Happy Thanksgiving!

I couldn't decide which way to be cheescakey offensive today so I used both!

Enjoy your face stuffing with meats, veggies and family today!

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Bubble, bubble, toil and all that jazz.

Another of the Privateer models from my collection that were not used for Warmachine, the Witch Coven of Garlghast.

Liking the look of this warcaster unit I bought them for misc D&D models.

 

Now I have given them a retouch and painted their floating ball of doom, the Egregore.

 

The witches were simple. I just retouched the metal. I added a purple wash to their clothes. I even washed the flesh to shade it a bit.

How do you stop a raging barbarian?

I did choose to go with the dwarf troll slayer or barbarian for a second new character. I was surprised how fun this class was to use. Well it is fun when you are connecting with attacks.

 

Choosing a totem warrior as a sub class and then the bear as my spirit animal was pretty much a no brainer for a barbarian. I was shocked how well that preforms when raging. Not only is there a melee damage boost, but this guy gains damage resistance to all damage for the duration of his rage. The only attack that will cause full damage is psychic damage. That is insane! Now add in the huge hit point pool thanks to D12 hit dice for barbarians and a fat constitution bonus to boot. He is not unkillable, but when raging it takes a lot to put him down.

 

It was shame that during the big final showdown with some giant spiders, bugbears and a drow wizard; he missed so many attacks. Is there anything worse than having a great bonus to hit and damage and connecting around 4 or 5 times with 14 attacks in a 7 round fight? Yeah, dual wielding is awesome, but rolling horribly is not. Still he did hold aggro on three monsters during this fight. It helped keep the pressure off the rest of the party. This is where that damage resistance is awesome. Those monsters beat on the dwarf a ton and only dropped him to just under ½ of his max hit points. They hit him a ton and he just kept soaking the damage. That was pretty damn entertaining!

 

I’ll be interested to see what he can do after a few more games and how his fancy new ogre power gauntlets will affect his combat prowess.

5th ed. D&D second character to try.....

Alright after a run with a warlock I am looking to try another character class. I’m looking melee and the first idea is barbarian. Is there any other class that screams melee more?

These guys have the ability to rage and gain damage bonuses. The can fight shirtless and gain an armor class bonus. They can shrug off a fair amount of damage when in combat. They have to great career paths with the berserker or totem warrior. The biggest issues would be what race to play. The barbarian is the optimal and logical choice.

I’m also looking at a druid. Yeah a druid for melee. How is that possible? Well a crazy shape shifter is how.  Stuck in combat well just turn into a dire wolf, bear or crocodile. Sure there is a stat and armor swap, but you gain various abilities attacks and more importantly their hit points. Just make sure that you change back before you zero out the animal form. This keeps from an bleed over into your true hit point pool. This is the “fun” option for a melee class.

I guess I’ll have it figured out by next game. I think a lot will depend on the dice rolls and my mood when I sit down to draw something up. Will it be a Warhammer Fantasy Dwarven Slayer or more of a Night Elf Feral Druid from World o’ Warcraft?

Vulkan Lives review

After Unremembered Empire I went and grabbed a copy of Vulkan Lives. I completely passed this over the first time. Why? Well I could care less about the Salamanders and their primarch. That group of space marines never really appealed to me. Plus it is written by Nick Kyme. I don’t know him and he might be a swell gent, but the battle book he wrote, Fall of Damnos, is just not good. However, the events of Unremembered Empire had me very curious to what the hell happened prior.

The first bit is that this story is a jumper. It jumps from two current event tales to flashbacks. I was ok with it, but it could get a bit annoying because just when you are lead somewhere…..BAMPF! you are taken to another story.



Alright, the first story revolves around Vulkan being tortured, both physically and mentally by Konrad Curze. This is by far my favorite tale as it goes into who Vulkan and Konrad really are. It is a nice bit of character study and development. Here Curze does his best to break Vulkan and does using some delightful techniques! During these bouts of torture Vulkan has his values, psyche and body tested. Curze wants to break him physically and/or mentally. Why? Well because Curze is a dark twisted nutter is why.

Big Hero 6

Went to see Big Hero 6 with the lady and the two minions.

Alright, the plot is pretty standard Disney fare. You have a kid, Hiro, who loves him some robots. His brother is also a robot guy and makes a personal health care robot named Baymax. A loveable balloon-like robot that is basically a nurse. Now Hiro develops these microbots to try and get into the same tech school his brother is attending. These microbots work like a cool swarm of bugs to do all sorts of stuff. Sounds fairly lame so far right.

