Shard of the Herdstone

At Brawler Bash, I'll be running the Shard of the Herd Stone as a magic item, and that meant representing it as a piece of terrain.  I had a Trygon base that I'm not using, and I wanted the Stone itself to be pretty massive (especially since Brawler Bash requires a painting "centerpiece" for your army in its paint scoring).  Thus, out of box clay was born the Super Shard!  It's lucky that this is the shape that Herd Stones should basically come in, as it's also probably the most complicated shape that I'm capable of sculpting.  It's super fragile, so I'm hoping it will carefully survive the next couple weeks, then to be retired to shelfdom and occasional play.

2011 Fantasy 'Ard Boyz Scenarios

The 2011 'Ard Boyz Scenarios have been posted, and can be found here.  The major theme you can see throughout is a strong penalty to taking a shooting army, which my Beastmen warmly approve of.  The first round is April 16th, at locations throughout the U.S. 

Assembly Line Bestigors Finished

On the painting table this past weekend, I finished forty-five Bestigor, followed by a delicious Tuskgor Chariot.  Once again turning the the en masse theory of rank and file painting, the models were done in a group, paint layer by paint layer.  It can get a bit dull, but after having done the one hundred Gor batch, I found that the Bestigor really didn't faze me. 

In progress, I have almost finished movement trays for the Gor and Bestigor, am working on painting my characters, with two out of five mostly finished, and need to make a tray for the Ungor. 

Brawler Bash is now less than two weeks away.  My army was placed in the "Hard" category between soft, medium, and hard, but it honestly doesn't sting that much since almost half the current armies submitted also earned the hard rating.  Any chance at winning something may have just gone downhill a bit, but for the most part I'll be there to drink and teach people new swear words, as per my Brawler Bash tradition.  Maybe I'll see you there!

P.S.  I know that's a Qunari up there, and not a Beastmen, but if you've seen that video, think of it as a fight between Chaos Sorceror and Beastman.  So good. 

A Little Warhammer Television, Beastmen vs. Dwarves

One of the things that I'd like to introduce in this blog is a chance to find and link some of the great video battle reporting that I see out there on Youtube.  I've been following former North Carolina player Oncebitten360 with his fantastic video batreps, and wanted to share this great example below.   Enjoy!

We Live!

Just so our (two) loyal fans don't get upset, I just wanted to let you all know that posts are coming.  It's been quiet the past week from (a) work gone crazy and (b) camera left in Florida.  Work will calm down and the camera is in the mail, so next week should be better. 

Random Cryx Notes

I answered an email the other day about my thoughts on Cryx, and more or less ended up with a ramble of thoughts on some of the Cryx models I've played....strapped for time to create Blog Content, I pass this dump of information over to my loyal readers.

Goreshade - This is the guy I got yelled at by the TO about when I went to a Greenmachine Mangled Metal Tournament.  I honestly had no idea he was so nasty, but the big thing is the ability to summon Bane Thralls and then activate them.  So you move Goreshade up, summon the Thralls, and then charge with them.  It's a nasty hail of Weapon Master troops if you get a lane to a juicy target. 

Mortenebra -  Mortenebra is a tricky model to put together, but shouldn't be a problem for you since you've been hobbying for a while.  She's 17 fiddly pieces on a medium base.  She runs Warjacks well, and has been fun.

Skarre - Skarre has been my favorite Warcaster so far.  She's fast, can have up to 12 fury with a Skarlock and her spells, and can hit like a truck.  Plus, she's a pirate.  I highly suggest picking her up for a lot of fun.

Terminus - This is my second favorite Warcaster thus far in the game.  You'll need a ton of infantry to run him, though, as his army is pretty much a delivery system to get him into base contact with the enemy. 

I've tried most of the light Warjacks except for the Nightwretch.  I really like the Defilers to take down Heavies, and the Defiler for its spray. 

