit + $20 for the UA + $15 for the Black Dragon upgrade kit if you want that as well), it becomes a total steal.

This boxed set is going to remove the final barrier that most players had to buying IFP (a surprising number of Khador players on the boards attest to not buying the unit because it's expensive/finicky/metal), and it will probably facilitate a lot more players doubling/tripling (for the Claws of the Dragon theme force) up as well.

I've been holding out on buying a second unit of IFP for awhile now based on the paranoid certainty of something being announced that would make me regret buying it right now. This isn't quite what I expected (I thought plastic IFP would be far off in the future), but I damn sure won't complain, and I have almost no reason not to buy that second unit now. June can't come fast enough.

Event Recap - 50 Point Steamroller at GAD Con

The Brawltimore events keep on rolling, this time with a surprise 50 point Steamroller at the third annual Games and Dice Convention (GAD Con) held in Aberdeen, MD. This was the first time, to my knowledge, that any Privateer Press events had been run at this event, and this first event garnered a decent turn out (especially since there was another event going on in another part of the state). 16 players showed up, which gave us a perfect four full rounds of Warmachine.

Join me after the break for a run down of how the event went, post-game thoughts, and plans for the future.

Full Rules for Ruin, Butcher's Character Warjack

The (early digital) release of the most recent No Quarter (#59) gave the world it's first look at the rules for Ruin, the newest Khador character warjack. Join me after the break for a quick rundown of Ruin's journey from concept art to reality, the spoiled rules for the model, and my thoughts about it.

Product Review - Wrath of Kings Shael Han Models

Sometime near the end of 2014, one of the last of the miniatures based Kickstarters I backed delivered. Each one I'd backed had been delayed, which resulted in me sort of forgetting when each of them was "supposed" to show up. Imagine my surprise when I received a shipping notice for my Wrath of Kings Kickstarter order.

Wrath of Kings was a game I bought into partially for the models, and partially because I have a friend who was very excited about the game. Thankfully, by this point we had already been through the frenzy and initial disappointment of the Relic Knights Kickstarter, so our ambitions were tempered. I was able to settle on a single faction that I thought looked cool, and spend a pretty reasonable amount of money to get (almost) everything in the faction. My friend was a bit more ambitious (I think he ended up with 3 factions), but that's still a far cry from the money we poured into Relic Knights.

I'd been occupied with other hobby projects up until recently, so the box 'o goodies sat for awhile. After finishing my first batch of mercenary painting models, however, I decided it'd be nice to take a break from painting and assemble some stuff. Part of that has been getting my Convergence up and running, and the rest of the time I've spent putting together enough Wrath of Kings models to actually play a game.

Join me after the break for pictures of some of the models I've assembled, thoughts about the models, and some gut reactions about the game as a whole.

Path of Devastation: Riven Bonds Spoiler Chest Contents

The spoiler chest for the Path of Devastation: Riven Bonds league has been opened and it contains...

...some sort of shenanigans. One would presume that these are rules for the gremlins shown in the sizzle reel at the end of the PP SmogCon Hordes presentation, though I haven't seen confirmation (just making it "very likely").

The one thing I really like about this rule is how it appears to herald the return of creative, interesting rules from PP's dev team, instead of the slight variations/combinations of existing rules design approach of early Mk. 2. If all the new models are going to have rules like this, I welcome them with open arms (while probably also cursing them under my breath).

Apparently this is just the first of several/many spoilers that will be revealed as more games get reported, so keep an eye out for more of those spoilers as they are revealed!

Event Recap - 50 Point Steamroller at Bel Air Games

This past weekend, I attended my third event for the Brawltimore circuit - a 50 point, second list optional Steamroller 2015 event held at Bel Air Games in Bel Air, MD. The event had a solid turn out (25ish players), and it ended up being five rounds of excellent games. Join me after the break for a rundown of the event, post event thoughts, and where to go from here.

Painting Log: Mercenary Edition - Pan-O Starter

After hitting a decent stopping point with Malifaux, my original painting plan was to move on to painting Convergence. However, a friend made me an offer that I decided to indulge him on: paint half of the new Operation: Icestorm starter set (the Pan-O models) in exchange for the other half (the Nomad models). As I'm interested in starting Infinity, and even more interesting in doing it while spending as little money as possible, I decided to take him up on the offer.

Join me after the break for pictures of how the models turned out, my thoughts on the models, and promises of more mercenary work.