This week in Immoren: Breast Cancer Brawling

Just a quick one today. I went to Leeds Warmachine's Breast Cancer Brawl yesterday along with Ben. I think it is fair to say that we both had a great day.

I think that with two wins out of five games, I didn't do that badly to say that I've only played Minions for a bit over a month, and for the most part I have been playing them in smaller games.

The State of the Nation 2015

It's been a funny old year. Some things have gone well and some not so much. I've made some changes to my life, and plan some more in the future. One thing that has suffered the most is writing, and as a result the frequency and content of my blog posts. They have always been intended more for my own recollection than for outside reading, however, I do still try when I write to make it entertaining. Unfortunately I find it difficult in game to note take. As a consequence my write ups are often fairly vague. I'm hoping to try and change this in the future, as apart from anything, it isn't going to help me if the information is sketchy!

This week in Immoren: Priming

I've been putting this off for some time now as frankly, I'm terrified of damaging it. However, with a little over a month until it is needed for New Year's Revolution, I think I need to get cracking with the Prime Axiom, as whilst a fully painted Army isn't a necessity, I'm guessing using an empty base will be, at least, frowned upon!

This week in Immoren: Onwards

The Journeyman League is long since done and dusted, and it's onwards and upwards. I didn't really get a great handle on the Convergence in the larger games, but a bit at a time I'm beginning to understand them.

I think one of the issues is that I was still trying to cope with the differences between Warmachine and Hordes. At the lower levels where resource management wasn't spread so thin, I was doing quite well, however once you add in a couple of units and solos that may need a little boost, it's a bit tricky.

Still, I'm settling in to it now and I do enjoy the challenge of the faction.

This week in Immoren: Starter's orders

Last Monday we began the Journeyman League at the club and I'm pleased to say that it had a fantastic turnout with 19 players, so well done to Dave for that!

This week in Immoren: Out of my League

There is a Journeyman league starting at the club tomorrow, and having recently started the Convergence, I've decided to use them. 

The State of the Nation 2014

I realised a few days ago that I set up this blog four years ago today, and wow, I've dodged a lot of painting since then! A canny reader will see that I've got older posts than that, but they were added retrospectively from my old forum posts so that I still had them after the forum shut down. The very first post concerned itself with my plans to assemble a pre-bought Adeptus Mechanicus Battlefleet Gothic fleet. In the end, it never came to fruition as we never really got stuck in to that game. Instead it went a long way to financing my early Trollbloods. 

I've done a lot since then, and many plans have been devised and sidelined in that time, but I think that it has been for the better.

I wrote a similar post to this last year, albeit a little earlier in the year than this. In it I outlined my plans going forward. I shall do this here this year, but first I intend to reflect on that post a little and provide an update on some of the systems.

I spoke about sticking with one list for each system, namely the chaos army for each but with the addition of a Daemon Army that was in the pipeline. This has stalled. 

I've felt very let down by GW over the last couple of years. I feel that they are stretching the customer's finances more and more with each release and yet are not actually adding much of value for it. I understand that this is just my point of view, however this is sadly how I feel. The only thing keeping my from shedding my collection wholesale is that they are stored for the move that never seems to get nearer. However there is a strong possibility that I shall be unboxing them to go on eBay. 

I plan to keep a couple of armies, and at least one for each system, but this is more in hope than expectation that things will improve. Frankly I'm having more fun with other systems, and the best way for me to finance these is to use money from sales of unwanted armies.

No real change here. I didn't have time last year, and that hasn't changed. A new edition has been, or is soon to be released, I'm a bit out of touch, and yet still as much fun as it was, it took too long to play a game at a worthwhile size; and the amount of clutter from tokens, markers and dice to indicate hit points etc was far too fussy. At some point I intend to re-look at this, but it won't be for some time and will probably be with the Russians. 

This has developed in to my main game over the last year. I'm very much enjoying the game and am really beginning to get the hang of my Trolls. I actually even have some of them painted now. This was so that I went to my first tournament with at least some models were painted.

Last year I spoke of sticking with Jarl and the Hunters Grim, however in a twist of fate, Grissel2 is now my strongest caster. She is the new thing now albeit with a different list to mine), but at the time many didn't rate her too highly. I found that for infantry spam she does enough to help out without having too many options to choose from. She's also got herself a reasonable kill tally in the 'Caster Kill Challenge. At present I don't really have a strong secondary caster, but as Borka2 is out later this year, I may well focus on him being my go to heavy hitter list. 

