Word of Everblight vs. Spirit of Everblight

ByDankelzahn

The word of the law vs. the spirit of the law.  Whenever people get together to play a game of any type they have to decide where on that spectrum their game play experience will lie.  Most cooperative and/or casual games will lean towards the latter, but most  competitive  games sit bunched around the former.

Each gamer has their own opinions on the philosophy of game design, and I’m no different.  In my mind, if a game is designed to be played in a  competitive  format, then it should be designed to abide by the letter of the law.  By designing for the more strict guideline, those who prefer the more casual and/or want to tweak their experience – to make the rules feel more fluffy or appropriate to their own vision of the game – can do so.  Designing from the opposite standpoint results in a game that works for those on the spirit end of the spectrum but will likely negatively affect the word end of the spectrum, as the rules will either fail to  accommodate  certain  interactions or maybe even resolve them in a manner the game designers didn’t desire.

Privateer Press seems to take the word-emphasized  view of design, which I certainly appreciate.  Each incarnation of their Steamroller tournament system has had its flaws, but for the most part they design their game and format so that it can be played in a highly  competitive  venue and not break down to dicing-off rules interpretations.  In the past they’ve even made rulings that seem to go counter to how a rule was meant to be played when it preserved the word of the rule.  For example, the ruling on MkI Vilmon that allowed him to run and still use his Impervious Wall ability.  The rules supported the tactic, so whether or not it was intended it was supported (until the rule was reworded in MkII).

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Everyone’s Favorite WM/H Mini-game

ByDankelzahn

Guess…

the…

LEADER!!!!

Legion of Everblight Hex Hunters

The studio picture of the Legion of Everblight Hex Hunters unit has just been released, showing the full unit of these sorcerous elves, minus UA whose existence was spoiled earlier last month. I’m not a vest man myself, but the biker mages aren’t bad overall.

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Switching it Up, Keeping it Fresh

ByDankelzahn

To help keep motivated after spending a fair bit of time on my exemplars’ armor, I switched up things a bit and started working on some side projects.  I found a couple Hordes figures I had started to work on and forgotten about, and started work  on some figures for a new RPG campaign.

The change of pace has helped me keep productive, but the subject matter isn’t really helping the problem I mentioned previously of not pushing my skill.  It seems like a lot of my RPG figures tend to get rush jobs – especially the plastic ones.  But at least it’s still painting; I’m building momentum. 🙂

The first couple miniatures are the Unit Attachment for the Blighted Swordsmen of the Legion of Everblight.  They’ve been sitting on my desk in an almost-complete state for ages but I finally got back to working on them the other day.  I’m down to the last few final details and I’ll be able to seal them.

The black-robed figure is a speed paint job for an RPG character.  It’s an old plastic Games Workshop wizard figure I got years ago.  He’s pretty basic (and way too rosy cheeked at the moment) but makes a good  pompous  little wizard.

The last figure is one that I’ve actually painted before, but I’ve gone back and rebased.  I’m thinking on starting to do this on more of my figures as I get time.  Since their tabs are already glued into the base it’s just a quick series of tasks:

  1. Paint watered-down PVA glue on the base
  2. Dip the base in sand
  3. Paint watered-down glue over sand
  4. Paint
  5. Seal
  6. Add static grass

It’s something that should be easily done while I’m waiting for other other figures to dry, and will help make some of my older figures look more ‘finished’.   They never see table time other than in role-playing games where it doesn’t really matter, but I’ll be happier with them.

¿Qué pasa con todo el azul?

ByDankelzahn

My painting has been progressing slowly but steadily.  Nowadays it seems like I can only spend so much time with the brush before I need a break.  But I recently made progress on a handful of miniatures so I figured it was time to add to my (lacking as of late) collection of WIP shots.

Rhoven & Honor Guard
Rhoven & Honor Guard

First up is Rhoven and the Honor Guard.  I posted some initial WIPs of the Honor Guard a while back and since then I’ve made some pretty good progress.  The Honor Guards have actually been sitting mostly done for a little while now while I worked on Rhoven himself.