Now pre Disney movie fare, there is a huge loss for Hiro and he has to deal with it. Now add in the fact a kabuki masked guy is using Hiro’s microbots to do all sorts of stuff. Hiro has to turn a robotic nurse into a super awesome fighting robot to stop this bad guy. Sounds better..but wait! There is also a Scooby-Doo element that arises as a group of college students, that are Hiro’s friends, want to help. They go through the process of becoming  high tech super heroes as well to help save the day.

Still sounds kind of meh right?

Yeah I thought that too originally, but after a few trailers I figured this would be a fun movie. It did not disappoint!

Exigence musings

The Hordes Exigence book has been out a while and everyone important has run through it back to front. Myself, I have finally finished with it and thought I’d throw out my thoughts. These are just quick hits about what I play, what I face in my home and then just a tiny bit of coverage on everything else.

My Circle Orboros druid new stuff

Bradigus Thorle would have probably have been my starting warlock if he had been out when I started this game. Why? Well the model is pretty damn cool. Plus he is all about the giant rock monsters. This guy and a pack of walking rock hulks would look pretty sweet on the board. Plus his tier list can take multiple shifting stones that can cause all kinds of teleport shenanigans. Being entrenched with Kaya and giant dog monsters will keep me from using Bradigus. I have enough stuff to paint without running out to buy a new battle force to compliment this warlock.

Argus Moonhound would be great if I ran a druid crossbow list. Sadly he does nothing for me at this time. It is a fun model though and would have made a nice proxy for a regular Argus.

Rotterhorn Griffon has an interesting animus that lets you perform a special action at the end of your activation. So…run in attack then pull of that one special ability that you want. Does it allow for the same special action to be used twice? This is the only one of the bird warbeasts that I find appealing.. Mostly because he doesn’t have a cowl or pseudo-Wolverine claws

Brennos is a named heavy satyr and I’m on the fence about him. He has an affinity with Morvahna and helps keep her alive with extra health, but that doesn’t help me at all. He is a shooty/support warbeast. He had a magic ranged attack and can throw down in melee if necessary. However, Brennos looks to  no melee beatstick, especially against other punchy heavy beasts. I would probably rather just take a Gnarlhorn instead, but if he has a super sweet model I might be enticed.

Una the Falconer is a mini/lesser warlock and has affinity for birds. She has a ranged attack that throws up to three birds down field for damage. She can also take griffons for reduced cost. She has four fury and two spells which are alright, but with her control of 8” and 4+2D6 to hit with offensive spells, make them pretty weak. Her model is damn fantastic and intimidating with all those feathers and the typical druid armor filigree. I’ll pass since I am not a griffon warbeast guy. If I was then she is a must.

Death Wolves are the druid character unit. This unit of three really intrigues me. They start the game with a token that can be used to boost or to negate damage to 1 point. Hmmm….interesting. Especially when this is mixed with their multiple health boxes. They gain tokens for killing that can be used to boost or lower damage. They come with a mixed bag of weapons and abilities as well. Sadly there are no models yet and that blows! If the models are descent then I will be adding these guys to the list.

What Trolls I might have to face

Borka on his polar bear is pretty damn impressive. However, I have already done a Borka and don’t really want to paint another. That being said, the decision really isn’t mine since it is her army. Facing Borka can be dangerous now. I can only imagine how much more dangerous he is with a polar bear mount. The extra attack and movement are troublesome as is his ability to slam models His bear gets to roll extra dice with a critical.  He is a fighter and having a bear mount helps that. His fury pool is low and he looks to prefer infantry to beasts.

Dozer and Smigg the dire troll howitzer. Did the trolls bloods need another shooting dire troll? I guess they did. This is another character beast for this army. He is a mobile artillery platform. Wait he also buffs dire trolls, has affinity with the bazooka Joe warlock, has an animus to help him nail targets with his giant cannon and is no slouch in melee (being a dire troll has its advantages). The upside is that shooty trolls are not present in my home, so this guy will never grace the table. I worry more about Mulg and Rok.

Troll Highwaymen are trollblood banditos! Not sure if their leader is El Guapo, but he should be. Anyhoo…more shooty troll warriors with a bit of combined fire, two shots each and some sneaky. The models are a bit underwhelming to me and thankfully they are shooty.

Braylen Wanderheart is the female troll Antonio Banderas (from Desperado) or the Clint Eastwood (from Good, Bad, Ugly)for this army. She is mobile gun fighter that needs to keep moving and get behind targets to get some real advantages. A possible solo hunter or annoyance piece, but still shooty so not in my house!

Horgle Ironstrike might be showing up someday. This is the troll mini/lesser warlock. He  gets reduced cost pyre and slag trolls. He has 4 fury and two attacks (with reach) and one cause continuous fire and the other has a knockback ability. He comes with two spells that buff ranged attacks and the other is anti-warjack. Since that damn pyre troll is always showing up to bother me, I can see Horgle appearing in the future.

