I know my Old West gaming has taken a back seat as of late, but it most definitely has not been forgotten. We all managed to get posses painted, and I built enough buildings to set the scene. However, because we all joined in the campaign at different times, there were some great gulfs between posse ability levels, so we more or less stopped the original Assumption campaign. Quite frankly, the original Assumption Vigilence Committee had become unstoppable. When we start campaigning again, I'll send John Henry Mast overseas on a family errand, and have some new blood take over the town's defence. We'll still use many of the same names and characters, but the posses will be on the same footing, more or less.


Since the last update, there have been some developments on the modelling and planning fronts. The above photo shows the new road running through Assumption.

The road is made from a piece of mdf. The edges were bevelled, and I lightly textured the surface with plaster of paris and sand. The plaster of paris proved to damage easily, so I may coat the whole thing with glue and a couple of coats of matte varnish. In the meantime, the guys will have to avoid rolling dice on it.

I also finished the Hotel I had alluded to in earlier posts. As I continue to paint the buildings and freehand the signs, I've decided to maintain the cartoonish style and colour. If nothing else, it's very photogenic. You'll notice curtains in the windows; the Assumption Hotel caters to a finer clientele, and is generally beyond the price range of cowhands and drifters.

I also ordered more models since my last Old West post. I bought the Shadowforge mini "Rancher's Daughter," and picked up a whole bunch of Dixon minis on sale. I've done nothing with them yet, but the intention is to populate the town with some citizens and livestock (and to use those models in scenarios as well.)


Finally, I'll leave with a few shots about town, just to get the old Assumption juices flowing again.






Thanks for reading,
JET

Another Saturday night came and went, and I was left chewing on the bitter scraps of defeat. I played two 35-point games using the new MkII rules; one against Cryx (Marc), and one against Menoth (Ken).

For both games I used the same list: Haley w/Squire, Lancer & Sentinal, Journeyman Warcaster w/Charger, Arlen Strangeways marshalling a Defender, Gun Mage Captain Adept x 1, Gun Mages x 6, and Stormsmith x 1.

When facing Deneghra, I used the surrounding forests to my advantage. My big plan was to put the warjacks in the gap, shoot like crazy while slowing things down with Temporal Barrier, and hope for the best.


Marc sent the bulk of his force rapidly towards the Cygnar line. Notice how close that Deathjack is to the deep water.


On my turn, in addition to damaging some bonejacks, Haley successfully cast Scramble on the Deathjack, sent it running into the water, and had it removed from the table. Needless to say, Marc was not impressed. I thought I was doing so well, and was quite chuffed with myself. How silly I was.

Marc moved a bonejack up to the edge of the forest...


...and moved another one up behind it. Deneghra cast Venom on through the rear-most arc node, targetting the bonejack in front. Clever placement brought Haley right under the template. Because the target (i.e. bonejack) was more than three inches away from Haley, she couldn't use her arcane vortex to cancel spell. A second casting of Venom sealed the deal and brought our game to a rapid conclusion.


In hindsight, I realize that it will take me a little time to adapt my thinking to the changes to Haley's spell list. When I play, I visualize Temporal Barrier causing the old effects on the field. Obviously, I have to catch up with the times.


And the shame continued...

Then it was time to face Ken's Protectorate list. Ken chose to take Severius to the table for this game, and I have to admit, he completely outplayed me. I mean, he played me like a rhythm section. It was one of the best games I've seen him play.


Early on, Ken spread wide. This tactic made it impossible for me to interfere with the entire army using TB. My fatal mistake began early in the game, as I spread my force towards all the different threats.


On the right flank, my gun mages and Sentinal spent the majority of the game trying to deal with the Temple Flameguard.


During his second turn, Ken used the Redeemer to fire a salvo at the Squire, which happened to be in base contact with the Gun Mage Captain Adept. He took out both, and earned the accolade of being the first guy in the group to destroy the Squire. I was feeling set upon by this point.


The Avatar used the Gaze of Menoth to keep my left flank from fleeing. He ended up in combat with the Charger.