I’m most happy with the lower portion of Rhoven’s robes so far, but there’s still some work that needs to be done.  I’m going to repaint the stole for starters; the highlights were pretty borked when I did them the first time.  That and some more general cleanup work should make him ready for sealing.

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Rethinking the Retribution

ByDankelzahn

At GenCon I picked up a copy of the Retribution of Scyrah army book and Kaelyssa, Night’s Whisper to play with potential color schemes.   At first I was tossing around the idea of starting up a Retribution force – the playstyle looked interesting and it had the “shiny new hawtness” going for it.   Then I realized something… I’m already getting a new faction.

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Hordes: Frostfang Brood

ByDankelzahn

When I just tried digging up a link to my write-ups on the color scheme for my Warmachine/Hordes armies, I found an article for The Vermillion Menofix but I didn’t see one for my Legion force.  So to remedy that I snagged this off another forum and have copied it here to my blog.

Looking over my Legion of Everblight models, it didn’t take long for me to decide to go with a color scheme that matched their background in the frozen mountains to the north. I immediately decided to have a cool blue be a dominant color and worked from there, eventually coming up with a ‘bone-and-blue’ scheme shown below. I won this warpack in a drawing the day of release and I began assembling the models relatively soon thereafter. The paint job was chosen to be unique at the time, but it turned out that since I started a number of people have had the same idea and my models were by no means the first ones done with this scheme.

Many of the techniques I started using on my Legion models were relatively simple and there were a great deal of large expanses to do but still… for some reason I felt drained after painting these up and had to take a break for a bit before picking the brush back up. I don’t think I’ve ever painted a miniature (or group of miniatures) that took as much out of me as the Legion of Everblight Warpack did. Read More “Hordes: Frostfang Brood”

Character Jacks & Beast

Character Jacks & Beast

ByDankelzahn

It’s been over half a year since I started my Protectorate of Menoth character warjacks.   Working on them quickly degraded from fun to tedious but a couple weeks ago I finally forced myself to sit down and make some actual progress. I’ll finally have them – and Typhon – competed within the next couple days.

Fire of Salvation
Fire of Salvation

First up is the Fire of Salvation.   One of my biggest complaints of the Guardian warjack is the engraved metallic shoulder plates.   When I saw the Fire of Salvation shared that design I was disappointed – I just don’t like the way it looks.   I thought about greenstuffing over them and smoothing them out but decided against it at the last minute.

My other issue was with the fire that was sculpted on the top of the mace.   I’m not a big fan of painted fire, so I got rid of it, but that left the mace looking like it was missing something.   After digging through my bits box I decided that since the Fire was Kreoss’ jack I’d take a cue from that warcaster’s epic form.   I found an old Temple Flameguard spear and clipped the head to attach to the top of the Fire’s mace, making it look like it was designed to share aesthetics with its master’s weapon.

I still need to do a little work on the Fire.   On top of a little cleanup, his rivets and the Menofixes on his shoulder need painting.   I also have to decide what to do with the “orbs” attached to his collar above his head.   Then it’ll be time for sealing.

Blessing of Vengeance
Blessing of Vengeance

I’ve also made a lot of progress on the Blessing of Vengeance, who is closer to completion than the Fire is.   The only real change I made to Blessing was to leave off the banners which affix to the bolts on his shoulders.   I’m not a big banner fan, so I tossed them in my bits box with the banners for my Seneschals, Avatar, Guardian, Harbinger, and Epic Kreoss.   Sense any trends there?

I’m not completely happy with the posing on this model.   His spear doesn’t hang below his base but I can see it potentially being obnoxious on the table.   I’m not sure how much I can reposition it without breaking the small pistons that attach his wrist to his forearm though.

Last up is Typhon, who I took a little break from for a while.   He’s mostly complete now but I’m not happy with him yet.   His mouths just don’t look right and I’m contemplating repainting the stretched skin areas around the bone circle at his cheeks blue like his flesh as opposed to red like his gums.