I've also now delved in to another faction. With the sales of some of my GW armies, I've been investing in Thornfall Alliance Minions, Circle Orboros and Convergence of Cyriss and it is the latter I've recently started. It is early days still, but I'm enjoying them. Having started with Axis, I'm not using too subtle a list, but whilst I'm keeping with him at the moment, I'm looking to the other casters to find something a bit different. However much I try to avoid it I keep heading back to the Prime Axiom for my lists, which means that sooner or later, so heavy duty assembly and painting is going to be required. 

A month or two after last year's article I went by train with Sam into Leeds. On that fateful journey, we bumped in to an acquaintance of Sam's that played Malifaux. He was an odd fish, but he did assuage a lot of my misgivings over Malifaux and as such I began to look further in to the game. I joined as Wyrd were finalising their playtesting for the second edition of the game (M2e) and so things were a little all over the place, however I saw the promise and began to play, and moreover, buy lots of models. 

It was a rough start, and there are still teething problems it seems, however I've played seven games now and I am in love. Initially I have been playing Seamus who is one of the Resurrection's masters. I do intend to branch out from him, but I shall discuss that later. 

I've recently been to a Malifaux tournament hosted by The Outpost and whilst I came 29/30 I had a great day, and did reasonably well on VPs if not wins. I shall write a bit more on this in another post.

I'd resisted it for ages, but as we all know, (wait for it) resistance is futile (boom boom!). Speaking of the Borg, that's one of the fleets I'm collecting. That and the Romulans. I don't mind having a few Federation ships but I much prefer playing the opposition. 

This is going to stay an occasional game and I...will...not...buy...X-Wing!

The plan for the year ahead

This is usually the bit where I get things wrong. 

Neither Warhammer nor 40k are likely to get a look in over the next year. I see things getting worse with those systems, not better and as sad as it is, I think that the sun has set on those games. Yet as I said I shall keep a few options for them in case I'm wrong. 

Dystopian Wars may get a look in, but not for a while. That's about that for that. 

Star Trek Attack Wing is an occasional game for me, so whilst I shall keep my hand in its not something I'm going to go crazy on.

Guild Ball. This is a new one for me. I pledged on the Kickstarter and I'm looking forward to the release in December. Hopefully it will arrive before Christmas as that is my present. I've opted for the Butchers, the Masons and the Alchemists guilds. I'm not too sure how each of those teams play, aside from the Butchers apparently being a bit of a blunt instrument, but I went for the teams that I liked the look of the most, and it was a hard task to be honest. We shall see how it plays out. Since this will be my Christmas present, I'm hoping it will be sent out before the expected release date of December 29th. 

Warmachine and Hordes will continue to be my first game. Not least as it's the most accessible game for opposition. I'm enjoying the Convergence at the moment and will continue to tinker with them including taking part in a modified Journeyman League at the club. The Trollbloods aren't being sidelined. I've got some lists planned which will need testing at some point. Grissel2 remains my main caster, though I'm not really sure whether I'm going to give in to the Meat Mountain list much time. I'm liking the look of a Borka2 list I've come up with, but it will need some playing as I'm not sure whether my theory machine is that strong. 

My plans for Malifaux are to continue with the Ressers. I'm waiting for Molly to come out so I can play about with a summoner. In the meantime I shall develop Seamus and play about with McMourning.

I've also signed up to another tournament in November, is time at Stockport at the NWGC. I think it would be wise to stick with Ressers for this, but I shall be looking at the Outcasts at some point too. I've got the Viks to look at as well as Misaki, and as soon as I can get my hands on Jack Daw, I shall be getting him too. So many choices!

So that's it really, another year on and another set of plans. Maybe the next time I write this type of article, I will actually have moved!

This week in Immoren: Progressing like Clockwork

After a bit of a break from Warmachine and Hordes to concentrate on Malifaux, I've started to look at the game once more. This time, rather than go back to the Trollbloods, I've decided I want to give something new a try, which meant either Convergence of Cyriss, Circle Orboros or Thornfall Alliance as those are the three I've been stocking up on following my recent selling spree to fund new stuff. In the end I decided upon Convergence. 

This Week in Immoren: taking Grissel for a spin

Well, I've had a cracking weekend which included five good games of Warmachine. Two against Ben's Cygnar lists and three against Sam's Legion. 

This week in Immoren: Fresh year, Fresh lists, Fresh Starts

This week I've managed to test out my Borka list against Dave's pSorscha list. Consequently I'm now going for a beast heavy Doomie2 list. 

