Helldiver Painted!

I don't know how this week turned into some kind of Cryx painting week, but I seem to have been painting away at the little undead buggers, despite not having played a game in a few weeks.  The Helldiver, while not the most impressive 'Jack in the Cryx armory, almost won me a Warmachine league by being burrowing his merry way onto an objective and staying put throughout an eight player game of King of the Hill.  I tried to give him the look of popping out of the ground in his pose and basing.  He's not a great 'Jack, but he's not a bad pickup some days for three points.

Painted Brute Thrall

A unit of Mechanithralls without a Brute Thrall is like a group of flying monkeys without a witch.  There's nothing like having a cheap unit of Mechs, and then have it contain up to three (that's right, three!!!) cheap monsters that can absolutely wreck face.  He's a great model too, and was a lot of fun to paint up. 

My only concern is that I don't want to have three of the same exact model, and I don't think he'd be an easy one to modify and change the pose on.  Does anyone have ideas for good models to exchange him with (bearing in mind that he's about twice the height of a normal zombie/mechanithrall model)?

Mechanithralls Painted

I haven't had a chance to play much Warmachine lately, but I've been painting away at my Cryx.  They're a creepy bunch, especially the Mechanithralls.  Painting these was fun, as they have a lot of character and are pretty simple.  They're a great unit to take in game as well, with a high level of survivability (with a Necrosurgeon), and the ability to hit pretty hard when they manage to hit.   They're cheap, too! 

I've been working on Cryx lately, but should get back to Beastmen, although a unit of Satyxis is very tempting!

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.

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!

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. 

Warmachine "Greenmachine" Tournament Reports

After my first tournament this past Saturday, Warmachine remains a very interesting game to me.  On the one hand, I enjoy the game mechanically and from an intellectual standpoint.  On the other hand, however, there is a bit of a "nasty surprise" aspect to the game, and I'm not sure the local scene is quite for me.  I'll try and illustrate using the tournament. 

My list for the tournament was (25 Points Mangled Metal):

Goreshade the Bastard
Helldiver
Deathjack
Reaper
Seether

Goreshade's feat creates a six strong unit of Bane Thralls as well.  The idea of the list was to use the Bane Thralls as assassins against enemy casters by throwing them forward on the feat turn, and to use the Reaper to drag enemy Beasts/Jacks away from their owners and then murder them with the Deathjack and Seethers.

My first game was against pThagrosh, with a Carnivean, Angelius, Shredder, and Seraph.  My opponent had obviously had a similar thought to me in list creation, in that Thagrosh can reincarnate a Beast as his feat, effectively giving him a bigger list.

He ran his army up the first turn, and left his Carnivean forward.  I used the Reaper on my turn to drag the Carnivean in, and then killed it with Deathjack.  I then feated with Goreshade, leaving the Banes in the backfield, and used Goreshades teleport to move the Reaper and Deathjack back into my backfield and out of range of his army.   He moved his army around the next turn and returned the Carnivean to life in his backfield.  I ran up the next turn, and then he killed my Banes with shooting and charges in his turn.  Unfortunately, his Angelius frenzied, and so was unavailable to him, and his Beasts were now in the charge range of all my Jacks.  I killed the Carnivean and Seraph in my turn, and my opponent conceded. 

I went into round two having a good time.  My opponent was a good friend of mine, and was a brand new player as well.  He brought Karchev, two Kodiaks, a Destroyer, and a Berserker.  With a huge charge range, I was a bit nervous, but it was a short game.  My opponent came forward, casting Tow to move all his Jacks.  After the first turn, I was able to use Mage Blight to shut down any chance of Karchev's feat or spells.  My opponent then upkept Tow and moved his Jacks, but left Karchev up in front of his Jacks.  I then moved Goreshade up, feated, and used the Bane Thralls to kill Karchev. 

My opponent was a bit upset after the game, because he thought my list was nasty, and decided to take a walk.  I can completely understand his frustration.  What was really awful was the T.O. then coming over to me in order to tell me how much of a "douchebag list" I had, and how she wished she had a "douchebag stamp" to stamp all over lists like mine. 

Let me put in my side here.  The first game of this tournament was my fifth total game overall.  While I can appreciate that the Goreshade list is hard, I thought I had come up with a clever list for a tournament, not something that required a T.O. to tell me about what a horrible person I was.  I suppose I was suckered in by a lack of experience with the game, and the idea that Page 5 had some small meaning. 

In the third game, I played another friend with his Circle.  My heart wasn't really in it, and he assassinated Goreshade using eKaya's feat and a Ghostly Warpwolf. 

