Brewers v Butchers

So we got a little game last night an actually remembered to document it a bit.  There was no plan here other than using Mash.  I basically just dropped him in place of Friday for the standard six.  Now I have other thoughts on that, but I will get to those later.  I had Tapper, Scum, Mash, Hooper, Spigot, Stave.  Jason had Ox, Princess, Boar, Shank, Boiler, Meathook.

Of course I lost the kick off.  I decided to lead with Stave to threaten the bomb.  I am still in the awkward stages of my relationship with the brewers.  Allocating Inf is not feeling smooth yet, especially when there is no knowing if or when I will have Momentum available. I do know that if I get a bomb off, Tapper and Hooper can mess someone up though.

As the turn went on it was basically him toying with the ball to gain momentum and move models on the pass. I just moved up Mash and Scum waiting for my moment.  Spigot also moved begrudgingly and put Tooled up on Hooper, knowing that if he could get a KD’d target, he could possibly end them.  I would have rather had a Momentum to activate Times Called, but, whatever.  I probably should have held back and prepped for next turn once I saw my plan not working out, but I was determined to bomb someone.

Then of course my Barrel missed Meathook and I found Stave face to face with Ox and Boar breathing down my neck.  I knew stave was toast, so my follow up plan was to try to get Hooper on Ox.

Tapper moved up and Marked Ox and put up Commanding Aura.  Boar charged Stave and left him at 2.  I charged Hooper in hoping to KD both Ox and Boar so that I could start next turn with a leg up since he was last activation.  Unfortunately, Ox had on Swift Stance.  He also Defensive Stanced and Countered so Hooper failed to KD and got pushed away.

At the start of 2 Ox finished Stave and used his LP, then walked over to beat on Hooper.  Tapper then went up and trashed the big man, knocking the ball out of his possession.  It is also at this point that I forget to keep taking pictures.  From the last one you can see Tapper had got charged by Boiler.  Shank comes in to finish him.  Meathook hits on Hooper a bit.  At this point I see a line with Mash.  Scum walks up to grab the ball then drops it right by Mash.

Mash has EXACTLY 16″ between him and the goal and I realize his biggest weakness. Only able to have 3 INF, he cannot Charge, Super Shot, and Score. 😦 Fortunately, I see a plan B. Spigot walks up to Boiler and generates Momentum for Times called.  Now Mash Can walk 6″, attack Boiler  for a 1″ push/dodge, Super Shot/Fb Legend 9″ kick for a goal!!!  Then I Knee Slide to get center field for the ball to come back. That was my only useful Plot card BTW.

Alas, the ball went to a good spot for him.  At this point it was mostly downhill.  Spigot went down easily.  Hooper took a beating like a champ but did go down.  Stave tried to break up the mob with another Bomb, but failed again.  Mash almost got the ball again, but princess snatched it up and ran away, dropping it in range for Shank to get it and pass it to OX to score. End game.

Overall, the game was awkward.  I definitely need to start thinking in terms of 8 not 6 so I can sub for my match-up.  I think swapping Stave for Friday and maybe Hooper for Gutter or rage would have changed up things enough to go for a more solid 2-2 game.  I like Mash a lot so far.  I am eager to see what happens with Ester.

 

Painting mash

So here I have a step by step breakdown of how I painted Mash.  I am not going to get to detailed with descriptions, it is basically drybrushing and washing.  I think you should be able to click each pic to enlarge.  Overall, I spend more time waiting for washes to dry than I do actually painting.

I would note that one pic came up missing, the first coat of yellow on the beard.  Otherwise, i made a few touch ups off the record, but this is mostly it.

A Painters Guide

I am an art teacher, so of course I like the hobby side of things as well as the game play.  I have always enjoyed playing with painted models, most locals can tell you it is a rare day to see me play unpainted.  In the 6 Warmachine/Hordes factions I own, I can build almost any theme list to tier 4 and 99% of everything is painted.

I am not by any means what I would consider a Pro painter.  I do not sweat every detail.  My models are meant to look good on the table from a few feet away. I could probably set records with the time my models go from NIB to table top ready.  My strengths lie in color theory.

Even before I start I generally plan out my attack.  I use colored primers, washes, inks, and drybrush techniques to get the job done. I generally restrict my pallet to 2-3 colors and 1-2 neutrals.  But I am also never afraid to break the rules a bit.  The important thing in my opinion is to create strong contrast and balance within your pallet.

I am working on a step by step as I paint Mash at the moment.  For now though, I would like to walk through my teams and discuss the theory behind why I painted them the way I did.

Alchemists

   Many times I like to break from the cannon color schemes, but sometimes I just have to admit it works. My base pallet was decided to be green and white with brown for leathery stuff.  One thing I recognized off the bat was that this team will have lots of other color details specific to individuals which is why I kept my base colors simple.