This Christmas in Immoren: Fresh Starts

I hope you are all had a great Christmas. I know I am, I got this:

Full faction baby!

I've been in a bit of a gaming slump recently. I blame Ben and Sam for this. They've been busy with one thing or another, as have I, but they haven't been waiting in the corner of my house on standby for those free couple of hours to play a game. 

The other day this was rectified as I tried out one of the lists I'm planning to take to my first Warmachine/Hordes tournament in March next year. The Tournament is called Fresh Starts and is being hosted by The Outpost in Sheffield. The rules details can be found on their website here.

The game was 35 points and I used Grissel2 with Ben using Cygnar's Kraye. Both casters were new to us so I don't think either of us quite knew what would happen. 

Instead of a straight out slugfest we decided we needed to get in to the habit of playing scenarios, and not having the Steamroller rules to hand, we played No Man's Land from the Rulebook. We had discussed having an auto loss for Caster Kill during the week beforehand and whilst this wasn't strictly in effect, I was going to try to abide by it to fully concentrate on scenario. 

The full list I used was As follows:

Grissel Bloodsong, Marshal of the Kriels - WB: +6
- Trollkin Runebearer
- Troll Axer - PC: 6
- Slag Troll - PC: 6

Fell Caller Hero - PC: 3
Fennblade Kithkar - PC: 2

Trollkin Warders - Leader & 4 Grunts: 8
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes - Leader & 3 Grunts: 3
- Stone Scribe Elder - Elder 1
Trollkin Fennblades - Leader & 9 grunts: 8
- Fennblade Officer and Drummer - Officer & Drummer 2

Ben's list was:

Captain Jeremiah Kraye - WJ: +6
- Squire
- Hunter - PC: 6
- Defender - PC: 9
- Cyclone - PC: 9

Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist - PC: 2

Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team - Lynch, Ryan & Watts: 4
Stormblade Infantry - Leader & 5 Grunts: 5
- Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard - Officer & Standard Bearer 3
- 1 Storm Gunner's: 1

Now to be honest, it wasn't until I started putting out my models pre game that I realised that the Krielstone was the min unit, and I was a little concerned that it wouldn't play a big enough part to justify its inclusion. However, since the main role was more about buffing my precious two Warbeasts and the Warders than the Fennblades, it wasn't as bad as I feared, and caused Ben a bit of trouble by pushing the light beasts to armour 20. 

The list was intended to be a jam list and it really did do that. Admittedly I didn't use my list to its full potential, but then nor did Ben with his own. 

I think that with a few tweaks, this is a strong contender for Fresh Start in March, but my main concerns are that with only two Warbeasts, the loss of just one will seriously hamper my late game as soon as one goes pop. As such I'm looking for a way to shoehorn in a third light beast, or possibly even a heavy. 

I was very impressed by the Trollkin Warders as they really soaked up a lot of attention. I think with a better thought out list with a few buffs I can really make them a solid base for the list.

As for the second list, I'm a little unsure. I was looking for a list for Calandra, but to be honest I'm unfamiliar enough with Grissel, let alone taking on a second new caster. As such I keep going back to Borka. 

A Tuffalo list with a heavy warbeast or two will give me something that the above Grissel list lacks: heavy hitters. Also, and let's be honest, it reduces the numbers I need to get painted. 

But painted I must get them, as I want to ensure at least one of my lists is fully painted by March. 

This week in Immoren: Marshalling the forces

Seems more like it ought to be this month rather than week since it has been so long since my last post. Suffice to say I've not managed much table time or modelling time recently with one thing or the other.

As the months roll on and we seem no closer to moving I have been spending a bit more time trying to order the chaos of my house so that we can at least try and get over to West Yorkshire before I retire. In addition I seem to have developed something of a social life in recent months with me joining an am-dram group earlier in the year (as a stagehand; I've no desire to act, I'm a writer after all!) and a couple of weddings, a stag do and numerous trips here and there.

However, I have recently had my first battlegroup game with the Comvergence of Cyriss against Ben's newly acquired Retribution of Scyrah whereby he used the alternate battlegroup from Privateer Press' Journeyman League rules. It's early days but I enjoyed the game and even though it is a very different (pardon the pun) beast to Hordes, the synergy element of the Convervenge helped. In the end though I sacrificed the Forgefather rather needlessly and gave Ben a caster kill.

The only other thing I've done is assemble my Trollkin Warders and try to find a list for them, which I think I have done now, and there is a clue as to which Warlock I'm using somewhere in the post, but I shalt spoil the surprise for the uninitiated.