Somehow I won first place in the tournament, and with zero product prize support (despite an entry fee) ended up with a Steamroller Coin.  My friends with Circle and Khador ended up with second and third, respectively. 

So, Warmachine.  I really enjoyed my first game.  I can understand my opponent being upset and surprised in the second round from the Bane Thralls, and wish that I had thought to explain that the Thralls could activate after being summoned.  I knew that my opponent had studied my caster prior to the tournament, and honestly thought he knew they did so.  However, I hated that the T.O. come stuff her face in a few minutes later and publicly berate me.  If my list was too hard, it sure as heck wasn't from my masterful understanding of the game and evil genius, and it sure could have been handled either before or after the tournament in a tactful manner. 

My only other experience with the local crowd, a couple weeks earlier, involved my opponent being friendly when he thought he was getting an easy league win out of a new player, and then turning surly and rude when I unexpectedly won.  I have had good game experiences with people that I've known from Fantasy and 40K previously. 

I want to like this game.  I like the miniatures and painting potential, the base rule system, and the Privateer Press customer service philosophy.  While I would in now way push the idea that Privateer Press players are anything but top notch, I fear that the local crowd may put me off the game. 

First Warmachine Tournament

I'm headed to my first Warmachine tournament tomorrow, a twenty-five point Greenmachine Mangled Metal / Tooth and Claw tournament over at All Fun and Games in Apex.  To translate, Greenmachine means that only newer players can play, or at least players who have never placed in a previous tournament.  Mangled Metal / Tooth and Claw means that only Warcasters/Locks and Jacks/Beasts can be taken, so units and solos are out. 

I wasn't sure what I would take at first, as there are so many good builds with Cryx.  I won't, if you don't mind, post my list until Monday, as I want it to be a bit of a surprise.  I hope to have battle reports as well.

Enjoy your weekends!

Painted War Witch Siren and the Alternate Model Conundrum

A problem that we get into with a lot of Privateer Press (and some GW) models is variability.  Sometimes you want to run multiples of models, but because they are metal (or plastic that really has to be put together in one way), you'll get multiples of the exact same pose.  For instance, the War Witch Siren.  I love the model.  It's got a sense of action.  But I also want to run two sometimes, because of the rules.   My solution in her case was to make my second Siren hold her sword out in front of her.  In other cases, like the Pistol Wraith or Manhunter, there are alternate models readily available.

Sometimes we can proxy in alternative models, like a Reaper model, but in other cases it's not allowed.  For example, the local 40K tournaments here allow any sort of proxying, to the point where it gets ridiculous.  I'm honestly waiting for someone just to start digging trash out of a trash can and declaring each piece of trash a different model.  On the other hand, Warmachine/Hordes tournaments here in the past have not allowed any proxying at all, to the point of not allowing pButcher to represent eButcher, for instance.  So if you do have a cool Reaper model to represent your Siren, you're out of luck. 

As to the Siren, I have enjoyed using her very much in games.  She is really the utility model of the army, and I've done a bit of everything from helping out Helljacks to spraying away hard to reach models to Shadow Binding enemy Warbeasts to keep them from moving.  Heck, I wish I could have three...if I could come up with a third variant on the model!

The Leviathan (Helljack, Not Hive Fleet)

Crab Jacks for Cryx pack a heck of a points cost!  While they're both scary machines, I'm liking the Leviathan a bit more than the Harrower right now, if only because my main opponent has been packing a lot of beasts and not a lot of infantry.  Up to three high power shots every turn with bonuses against large targets can really make a nasty difference in a game. 

My Leviathan is also practicing a magical feat of physics currently, as he is perched with just a tiny bit of green stuff on his tiny back legs.  He's a heavy metal model to do that , so I keep waiting for him to be dropped / a child to pick him up and break him / a stiff breeze to break the green stuff connection.  Until then, he's gonna rock out on two legs. 

What up, Slayer?

One of the first models that I wanted to paint (and had an opportunity to paint) was the Slayer.  The poster 'Jack for Cryx, the Slayer is a melee beat machine, although in typical Cryx fashion he's fairly fragile for a Helljack. 

So far, I've had four games of Warmachine, of which the Slayer has only gotten to participate in one.  I've run Deneghra with him, and Venethrax, Mortenebra, and Goreshade without him.  Hopefully, I'll be using him more, as he is one intimidating fella. 

Painted War Witch Deneghra

It feels like I haven't been painting much lately, but I suppose that's because I haven't been mass painting Beastmen.  Instead, I've been slowly working my way through some Cryx models, and I started with Deneghra here. 

