50pts eSeverius vs Ravyn T4

I just got back from our regular club night, where I had an excellent game of Warmachine against Dean's Retribution. We were warming up for the 50pt Dragon Slayers' Big Bash (which takes place this Saturday), so we both had lists that shared Field Allowance with other lists in our repertoire. This meant no Wracks or Hierophant for me, and no Mage Hunter Assassins for Dean, along with a few other oddities. Here's what our lists looked like:

Hierarch Severius
- Reckoner
- Redeemer
- Revenger (Bonded)
- Repenter
- Repenter
Choir (max)
Temple Flameguard (max)
Exemplar Bastions (max)
Exemplar Errants (min)
Errant Seneschal
Reclaimer
Vassal of Menoth

Ravyn, Eternal Light (Tier 4)
- Phoenix
- Phoenix
- Griffon
Mage Hunter Strike Force (max) + UA
Mage Hunter Strike Force (min) + UA
Mage Hunter Strike Force (min) + UA
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution
Fane Knight Skeryth Issyen
Narn, Mage Hunter of Ios

Holy cow. What a lot of Mage Hunters! With my choice of three squish Protectorate 'casters (Amon, Testament, and eSeverius), this is pretty much my worst possible matchup. Worse still, the scenario was Revelation, and Dean won the first turn. Not good. This meant that I'd have to run at into his crossbow fire in the first turn to have any hope of keeping him off the flags.

Mini exchange: Conclusion

In my last post, I promised some closure about the painting exchange we ran at Oxford Gaming Club in May. Well, here it is!

Manhuntress, painted by Matt for Jim

Grissel Bloodsong, painted by Dean for Daniel:

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios, painted by Daniel for Dean:

Satyxis Raider Captain, painted by me for Matt

And finally, an Allegiant of the Order of the Fist, painted by Jim for me

So there you go! It was great to see everyone push their painting boundaries for this challenge, and everyone managed something at the top of their game. Personally, I'm over the moon with my new Allegiant - I'm sure you'll agree that Jim did a great job with both the conversion and the paintjob.

I'm sure we'll do this again sometime - perhaps with Infinity, since we're all getting into that at the moment. I'd also heartily recommend something similar to any gaming group that would fancy painting something a bit different. It's a lot of fun!

M. I. A.

Oops. My last update was back in May. Sorry dear readers, but I'm sure that your lives didn't feel any less complete without my ramblings for the last few months. In my defence, I've been pretty darned busy these last few months what with several weddings (one of which was mine!), various trips away, visits from family and friends and all manner of other, less pleasant distractions.

Nevertheless, I'm back now, and hopefully I'll be able to stay a bit more up-to-date. In the meantime, here are a few highlights of my last three months of Warmachine.

pSeverius vs. eThagrosh -- 25pts

I know that I haven't posted much recently. I've been a bit busy, but not so busy that I can't make time to update you on the latest happenings.

Hobby-wise, I've nearly finished my Bronzeback. Pictures will follow soon, just as soon as I've finished the (non)metallics. I had a chance to give it a quick couple of games against some Retribution a couple of weeks ago, and I'm really impressed by its hitting power coupled with the utility of Beat Back. I'm looking forward to learning more one it's painted!

Last night was our usual club night and, as usual, we had an odd number of players, so I sat out the first game and played a swift 25pt game against Steve's Legion. Our lists looked something like this:

Thagrosh the Messiah
-Scythean
-Raek
-Nephilim Soldier
Raptors (max)

Grand Scrutator Severius
-Revenger
-Crusader
-Devout
Temple Flameguard (max) + UA
Exemplar Errants (min)
Wracks

Mini exchange: In progress

I mentioned in a previous post that the Warmachine/Hordes players at the Oxford Gaming Club were planning a painting exchange. The initial exchange actually took place on club night a few weeks ago, but I've been a bit hopeless about keeping the 'blog up to date. Sorry!

It's all a bit OTT...

The weekend just passed saw our local gaming club host the inaugural Oxford Tier Tournament for Warmachine and Hordes. The premise was simple: a standard 35pt Steamroller event with the extra stipulation that every army present must be a Theme Force.

Head swap

I'm just quickly touching base today. I don't have anything particularly profound to talk about, but I thought I'd share my latest happenings.

My model for the mini exchange has arrived. I eventually decided on... Well - that would be telling! We aren't swapping models until April, and I don't want to spoil the surprise just yet. All I'll say is that I went for something in-faction...

Otherwise, I've been using what time I have to paint Xerxis. He's nearly done, and hopefully I'll have some pictures in the not-too-distant future. He might get his first trip to the battlefield tomorrow night, depending on how much I feel like continuing my 7-game losing streak with Skorne! (Incidentally, I'm mentioned by Andres on this Guts 'n' Gears epsiode as being a "very good Skorne player" in the second game at Where Sleeping Gods Lie. He couldn't be more wrong, of course. Fate being what it is, I don't think I've won a game with them since!)