Haley started getting aggressive. This is my common response when I feel threatened. I had a very disappointing turn.


Ken started the final advance, getting everything into position near the forest. I was hoping that I could hit Severius somehow and take him down.


Back on the right flank, Haley feated, and used everything at her disposal. In the end, the Flameguard were finished off, but nothing else was accomplished. In short, I was well within Severius' control area, and very close to many threats. There was no way out. I had walked right into Ken's trap.


Things were going no better on the left flank. The Avatar totalled the Charger...


...and the Paladin charged into the Defender. There was no damage, but the Defender was effectively taken out of the shooting game.


Ken moved everything up, getting ready for the final smackdown. I had no recourse.


When all was said and done, Ken advanced the Revenger up to Haley, and a couple of boosted hits took care of the rest.


It's been quite some time since I felt so played. I spent my entire game reacting to Ken's plan, and accomplised very little of my own goals. Whether or not I learned any lessons remains to be seen. Regardless of defeat, the games were very fun, as was the rest of the evening.

Thanks for reading,
JET

The group made the switch to Privateer Press's Warmachine Mk II ruleset this week. After learning the basics last night, Chris H. and I had a small 21-point game this afternoon.

I played Allister Caine w/Centurion, Journeyman Warcaster w/Charger, Long Gunners x 6, Arlen Strangeways, and Gun Mage Captain Adept.


Although I never took a glam shot of Chris's force, he used Sorscha w/Destroyer, Kovnik w/Juggernaut, Widowmakers x 4, and Eiryss. After deployment, the table looked like this...


I started by getting everything into position. Arlen Strangeways used his very handy new ability Power Booster to place a focus on the Centurion so the heavy could run. I figured that Arlen could keep the Centurion moving and Caine wouldn't need to dedicate any focus until the big boy made it to combat.


Notice that there are only two widowmakers in this photo? Caine cast Snipe on himself and took a couple down, and then teleported back to safety.


Sorscha, with the Compulsory Wind Rush and Fog of War running, advanced cautiously, while the heavy jacks huffed it (relatively speaking of course)


The Destroyer and Eiryss took out half of the Long Gunners between them, and the remainder of the unit failed their command check. Wimps.


"Never send a man to do a warjack's job," my grandfather always said. The Centurion smashed into chicky-poo and sent little elfy bits flying everywhere.


First hard lesson about changes to Cygnar. The Centurion's Polarity Field is now a special action; in other words, it's not automatically running anymore. In short, the Destroyer charged in and did a crapload of damage...


...and to add injury to injury, the Juggernaut charged in took the Cygnar jack down to 1 damage point. This was particulary worrisome, as the Centurion was the only obvious element in my force that could damage the undamaged Khador heavies. I was sweating at this point.


And that one remaining widowmaker... you know what she did, right? I mean, I don't even have to tell you. As we say in Newfoundland, "There she was, gone!" Goodbye Centurion.


Isn't that a great shot of a Gun Mage taking down a Kovnik? One would assume. Unfortunately, it was the luckiest Kovnik in Khador hitting and taking out the GMCA.


And as my grandfather always said, "There's not problem in this life that can't get worse." The Juggernaut, under the competent handling of the Kovnik, barrelled into the master mechanik and took him out. A dark, dark day for Cygnar.


I attempted a blaze of glory; a futile attempt at destroying (or even damaging) the heavy jack, but to no avail. I was absolutely perplexed as to what I could do; until...


Chris (and I should have taken a before shot) moved Sorscha up behind (directly behind) the Destroyer. This photo shows the scene after Caine moved out and cast Thunder Strike on the Destroyer, slamming it back 6 inches right over Sorscha.


After the power 14 damage roll, Sorscha was still standing. Caine fired both spellstorm pistols and won the day in the name of Cygnar!