To start I generally paint models one base color and drybrush it up to bring out details and help see things when painting. This is not always the dominant color.  It is usually a background color like the pants.  Ultimately, my decision is made based on what makes life easier in the long run.

In this case I primed black and built a brown base that is most visible here on Mercury’s Gloves, but it is also the color of everyone’s pants/belts/etc.  My “plan” was to do shoes/gloves/dominate article of clothing green.  As this is a very individualistic looking team though, plans must be flexible.

As Calculus has a very long green apron, green shoes would be too much.  So I went with purple to match her hair and her poisonous nature.  Mercury has a massive green jacket so it makes sense to leave his gloves brown.  

The non-green aprons also can as a challenge  As I didn’t want them to blend in with other colors, but I also did not want them to stand out painfully

Finally I like multiple metal options.  One of my current favorites is the oxidized copper.  This adds a touch of random color and a touch of randomness is good at times.

Union

My next team to paint was of course Union.  A tricky team because they have to fit in with others, but then again, not fitting in exactly is okay too.  Blackheart is the core model.  I wanted them to be mostly grey and red.  The grey in mixed with just a bit of blue and this was their base coat.  In most cases I decided I would at least keep capes unified.

Fangtooth was and extra joy because I love doing nasty fleshy things.  I do many under layers of purple/green/yellow washes to help build the gross.  Since he lacked much color, I went with the bright yellow mask, which of course needed to be a smiley.  Keep in mind, Fangtooth painted the mouth on himself, so it need not look perfect.  Finally, I spent a disturbing amount of time on his nipples because I want you to notice his nipples and I want it to disturb you.

So overall, I just tried to work within the small unifying parameters I set, But I also tried to attach colors that I assumed would match the teams they work with. Since this was only my second team, some of those schemes have changed.

Brewers

My next team was brewers.  Since I am working on a detailed Mash I will keep this short.  Since yellow is actually one of my favorite colors to work with, I stuck with that as their main thing.  I had no desire to do plaid, but I wanted to add a little more interest to them.  With the stitchwork on their uniforms I thought that they would often have to repair them and it was likely that whoever they sent out to get more fabric would not have all their senses in tact.  When they show up with orange instead of yellow, everyone was like “close enough” so their look becomes more patchworked

.The green was a tough decision since it already existed in my Alchemists scheme, so I made sure it was a darker, earthier green.

One of my favorite things was painting the beer, just because I never have before. I am quite happy with how it turned out.

Engineers

I was not suppose to have engineers.  i bought them for a friend to get him in the game.  He showed little interest at that time though and I was Jonesing to paint something so I took them back and promised him I would buy him a new team if he ever decided to play.  I primed them Bone then washed them with Earthshade so they look like Dickies.

Since most the models are earthy in tone, I went bright with their aprons.  I am not totally pleased with how the red and blue comes together aesthetically, but then again, engineers are not known for their high sense of fashion or care of aesthetics over function.

Fishermen

The fish I primed in blue, which is always a challenge.  As you paint you feel so overwhelmed by the blue.  But as you can see, it ends up not so bad.  In portraiture, one can undercoat the skin with blue to help build depth to the flesh.  I do feel that even though I am using the same flesh colors as the rest of my teams, Something about the skin of my Fish feels richer than the others.  But ultimately, I used the blue because they got a lot of junk on the models so their lowest layer of clothing should be the base. Plus I have lots of blue primer I use for my Skorne.

The pink is a must for one of my teams.  They seemed like they fit the color best.  Like my Alchemists, I find some models may have more of one color or another.  I used white as a tie in color.  There is a bit of green for variety, and many different browns for all the hangy crap.

Butchers

This is the last of the teams I currently have.  I decided with them that I wanted to use only neutral colors and then cover them with blood, much like a real butcher may appear.My main colors are bone-white/grey-white/leather-brown.

I primed them bone with a very watered down Earthshade wash.  Then I just picked out the greys and the browns.  I actually enjoyed the very restricted pallet.  You can see Boar there before he was blooded.  I tried not to go overboard with hair, but did use it for a small touch of color.  I also decided to blood the grass so I wouldn’t have to oversaturate the models to get color out there.

Bases

Just a quick final note on bases.  Years ago I got sick of spending almost as much time on basing as I did on the models.  I would much rather have painted models than cool bases.  I have a giant bucket with a bunch of different flockings mixed in.  That is how I base.

Getting More for Less

This is an article I want to write for myself as much as anyone else.  This game is based on resource management and finding ways to function and contribute without resources is an important skill to build.  I have had many turns where the last few activations were wasted.  I assign all my INF to 3-4 models and the last 2 did not really have any real plans so they just sit there while my opponent builds the Momentum advantage their last few activations.  So today I want to explore ideas on how to get the most out of your models that you give no Momentum to.