The models are quite nice albeit that there is quite a lot of flash to them. I've still not managed to remove all of it, but to be honest I got bored of trying so shall have to go back to that if ever I decide to paint them.

I'm quite enjoying the back to basics approach to gaming with Warmachine and Hordes at the moment and so m scaling back my games at the moment, so when I get a chance to catch my breath again in a couple of weeks, if anyone wants a smaller level game, let me know.

Until then, take care and play you you have a pair.

The State of the Nation 2013

I've not been too frequent with my blog posts lately, but as that is well documented already I won't go in to that too much other than to say that as much as I love writing, I miss wargaming as much as I used to be able to. 

Focus
One of the decisions I made earlier this year, which is again well documented, was that I would focus on GW games with a view to maintaining a consistent approach as well as to improve my knowledge. As such I have stuck closely to single armies for both Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000.

Warhammer 40,000
The army I have played the longest for 40k is Chaos Space Marines. I've tried a few different styles over the years be they Night Lords, a mixture of the cults and none cults, but when GW started to focus more on the Red Corsairs more as a unified force rather than a rag tag band that is mentioned from time to time in the fluff, I really started to like them. The Huron model is superb, and as such with the new book I wrote a Red Corsair themed list. The list itself isn't a tournament list by any stretch, nor however is it too weak and as such I have enjoyed using it greatly. As I've tweaked it and become familiar with it, I have looked towards developing a second force, which whilst remaining a Chaos Space Marine force does perform in a different manner. The Red Corsairs were more of a fire base army with a few mobile elements with which to close up to the enemy. However, I have developed a purely Tzeentch army whilst is quite the reverse. It is much smaller even than it's Red Corsair counterpart, and is in truth a bit of a glass hammer, but although I shall need to test and tweak it further, I think it should perform strongly.

Warhammer

For Warhammer Fantasy Battles, I have again developed one army before working on a second. The first being a Daemon Prince led Tzeentch army with a few monsters in it, albeit that I have mixed marks in this army a bit. I liked the idea of men of the North worshipping all the deities, but perhaps some being favoured more and so the bulk is Tzeentch but some of the army is dedicated to Nurgle. Afterall, they are men even if they are servants of the gods, and men follow a strong leader even if he does speak of a different god. This army has done reasonably well. Again possibly not a tournament army, but solid nonetheless. The second army is a much newer beast. All units in this second warband are marked Nurgle, or cannot be marked. It is still early days, but is enjoyable enough to play with.

Children of the Empyrean
I have however begun building my dual system Daemon army. Very early days as yet, but initially I plan to use them as allies in 40k, then develop them as a force in their own right.

Privateer Press

Now, having spent the first half of the year keeping my promise to stick to GW, I find myself yearning to get back to Privateer Press. At the end of last year I felt I was finally starting to get somewhere with Hordes and Warmachine, something which I think I shll have to develop once more due to the break in play. I am still very much in love with my Trollbloods and have spent a lot of time recently thinking about lists. Jarl Skuld is still my favoured Warlock and so he is still going to be the crux of my main list, but I have found myself looking at the new Hunters Grim Warlock unit from the Gargantuans book.

Having played about with some list options, I am happy with the theory of how the units will play, and as such he is now on his way.

Aside from the War Wagon (which I think will have to be a Christmas present) and any of the currently unreleased models, I'm now at full faction and as such I have plenty of options and so I'm trying to vary the lists as much as possible at least up to and including 35 points. Inevitably the Fennblades are a popular option in most lists as are the Scattergunners, but I've resisted putting them both in all lists. I've also varied the Warbeasts as much as I can, though the Impaler, because of his animus and my seeming preference for ranged lists, makes it in to more than one force. Initially I shall concentrate on the two Warlocks mentioned above, though eventually the aim is to get back to developing the Borka list and some of the other Warlocks that I've not used before.

Convergence of Cyriss

Keeping with Privateer Press, I have wanted to have a go at the Warmachine side of the coin for some time, though as they did before I first bought the Hordes Trollblood starter pack when Mk1 was around, none of the factions really captured my imagination. Even the newer Scyrah didn't really hit the spot, and to be honest I had decided to forego that side of the game entirely. However, with the announcement of the Convergence of Cyriss as a playable faction, I decided to wait out the details and see how I liked them, and I must say, I really like them! The idea of them being clockwork beings that have foregone their flesh is a very good one to me, and I like the idea of the Vectors rules. As such, I have ordered the starter set for them and who knows, maybe I can cope with painting silver?