Out of the Heavies, I like a few. The Deathjack is pricey in both senses of the word, but he has the potential to kill like nothing else. The Deathjack model is also amazing.  The Seether is great for a few of our Warcasters, especially those who have to conserve their focus more.  The Seether is the only Jack I've actually picked up two of as well, since you can create one with the Withershadow Combine.  I've had limited experience with the Crabjacks.  I suggest getting some Plastic Heavies as well, and then magnetizing.  Slayers are cheap, and the Reaper is my favorite Jack so far, since the ability to drag models around the table has been my favorite part of the game so far.

I highly suggest a unit of Bane Thralls and the Unit Attachment, as they are then tough and will kill whatever they hit.  I've picked up Black Ogrun for the aforementioned love of dragging enemy models around.  Mechanithralls are a great cheap horde unit, and can do some damage on low defense models.  I would highly suggest a Necrosurgeon and Stich Thralls to go with the Mechanithralls (and Skarre for sacrificing). 

A Skarlock is a must for almost all of our Warcasters.  The ability to get one of your spells for free each turn is invaluable.  Warwitch Sirens are also great for utility sprays and giving our Jacks more focus.  Finallly, Bane Lord Tartarus helps make more Banes, which is fantastic for a tough unit of Bane Thralls.

Grey Knights up for Preorder

GW's site has the Grey Knights up for preorder this morning, and at least for myself, the first real view of the "Dreadknight".

There are a couple other pics, but this is the only one that's new and different.  I'm willing to bet that the Dreadknight will be a big seller, but I don't think it's for me.  I've never had the urge to build or paint Grey Knights, even though I could just spray some marines silver.  As much as I love the Dreadnought, I think they're great because of their bulkiness and such.  This guy is just too sleek.

Now, if he was actually a "Dark Knight", and the model had a voice box and taunted my opponent in the Christian Bale Batman voice...well, maybe then I'd order two.

GW Forest Assembly and Thoughts

As it rained all day yesterday, I wasn't in a huge hurry to assemble the GW Forests I'm working on, as I couldn't prime during the day.  A couple things to note:

1.  Those tree branches seem to hate being glued together.  I ended up using the tiniest bit of green stuff to give them a head start at the connection points.  

2.  I'm not a fan of the GW leaves.  The trees are great looking, but in the end I only put leaves on one.  I think I'll paint that one in a normal leafy green forest scheme, and then paint a dying autumn scene (wald!) and a dead winter forest. 

Anyway, hope for some dry weather today, so I can do some priming!

Master Necrotech Mortenebra

My favorite Cryx 'Caster so far has to be Master Necrotech Mortenebra and her Skarlock, Deryliss.  She can really power her 'Jacks, and combined with a Leviathan puts out a surprise amount of Cryxian pain!

Mortenebra is seventeen pieces of metal by herself, and can be a pain to assemble.  I took a deep breath, took my time, and green stuffed liberally.  She cam out sturdy, and I hope she survives a long time, and misses out on any model droppage that tends to happen with my big thumbs!

Skarlock!

The Skarlock seems like something you should have for every Cryx caster.   While it's a cinch to take it on the field, you'll want to be extra careful when assembling it, as it has some parts that need to go together smoothly.  I assembled mine in more of a prone position, so that he'd look like a puppet with a Warcaster pulling his strings.  Painting the green involved three to four layers of different greens with washes in between, to give him that just yanked your soul out feel!

Painting Forests

I'm painting up three GW forests for this year's Brawler Bash IV (see information above).  I wanted to poll around and see what kinds of forests you folks would suggest.  Blood Forests?  Snowy Treelines?  Autumn (Insert different word for Forest)?  Leave a comment below, and I'll see what I can whip up!

Bonejacks!

Games notwithstanding, Cryx continues to be a joy to paint.  The highlight of the whole experience has been the new plastic battlebox, and I whipped up the two Deathrippers and Defiler in a day.  They're done with a mixture of grays and bone, silver and bronze, with just a bit of bright green in the back to feature the soul engines prominently.