Thoughts on Mk II

It was a great little game, and slowly but surely, we are starting to adapt our thinking and playstyles to suit MK II. There seems to be a lot of buzz about the changes, some good, some bad. Personally, I think all the factions had both gains and losses to their forces, and old builds and tactics may not work quite the same as they used to, or in some cases, not at all. However, I think the game has most definitely been improved, even though tweaking will certainly follow.

As Ken said last night, "It still feels like Warmachine." In the meantime, we are all rediscovering our factions, and I for one, find the whole process very exciting and entertaining. The best part is, no one is twisting anyone's arms. If you try it and hate it, throw the Mk II PDF in the shredder, grab Warmachine Prime ReMix, and pretend it was a bad dream. As long as our group is having fun and a few laughs, I don't particularly care which edition we play.

Thanks for reading,
JET

No, I haven't forgotten about the Persians. After a couple of busy days at work, the four-day weekend is finally here! Throughout the week, I ran into a few snags as I started prepping models. First of all, I became confused when trying to determine which models were which, and assigning different types of models to different types of units became a bit of a chore.


I essentially have four kinds of cavalry models in my possession. The Scythians will obviously be used as Scythians. The lightly armed and often bare-headed spear wielding cavalry will be used as my light cavalry unit with Impetus bonus (i.e. they can charge into combat, but have no ranged attacks). The final two codes were listed as Persian cavalry and Colonist cavalry. Some readers may have noticed that the models painted as Colonist cavalry in the previous post are actually coded as Persian cavalry, owing to the distinctive head gear.

After much pondering, I've come up with the following means to address my cavalry dilemma:

Elite Cavalry (1 unit)
This unit is VBU:5 medium cavalry, and more importantly, is one of only two units in the list that can contain a general. I've decided that I will base a king in chariot on a cavalry base. He will be flanked by Persian cavalry models, all painted uniformly in a "royal" colour.

Line Cavalry (1-2 units)
These units represent the standard Persian cavalry of the period. I'll use the Persian models and put 10 to a base. They will also be painted uniformly.

Colonist Cavalry (4-8 units)
These are fairly weak (VBU:3) medium cavalry representing the forces contributed by various vassal states of the Persian Empire. Typically, sculptors represent them with beards and conical helms. I've decided that I will use these models, and a mix of Persian models, eight to a base to represent their average stat line. I'm hoping that the mix of models, as well as the mixed colour scheme, will make the unit stand out from the regular forces of the army.


The other dilemma I've been facing... how to build my units of Takabara. These troops were used as a mix of loose peltasts and medium line infantry. What makes it tricky as a modeller is that how they were used and formed-up changed from battle to battle, depending on the opponent and the terrain. I've finally decided to base mine densely, but as individual models instead of strips of four. This method will allow me to make a unit with around 15 models instead of 24 models, and the bases will still look well-populated. More importantly, it makes for less to paint, and means that I can aim for a larger number of units as I progress.

Now that I know "what's what," I plan to start prepping the models, gluing them to painting bases, and priming them. Then, I'll be back on track, and hopefully, be able to start producing at a reasonable pace.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with a photo of a persian archer I painted. This was a test model I tried out, and now that I have a handle on the model, I'll be painting these skirmishers a variety of colours. As usual, I'll keep you updated on my progress.

Thanks for reading,
JET

As I stated in the previous post, this army is going to be a colourful one. The way I've reasoned it, there are essentially two types of units in the army; regular units (uniform and colourful) and irregular units (varied and colourful).

I started by painting eight colonist cavalry models. At VBU=3 they are inferior to most medium cavalry. That is to say, the medium cavalry of most ancient armies were elite or semi-elite troops. To represent this inferiority, I decided to paint eight models per base, as compared to my regular ten models per base for more effective medium cavalry.

The first batch of four from both sides.



The second four, including a leader and standard.



Sorry for the slight blur. I think they give the general idea regardless of photo quality.

I'm having a ball painting these models. They provide a nice change of pace from painting lines and lines of Romans. Next on the list - prep up some more models for spraying and start painting some skirmishing archers. As usual, I'll keep you updated.

Thanks for reading,
JET