Prime Targets

There are already a few models in the game that can get away with giving more than they take in the INF department. One obvious choice is your Mascot.  Sure, some of these guys can actually get work done, but for the most part you want to keep them safe and within range for buffs.  figuring out how to run them without allocating can help.  

Goalies are another model which I am not committed to saying can live without INF, but they can fall into the category.  Compound is my personal favorite.  For the most part, as long as your opponent is not directly threatening the goal, these guys can hang back and rely on innate abilities to get the job done.  Most of the time I just position Compound to threaten Counter Charge and get in the way of where the ball may be.

Models with other free abilities are also nice. Furious is the one that comes to mind as an obvious one.  Free charges can get stuff done.  The downside is that models like Boar and Rage can get quite a bit done with the low amount of INF they generate, so it can be hard to justify not putting any on them.

Obvious Tactics

Get in the way-  Models without INF can generally just move.  Putting them in position to be useful is important.  Commonly you want to either block paths, block passes, or crowd out.  

Stall- Another use is to stall your activation.  If you are waiting for your opponent to activate someone first, having a model with less important activational needs can help.  If they can position wisely, it may even put on the pressure for them to make their move sooner.

Moving the ball-  You don’t always have to pass to move the ball.  Simply Snapping To and dropping on the other side of a model can make the difference between your opponent having a chance to score or not.  Also do not forget that  Pass’N’Move can get some unexpected miles out of a model.  

 

That scratches the surface a bit.  I am sure there is a lot more out there that models can do on an individual basis.  From what I have seen of a lot of the season 2 models so far is that they are trying to build well rounded models that can serve a purpose at multiple times in the turn as well as with or without INF. My goal for now is to start paying more attention to how I can actively play models that don’t seem to have anything better to do.  

Fishermen v Butchers

I am not a big fan of battle reports.  I don’t really need all the details, just the highlights. So while I will make an effort to be a little more detailed in how I record my reports, I will always just stick to a bit of an informal summery.  Once we get a little more organized, Jason and I plan to do reports from both sides of things so you can maybe understand the game as a whole better.  For now, here is a little game we had last week.

So this was my first or second game with the Fish.  I was using Shark, Salt, Angel, Greyscales, Siren, Sakana.  He has Ox, Princess, Boar, Boiler, Gutter, and Shank. I figured just go striker strong and see what these guys can do.  Here you see my Plot cards. Shark went for the kick-off.  Like with most new teams, I have no idea what needs to be done turn 1.  With no plan I just basically give everyone what they generate.  I figured use Shark to kick and see if he can get an early game steal-score, but beyond that, no plan.

Start of 1

So he moved Ox up to get the ball and pass it back.  I saw an opportunity to do something stupid.Siren walks up behind Shark and Lures Ox in. Ox ends up B2B with Shark.  I figure the whole team has got to be able to take him out right?!  That would be a good start to things.  I move the rat in just to crowd then charge with Greyscales and Sakana and get a pretty good start.  I figure Shark should be able to roll it up but dice fail me.  Angel chaarges in (which I later realize she couldn’t over the wall, I am still getting use to that) and wraps, but can’t do enough damage so she double double dodges to her position below once I noticed Princess hiding with the ball behind that wall.  Fortunately, once I realized I couldn’t kill Ox I went to Momentum generation and won initiative the next turn.

Start of 2

So here I am at the top of 2 with initiative and everyone within 8″ of Shark.  What do I do first… So I activate Shark, use Caught in a Net and fail to significantly damage Ox again.  Next I charge the pup with Angel and score.  The rest is a little hazy because of lack of documentation but lets hit the highlights. Ox and Shank took out Shark.  We redid Siren attacking on Shank 3 times because the first time we forgot to add crowding on Seduction attacks and the 2nd because we realized we can only Seduce once.  Turn 3.  Somehow Sakana got the ball from somewhere and passed it to Angel to score again. then Greyscales wove through Shank and Boar to somehow get the ball again and score for the win Or maybe the greyscales thing was first because I recall Gutter making a last ditch run at Angel to get the ball.

Anyway.  Things got hairy, we moved through.  Good game.  Morale- Don’t try to kill things with fish.

Rules That Get Missed

Kickoff
If you are the coach who is kicking off – set up your line then choose a player to have the ball. After your opponent sets up his players – your player with the ball makes up to a full jog then you place the ball up to their full kick distance. Now you generate a dice-pool using your player’s base kick. The kick attempt is resolved as a [4+] TN test. Upon a successful Kick: Immediately scatter from the target-spot using the kick-scatter rules. You may choose to re-roll the entire kick-scatter once, but must accept the re-rolled result. Upon an unsuccessful Kick: Immeditely scatter from the target-spot using the kick-scatter rules. (p. 21 and p. 41)

Sustained Plays

The effects of a sustain Play continue to apply until the End Phase of the current turn. (You cannot “upkeep” this play as in other game systems) (p. 27)

Sprinting

If you sprint your activation is not over. (p. 27)

AOEs

AOEs target a spot not a player. If a player is spending influence to use an AOE character play and they are engaged by an enemy player then they suffer the Crowded Out penalty.