Typhon
Typhon

I’m looking into a new photography set up so I can get caught up on documenting my finished works, so hopefully I’ll have some better lit shots of these models soon.

Tactica: Raptors

ByDankelzahn
Legion of Everblight Raptors
Legion of Everblight Raptors

With the release of Incubi, I shelved my Raptors for a bit while I concentrated on the small-based Nyss troops.   My Raptors sat mostly unplayed until the recent Veto tournament where I dug them out to use as substitutes when needed.   It’s hard to imagine but I had almost forgotten how good they are.   Almost.

Overview

The Raptors are one of the most versatile and dangerous weapons in the Legion of Everblight’s arsenal.   They are a quintessential flanking force capable of striking and escaping long before an enemy force can pin them down.

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Return of the Brush: Typhon and Company

Return of the Brush: Typhon and Company

ByDankelzahn
Typhon WIP
Typhon WIP

After I finished Epic Thagrosh I took a bit of break from miniature painting. I’m not sure if it was the culmination of the burnout  I had been feeling or the stomach virus I had caught but I pretty much put down the brush about a month or so ago.   It wasn’t until just a couple nights ago that I finally sat back down with Typhon to try and get back into the swing of things.

Last time I worked on Typhon I had applied the initial wash to his skin but I hadn’t gotten any further.   But when I sat down to try to smooth out the base coat, before I knew it I had flown through a majority of the layering and the clock was telling me it was an hour past when I should have gone to bed.

The following night I did some initial work on all of the carapace areas.   I still have a lot of detailing and more highlighting to do on the skin though.   The mouths also need a ton of work but overall things are progressing rapidly.   Before long I should be able to seal and base this multi-headed monstrosity.

I haven’t decided what I’m going to paint after Typhon.   Neither the Fire of Salvation nor the Blessing of Vengeance have been touched in nearly six months.   I just haven’t been able to bring myself back to painting warjacks since then.   Half of me really wants to get them finished and off my workbench but the other half remembers how un-fun jacks are to paint.   Painting beasts is so much more fun.

Fire of Salvation and Blessing of Vengeance
Fire of Salvation and Blessing of Vengeance

I’m also considering switching to Rorsch & Brine.   I basecoated Brine’s skin a while ago but he he’s virtually unstarted.   Rorsch is just primed but if I paint him I’ll probably paint my Bone Grinders at the same time just to make sure that all of my Farrow have a consistently colored hide.   There’s also a Stannis Brocker that has been in-progress for a while now that I wouldn’t mind working on either.

Stannis Brocker WIP
Stannis Brocker WIP

That’s just my models that are in progress, too.   One of these days I should make a list of my unstarted models to try and prioritize them.   Damn figmentia!

Tactica: Thagrosh, the Messiah

ByDankelzahn
Thagrosh, the Messiah
Thagrosh, the Messiah

On Episode 29 of Iron Agenda I gave my initial impressions of Epic Thagrosh, along with the rest of the new models the Legion of Everblight received in Hordes: Metamorphosis.   Ever since I saw the sculpt I knew that I wanted to be able to play the Messiah with confidence, and that meant a lot of practice to get a good feel for him and what he can do to overcome his weaknesses.

My experience with the Messiah has confirmed many of my earlier opinions regarding some of his deficiencies, but with a few tournaments (including an official Hardcore) utilizing him under my belt,  I feel confident enough to talk about him in more depth.

Fluff

I had been waiting for Hordes: Metamorphosis ever since Hordes: Evolution was first released, primarily to see how an event as epic as Everblight consuming Pyromalfic’s athanc would be handled while maintaining balance on the game table.   We’ve always known that some personalities in the Iron Kingdoms defy tabletop rules.   Was Thagrosh to be elevated to those ranks, already occupied by the likes of Voyl, Toruk, and Vinter? Fortunately for Legion of Everblight players and modelers the answer was a resounding no.

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