For the most part, Deneghra has a good model, but I do dislike the head/mask.  I also tried to elevate her a bit.  Her pointing pose is cool, but on the normal base she just looks like she's pointing at the ground. 

The Cryx plastics, of which Deneghra is one, are really very nice.  I enjoyed putting them together, and then after that went on to the varying levels of frustration which are Privateer Press metal models.  To be clear, the same description applies to GW's metals.  Some were surprisingly easy despite the hype (Terminus), some were inexplicably overcomplicated (Mortenebra and her seventeen tiny pieces), and the rest were just the usual mix of pretty good with the occasional piece that was too heavy to keep on properly.

Anyway, I should have some more Cryx up on the site next week, so I hope you enjoy it!

Committing to Cryx

The latter half of 2010 had me trying out a great many new board games, all of which were a lot of fun.  At the end of the day, however, war games are my absolute favorite.  I think it's really the variable play that these types of games offer, along with a chance to paint and model.  While I remain first and foremost a Warhammer Fantasy fanatic, I have had the chance recently to play some good 40K games, as well as try out Mark II Warmachine. 

Mark II seems to have greatly improved over Mark I, in that the overwhelming abilities of feats and other abilities to completely dictate (and end) the game in one shot have been tuned down.  The game does seem more chess-like, instead of cheese-like, and has a nice decision tree flavor to it, in that resources are carefully allocated / used early in order to fuel a series of actions that can have different outcomes, and planning for those outcomes in order to arrive at the best conclusion in the key to the game. 

For my birthday, I picked up a good chunk of Cryx, and have been painting and playing away.  It's been good so far, and pictures should be forthcoming.  I like the speedy, debuffing play style of the faction, and have never minded fragile, hard hitting armies previously.  I have my first 35 point game tonight, against Circle, so we'll see how it goes!

Swatting at Bees - The Art of Swarming the Enemy

Hi, my name is Ben, and I play swarm.


Now, a lot of people will define swarming (in terms of wargaming) in what I consider the typical sense; that is, in terms of how you do it. You need a lot of cheap, expendable units, outnumbering your opponent by multiples, and heading accross the board in vast waves designed to drown his or her army by sheer weight of numbers. Typically, this is done by the usual horde army suspects, such as Skaven and Vampire Counts in Warhammer Fantasy, Tyranids and Orks in 40K, and Legion and Cryx in the Privateer Press Games. It's also not how I play. Side note: Why are most of these armies kind of gross and slimy? Weird.


I prefer to define swarming not by the method, but by the objective. A swarm overwhelms its opponent, providing him or her with too many confusing options. If your opponent attacks Units A and B, then he must ignore C, D, and E, which remain threatening. Likewise, if C and E are attacked, then A and B are still around and deadly. Of course, in a typical swarm of, for example, Skaven, there will be far more than five options. In overwhelming your opponent with choices, the idea is to promote bad decisionmaking. Like a man attacked by hundreds of bees, your opponent should swat around in a panic. Maybe you'll lose a bee or two to the swatting, but your opponent's confusion will let you eventually bear him or her to the ground. His guns might be bigger and better, but they're nothing if he can't make proper decisions on how to bring them to bear.


Vast, horde armies are a mainstay of modern wargaming, and they have the aforementioned strengths. They usually have typical weaknesses, such as lower leadership troops and lynchpin units or models that hold the rest of the army together, sometimes literally like with Vampire Counts.


The type of swarm that I prefer might not be as numerous, but it accomplishes the objective the same. In my current Dark Elf army, I like to run plenty of Dark Rider fast cavalry, some harpies, and perhaps a unit of shades or two. Using this setup, I can force an opponent to make multiple decisions in the first and second turns. He or she is generally unable to focus enough attention on the big hitters coming down the table, as they have to protect their weak bits against these fast units that are up in their face.

Like a typical horde, this army forces opponents to make decisions that have negative aspects no matter what, hopefully forcing a panicked "swatting" at my army. Weak spots like warmachines are taken out quickly, assassination runs can be taken at key enemy units, and hard hitting units like Knights can be pulled out of position. Disorganization and panic reigns while my heavy hitters (Cold One Knights, Black Guard, perhaps a Hydra) come in unmolested to finish the army off. I once had an opponent end up turning his two flanks, still on his side of the table, completely sideways to face one another in order to deal with all my little biting units. Realizing what he had done soon thereafter, he conceded the round.


All in all, we look as good generals to make an opponent fight the battle on our terms rather than theirs. Swarming them with confusing decisions, be either method, is a great tactic for doing so.