Influence

If you want to do anything except jog you must spend influence. This even your first attack!!

Don’t forget you get an extra influence for every goal your team has scored. (p. 30)

Snakeskin

So… In all honesty, Snakeskin never sees the field.  In theory, she is there for a high Def hard to pin down model, but for the most part, I have enough of those.  It is not that she is bad, I see potential.  She just has nothing new to bring.  Maybe against Fish or other Alchemists, when I know it is a Scoring game, she could replace Decimate.

At the moment I am thinking of swapping her for Calculus for the double blind option against the thuggier teams.

Hemlock

We all know Hemlock is awesome.  Sadly, she use to be more awesome.  But she does bring a lot to the board.  She is a strong support piece with a bit of ball handling skill.  Unfortunately for this build, she spends a lot of time on the bench.

Blind is awesome.  Double Blind is better.  I have played her with Calculus and it was awesome.  This roster however does not have Calculus and I notice her fails more than her successes.  She does keep models from bunching up.  I find I really miss here higher Def and Reach from the old days.  She use to be able to stand up to Boar.  Now she manages to die even if he is blind.

She currently finds herself in the 7th spot in my roster.  I am looking forward to trying her in new builds once I get Venin, maybe a change to the 8th spot on my roster can revitalize her as well.  I do not hate what she does, but right now I just don’t feel her in this list.

It’s a Girl!- Decimate

Gender identity seems to be a strong theme in this game.  Decimate has quickly become my go to 6th slot.  I kind of wrote her off after she lost reach, but now I appreciate her other assets.  I guess that was their way of settling her gender confusions once and for all

Overall, Decimate has good stats.  For the most part though, she plays a support role in my lists.  Second Wind allows a striker to go in and get the ball and then get out of there.  Thousand Cuts helps crank up Vitriol when you want her punching things.  Unfortunately it is not cheap to get off unless you can get into a KD’d, Crowded Out big guy.  I would much rather spend the 3 to put it up if I need it badly.

Alternatively, Decimate is just someone nice to have around in the backfield.  She is flexible and can serve multiple purposes. The biggest struggle is getting her the INF to do it.  On a good day, you are glad she is there.  On a bad day, you are cursing her for not having enough INF.

It’s a Boy!- Mist

Continuing my series of breaking down my competitive 8 man Alchemists roster I would like to start by stating that even though I am politely nodding every time you call Mist a girl during our games, in my head I am screaming at you that he is in fact male.  But that is ok, because he is about to take the ball and score on you like a boss.

Although I may think about swapping out Mist, I don’t really like doing it, and the more I play him, the less likely I am to do it.  Mist is the ultimate Striker.  He is fast, he can get the ball, he can get away, and he can score.  The best thing is that is doesn’t even need to be in that order.  I do not use him to replace Vitriol, I use him to increase threat vectors and keep my opponent on their toes.  Mist is one of those models whose potential threat is just as powerful as his actual threat and it is important to keep that in mind.

Like A Boss

My main role for Mist is kicking the ball when I inevitably go second.  Move forward and shoot straight up the middle to the big guy.  If they take the bait, you charge forward, trigger Where’d They Go and Tackle on the wrap, dodge behind them and score.  Hopefully you grabbed Knee Slider so you can get away as well.  Even if your opponent is savvy to this plan, they need to react to it and having the winner of the ball be in a reactionary position from the start is good.

Assuming the goal works, Mist has done his duty for the team, well almost. He is still a threat your opponent can not ignore.  You want to hopefully have him positioned somewhere behind their goal line so that they are at least having to move in the wrong direction to get him.  At this point you are accepting that he will give up 2 points, the trick is how hard will he make it on them.  I spent one game with Tapper chasing him around the back field for 2 turns which effectively took him out of the rest of the game.  I am ok with that.  Also consider allowing him to be pushed off the pitch.  Coming back with more health is better if you are going to be taken out one way or another.

Creating Threat Vectors

When I am going all in, I will generally load Midas, Mist, and Vitriol with as much INF as possible.  Mist is generally the first load I lighten when INF is needed elsewhere.  With 1-2 INF he can generally get around the board pretty well.  My goal is not to chase the ball, but anticipate where it may be and create threats to  get it.  This may mean counting on Compound and others to protect the goal on one end of the field while his presence threatens another.  Think of low INF turns as getting him into a position where he is safe, but can get work done next turn if someone brings the ball in range.

Vitriol and Midas are the ones who can dig in and get their hands dirty, Mist is the back-up.  Unless you know you are going to score, keep him safe and use him as a diversionary tactic.