Northkin Fire Eaters are a unit of two trolls and pyg that dink booze and then breathe fire. That is some good damn fun, but not for me. A three warrior unit with a POW 12 flame thrower that just keeps burning is awesome and annoying. Plus they only get tougher if they are on fire. I guess that means they can burn themselves a bit, or get burnt, and gain an ARM bonus. The models for these guys do look good, but I know I’ll hate dealing with them.

Skorne, Minions, Legion stuff

I am still not a fan of the whole Skorne army. It was good to see that the new warbeasts they received were different and not just more multi-limbed non-elephants. The rest is the typical red and gold mix of Klingon, Drow and Dark Eldar Skorne. They did get one of the warbeast packs. Man, those are head scratchers. They are warbeasts and units in one and the rules are sort of meh for them.

Legion of Everblight’s new releases left me sort of bland, except for the Strider Blightblades and Fyanna. The Blightblades would be a great flanking/harassment unit and Fyanna has so many interesting melee abilities.

Blindwater and the Thornfall minions both received new warlocks and battle engines. I do find the Meat Thresher interesting as it reminds me of the Dreadnoks Thunder Machine if it were created by crazy pig men. The big surprise is the Doomreaver pig Maximus. Wow, he looks to be a pile of combat awesome. He will work for Circle and Trolls as well. He will be added as soon as I can get him.

Final thoughts

The fiction is descent and ties events together with happenings from Vengeance and before. Glad to see the Iron Kingdom world is still advancing.

I’ll be curious to see what kind of warbeast packs the druids and trolls are given. I do find the two they introduced a bit underwhelming, but they are also for armies I don’t play. Hopefully the druids beast pack will be angry forest critters!

The Thornfall/Farrow are starting to grow on me as well. Maybe a second Horde force for me in the future? That or I’ll just have the units I like in my druid force since they will work for/with them.

Plus can we get model releases faster? Seriously, why are models not available when the book drops? That is my only issue with Privateer Press. There are still models from Vengeance that haven’t been released yet. 

5th D&D game thoughts and a licorice bitch.

Well after a turn with 5^th edition D&D I don’t hate it. It does make it more fun when I am using my own created character and not a pre-generated.

The warlock is the typical spell slinger with a twist. They have fewer available spell slots. So that meant a lot of cantrip eldritch blast was thrown around the place. Actually I was really ok with that. Being able to cast a D10+4 lightning bolt every turn is pretty sweet! Speaking of spell slots, warlocks have a to cast spells at their highest level. That means if I want to toss out a hellish rebuke (a 1^st level spell) I have to cast it as a 2^nd level spell. This is alright since it does more damage that way. I guess there is some trade with the lower amount of spell slots and the fact all spells must be max level for warlocks. It makes them more than just another wizard with a different hat/robe. Plus warlocks get a lot of cantrip options and that is fun. It gives me the chance to grab a few quick cast damage spells and some utility spells that would probably never take otherwise.

Looking at playing some D&D 5th.

Well if everything goes as planned, I will get to play some 5^th edition D&D this weekend. That means I need to dive into the Player’s Handbook for this edition.

The Player’s Handbook for this edition is damn descent. It is more user friendly than the previous edition when it comes to character creation. This edition has a quick and easy method for character creation. If you want a guy made fast then it gives you the skills you should take, the ability scores that are priority, gives you a list of weapons/gear to choose from and even lists skills/abilities/spells that you should use. This makes it super easy for new players (or lazy ones) to get a character going quickly.

The Night Eternal review

I’m down to the Return of the Jedi of the tapeworm vampire series (a.k.a The Strain) or The Night Eternal.

We get back into this world two years after the events of The Fall. The tapeworm vampire holocaust is in full swing. The world is covered in a sickly layer of poison that blocks the sun, save for a few hours a day. The Master has eyes everywhere and his vampires rule through fear. The infrastructure of the world is working, but at a bare minimum. Humans are still around, but they have been placed into sort of casts. There are the lackeys of the Master and his brood. They are part security, private army, prison guard and even civil servants. There are the dregs who form a working class to keep this new world running with various facilities. Then there are the outlaws who work to bring down the vampire rule or are thugs who take advantage of this new world order and run a black market industry. Finally there are the humans that are tasked as food and fertility specimens.

Post Halloween wrap-up

Gourds for the Dragon Father!

It was a ridiculously windy night that made it quite chilly as well. That didn't stop 120+ little monsters from stopping by to grab treats.

Being the new family on our street we were skeptical on how many kids we would get. Plus with it being like 40 degrees out we didn't expect to get as many kids as we did. Luckily I over bought candy, and now have too many snickers left. The big bars were a hit and we were being talked about for four blocks. Awesome!