Curing Shiny Syndrome

A recent post on Dakka Dakka described "Shiny Syndrome" as armies always in a state of flux of being built or worked on and never getting painted.

To which I replied: Paint your stuff.

Really, my post in there advocates the painting of stuff. Why? There are many reasons why.

• Miniatures are meant to be painted. One of the great things about the business model is that paint schemes can truly become your own.
• Painting grants a sense of accomplishment. 
• Painted Models mean you can buy more models to paint.  

It's funny. I posted a picture of my entire painted Warmachine and Hordes collection last year:

And when people saw that, the question they had for me was, "How much unpainted stuff do you have?"

And the answer is, not much.

You see, one reason I have such a spread of miniatures is that I only allowed myself to buy new miniatures for a faction when old miniatures for that faction were painted. So I'd have some Menoth models sitting for a while and I wouldn't buy the new shiny until I had painted them. However, I was able to paint Cygnar in the meantime, which allowed me to buy more cygnar.

Anyway, I fully advocate painting and I don't consider anything to be a part of my collection until it's painted.

It's the ultimate cure for shiny syndrome.

How many painted models do you have in your collection?

Journeyman League Battle: Ashlynn d'Elyse vs. Jarl Skuld, 25 points

Played my first game against Richard Grady on the Friday night before Christmas weekend. We played 25 points because of the league and because 25 points gave him a good points value to try out his lists.



The table had nice open areas with two hills and 4 walls to play around.



Ashlynn stayed safe back with the Mule while the Mangler presented itself as a target. The Precursor Knights did what they could to protect themselves against Scattergunner fire and the Gun Mages worked their way around the forest to gain protection from the Trollkin Sluggers.



Scattergunners fight it out with the Precursor Knights. The Precursor Knights somehow survive.



Gun Mages take apart two of the Sluggers.



Gun Mages close in, supported by gunfire from the Mule. Ashlynn starts getting shots against Jarl.



Ashlynn works her away around the Scattergunners and finishes off Jarl Skuld.

In the end, Richard's Army didn't have enough heavy hitters or ways to increase their heavy hitters in order to deal with two heavies. That, and Ashlynn's spell debuffed Jarl to take away his ranged attacks. Once that started happening, Jarl Skuld had very little that could deal with the tools from my army.

What to Do with the Vessel of Judgment?

I love this piece.I love it so much, it pains me not to play with it.

The Vessel seems to be an obvious support piece for Menoth. It has a 12" boostable magical ranged attack, the ability to create fire and the ability to clear animi and continuous effects on the table.

I played with one in a 100 point game with Thyra. It really operates well outside of a warcaster's abilities in conjunction with elite infantry. I'm just not sure how to field one in regular 50 point games.

A few ideas I have are the following:

• Extra damage and accuracy with Grand Scrutator Severius. However, he gives that to everybody. Is it worth 9 points? 10 with a vassal? It potentiall hits 2-4 models, hitting with a POW 16 and multiple POW 11s under Eye of Menoth. The accuracy might make it unnecessary to boost?
• Run it with a 'jack monster and one elite infantry unit to screen it. So Reznik or Amon with heavies.
• Grand Exemplar Kreoss. Hrm. I think I'll try this one. Knights and more knights? Yes, please.

Have you ever had any experience with or against  the  Protectorate of Menoth's battle engine?

Covers of NQ 41 and 42. Can you say Colossal?

A couple posters have found pics of the No Quarter covers for 41 and 42.

Khador247 posted NQ 41

And Demeritus posted NQ 42

Enough colossals to go around!

Trying to find a third warlock: Grim Angus

So I'm trying to figure out a third warlock to learn how to play, and it occurs to me that I haven't tried Grim Angus. Grim Angus hasseveral things that make him a desirable warlock behind Doomshaper and Jarl Skuld.

• De-buffs. Grim Angus can knock down the heavies and debuff anything skirmishy. In addition, his feat has both offensive and defensive capabilities, enabling his army to survive a certain charge or kill a whole mess of dudes.
• I can field a war wagon with him and make it sing.

The second bullet point is just conjecture.

So far my one practice game with him against Chuck's Forward Kommander Sorscha was a complete bust. I've made the following adjustments to this list:

• Grim
• Earthborn
• Mauler
• Impaler
• Runebearer
• War Wagon (YEAH!)
• Champions (full)
• Skaldi Bonehammer
• Scouts
• Champion Hero

Hopefully I can find another sucker, I mean player, to try the list out against.

What have been your experiences with or against the Grim Angus?

War Room App update

One of the major complaints about War Room was its limited free functionality. Privateer Press has just released a post in its FAQ that suddenly makes its free functionality more appealing:

The FAQ will be updated shortly with the following information:

The free app will include access to all cards from WARMACHINE Prime Mk II and HORDES Primal Mk II, as well as a selection of additional cards for Mercenaries, Minions, and the Retribution of Scyrah, allowing users to construct lists with those factions.

 Me, I was going to get the thing regardless, and pay the one time fee (at a snappy 60 bucks instead of 77) to have all  the cards at once.

If you think that having mobile access to game rules is not worth the money, then you haven't spent time talking about potential builds and tactics and run into the good old, "What's the exact wording on that?" "I don't know, let's see if the store has an extra copy of the book."

While the extra free cards in the free app won't affect me, I think they're a good start for people who are dipping their toes into the game. It's a far better cry than the original "battlebox only" free cards that was announced.

Excitement!

Journeyman League Battle: Ashlynn d'Elyse vs. Kaelyssa, 25 pts

Seth and I had a go at it early on in the Dice Dojo's Journeyman League. For our first league game, we played a battle of the Y girls: Ashlynn v. Kaelyssa.



I got permission to move my battlegroup models around, so I moved the Mule to the Gun Mages and ran a minimum precursor knight unit with a Mangler for Ashlynn.  Turn 1 I put Quicken on the Mule so that it could run up the table 14" with its phantom focus.