Dystopian Wars
To be frank, this has taken a back seat for now. I still have much less time than I would like to wargame, and either 40k or fantasy will suffer to fit in Warmachine/Hordes. But it is not forgotten, and I shall get back round to it at some point.

The Future
Some of you may know already, however The Whyf has been given a store manager position in Ilkley, and as such at some point the intention is for us to move to West Yorkshire. Their are pros and cons for us that we have carefully considered, but both think it will be beneficial in the long run. It may be in a few weeks that we go, or in a few months. That is the best information we have at the moment, but we are looking forward nonetheless.

In the meantime, thanks for reading.

Intermission

So guys, I've been making a lot of changes this year and in order to continue to do so next year then something has got to give.

I've pretty much had a hand in the hobby since I was thirteen and I am now thirty one. More than ever this year I have written at an increasing rate and next year I wish to do so even more. In order to do that I need to allow more time to concentrate on it and as such the obvious element that needs to go is the gaming.

Now, I'm not going all 1 Corinthians 13:11 (go on, look it up) on you all. I've written a 1800 point 40k list, a 2,400 point fantasy list and as for the Kingdom of Britannia and Russian Coalition for Dystopian Wars and Trollbloods for Hordes/Warmachine, I still have plenty of lists for those. But the difference now will mean that it will be much more sporadic. I won't have time to interact with people's blogs, forums, Facebook groups etc. To that end I've changed certain preferences on Facebook to filter out the gaming elements, so if you want me to pay attention to any of it, tag me in a post.

I also intend to radically downsize my collections to just two or three armies for Fantasy and 40k and shall be considering carefully those that are headed for the chop over the next month or so. It is my preference that the armies I do eventually sell go to friends locally rather than eBay, even at the expense of a better price (though I do wish to make enough money to fund a couple of projects that will improve my craft) so please keep your eyes peeled.

Despite this, as you know, I'm a sucker for a bargain and a nice book especially, so if any limited edition items appear for any of the above mentioned systems, please let me know.

As many of you are aware, I've got many alter egos. Some I make known to the masses, some I keep to myself. One of them, the writer, is the Shadow Scribe. Please feel free to pop over there, read and comment as the intention of that blog isn't just for me to show off my work, but to receive C&C. Another thing I wanted to mention about that site is that the original intention for it was for me to use as a means to write up my Army Background for my forces. To that end, I shall actually do some writing for them and place it on there. Should you see anything you like and would like any help writing something for your own army, please let me know. I will need a few details and such about your forces and unless you are one of the early ones that I use for showcasing, then I may well start making a small charge!

I'm nearly finished now, but before I do go, I'd like to state categorically to you Shane that I've not given up yet, I'm still in the painting challenge.

Well then friends, I shall see you on the other side, if not before, but until then, enjoy yourselves in the last hours of 2012 and the first days of  2013!

Love you all,

Mark/Drax/Vanguard/Shadow Scribe/Tzeentch/Forlorn/Jinx/Kalaghar/many, many more

Learn to fear this man! It may one day save your life!

Luke and I finally had our long awaited game last night with a 25 point match up. I used the list I mentioned earlier this week: pDoomie, max Kriel Warriors w/ the standard & piper UA, min Krielstone Bearers w/ Stone Scribe Elder UA, Dire Troll Mauler, Pyre Troll and a welcome return to the Axer.

I faced off against his Cygnar which included: pCaine, squire, a unit of Gun Mages (no idea if it was min or max) and two heavy Warjacks, though I don't recall which ones other than one could lay down covering fire.

To be honest not a lot happened until turn three then it became very messy - Luke managed to reduce Doomie to two damage boxes but then left Caine exposed. I think he thought it was all over at that point, but I don't think he was counting on me not really following the advice I was given by Chris, so i went against the plan i had formed and kind of half followed his suggestion and messed it up.

But pCaines feat! by the gods that is horrid! My force was kind of a horde force, so it was just what the feat was aimed at really! Had it not been for tough and a few buffs, it would have decimated me!

In the end, Luke got a caster kill on me, which was a fair reflection really, but that in itself means I have a double loss!

I now have two weeks to paint a model! and [i]I[/i] have to paint it, not Louise! I have chosen the Impaler for two reasons - at the moment, its not a warbeast I’m drawn to, so painting it will give me something to test on, but also, if it goes well, once it is painted, it may inspire me to use him more!

So, off I go to find out if i actually own any paint! Thanks a lot Luke! ;)