Finally, my last bit of news, and the part that relevant to the post title. I've carried out a head swap of sorts. Most of those who have met me would probably recognise me by my very long reddish hair. No longer!

Until next time...

Thoughts on the new Reznik tier list

Despite my main focus being on Skorne at the moment, I'm still paying attention to what the Protectorate are up to. If the spoilers on the PP forums are to be believed, then Reznik's new theme list in No Quarter looks something like this:

Mini exchange: Choices, choices

Daniel, one of my wargaming buddies in Oxford, put forward the idea of a miniature painting exchange to our little group of Warmachine players. I'm sure you're familiar with the idea: everyone paints a model for someone else's army, giving us all a chance to take a break from painting the 'n'th Troll/Skorne/undead thing and try out something new. We all decided that this was a great idea, so we're going to do it.

To make sure that, at the end of the day, everyone gets a model that they actually want in their army, we've decided to each choose and buy the model we're going to offer to the others for painting. Although probably the best way for us to do it, it left me with a tough decision to make. Which model do I want in my army that I don't particularly want to paint?

Where Sleeping Gods Lie: Part II

Sorry it's taken me a little while to get around to this, but the wait is over. Time for the second part of my adventure at Where Sleeping Gods Lie...

Where Sleeping Gods Lie: Part I

Well, the dust has settled on a great weekend's gaming gifted to us by the Legion of Snake Eyes guys. Their Warmachine campaign weekend, "Where Sleeping Gods Lie" was a big hit with all concerned. It was great to see lots of new faces on the Warmachine circuit, and equally good to get away from playing directly competitive games for a while. Here's my account of the weekend.

Last minute painting

It's now 11pm on a Friday, and I've just 'finished' painting my Arcuarii for tomorrow's Where Sleeping Gods Lie campaign. I say 'finished' - really there's a bit more to do, some blemishes to fix and so on, but they'll do for a weekend's gaming.

Here's a sneak peek at them. Sorry the picture quality isn't great. I'll take a nicer one when they're properly finished (this way, I can hide the dodgy bits!).

I'm off to bed now. Tomorrow, the Skorne march to war!

Where Sleeping Gods Lie: Prelude

I'm going to try something new this weekend. The Legion of Snake Eyes wargaming 'club' are running a Warmachine and Hordes campaign weekend entitled "Where Sleeping Gods Lie". Having never been to a campaign weekend for any game system, I'm really looking forward to seeing how it works.

The backstory to the campaign seems to follow the opening (or otherwise) of an ancient Iosan tomb, and the attempts of a fragile Cygnaran/Iosan alliance to return the remains interred within to Ios. Meanwhile, dark agents are guiding the forces of Khador and Cryx to capture the remains for their own sinister purposes. The remaining factions either fight for coin or for their own mysterious reasons.

The story so far...

Before launching into some up-to-the-minute stuff I'm up to, I thought I'd give a bit of my wargaming background.

I started off, as many do, playing Warhammer. I jumped between various armies before settling on Dwarfs, and then lost interest when my infantry blocks just couldn't stand up to the lawnmower units and monsters that turned up in 6th/7th edition. Being at university also did a lot to stop me from playing wargames for a good few years.

About three years ago, I started plotting my return to wargaming, and found out about Warmachine through the (then) local gaming store, Inner Sanctum Collectibles in Cambridge. I had read a little about it online and liked the idea of the smallish forces, detailed tactics and combos. A demo game later, and I was in. I picked up a Protectorate battlegroup, and spent some time slowly painting it up.

By the time I left Cambridge, I had a fledgeling Protectorate force (about 700pts in Mk I), and was totally hooked on the game. Since then, my small force has grown. My tendency to only play with things that are (at least partly) painted means that it's still not a massive collection, but I feel like I have a nice range of options available to me.

These days, I'm a Press Ganger in Oxford, running tournaments and travelling to others when I can. I'm gradually building a Skorne force alongside my Menites, and my enthusiasm for the game just keeps growing. Although my record with Skorne is patchy, I feel that I'm at least vaguely competent with my Protectorate. I'm not going to be winning any major events, but have given some good players a run for their money in my time!

So, that's me. I'll be posting soon about my current projects, but for now I need to actually get off the computer and go and work on them!

Until next time... 

It begins...

So, Hysteresis has a blog! We haven't seen that before...

Actually, this is my second blog. The first one consisted of largely boring details of my day-to-day life as a Ph.D student and wasn't really worth reading. Hopefully this one will be more successful.

The point of this blog is to chronicle my increasing participation in the world of tabletop wargaming. Over recent years, I've very much rekindled my interest in painting and playing with little toy soldiers, mainly thanks to Warmachine and Hordes the games I'll be spending most of my my time talking about.

Expect pictures of my models, battle and tournament reports, musings about new releases, insights into running events, and all sorts of other things related to the hobby.

It all begins here...