Ride the Blightning! – A Hardcore Tourney Report (Part 2)

ByDankelzahn
Ride the Blightning!
  • Thagrosh, the Messiah
  • Carnivean
  • Seraph
  • Nephilim Soldier
  • Raek
  • Shredder
  • Harrier
  • Forsaken
  • Shepherd
  • Strider Deathstalker x2
  • Warmonger Warchief
  • Warmongers x4
  • Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

This is the second and final installment of my Hardcore Tournament report from Privateer Weekend 2 at DieCon 9.   You can find my list-building discussion here and the first part of my Hardcore coverage here.

I started Hardcore with a loss to the Protectorate of Menoth, but they say if you fall off the Blightning, you get right back on and try again.   After a round two win against Khador I was hoping it was the start of a streak.

Once again I’ve included the list I used for reference and have tried to recreate what each of my opponents were running to the best of my recollection.   I can’t guarantee what I have for my opponents’ lists is 100% accurate but it should give you a rough idea of what I faced each round.

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Ride the Blightning! – A Hardcore Tourney Report (Part 1)

ByDankelzahn

Hardcore is a lot like riding a bicycle; you never forget how to fall off.

At least that’s how I felt preparing for Privateer Weekend 2 and my second Hardcore. I knew what to expect from the time clock and how to handle the short turns, but the competition at Hardcore is a notch above your standard Steamroller event.   So I needed a secret weapon…

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The Frostfang Brood Gets Hardcore

ByDankelzahn

At the first Privateer Press Weekend at DieCon 8 I assembled my Protectorate of Menoth forces to take a stab at the Hardcore tournament format.   I was happy with my army’s performance and would have been happy to run it again but I wanted something different.     This year I turned to my Legion of Everblight forces, the Frostfang Brood, to see if I could lead them to similar success but first I had to build an army.

For me the first step in building a Hardcore list was to decide what I wanted to accomplish.   Every round of a Hardcore tournament is an assassination game so there’s no building lists for scenario victories but it’s not uncommon for players to gear their lists towards winning one or more of the four Hardcore medals:

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Back to the Blight

ByDankelzahn
The Striders' Skintones
Nyss Skintones

The past few weeks I was able to finish up my War Chiefs and get an initial sealing on them.   I have a handful of Legion models that need to have snow put on their base before a final sealing but for now on the Legion from I’ve switched gears to work on my Strider models.

Once I got started things progressed pretty quickly.   By now I have my Nyssian skin recipe down and it’s just a matter of going through the steps.   My leathers are pretty much the same recipe as I’ve always used as well but decided to switch it up.   Usually I do my highlighting by lightening the Midnight Blue I use with Dutch Blue eventually with a little white.   This time I went from Midnight Blue to Cape Cod Blue, which is a blue/gray.   The end result was a much more realistic look and I think it turned out well.

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Luke’s Legion Speed Painting Experiment

ByDankelzahn
The finished result
Speed-Painted Shredder

I’ve mentioned Luke here on this blog before.   On top of being a fellow Legion of Everblight player he’s also one of the hosts of The Podge Cast, has guest hosted on the Iron Agenda, and is a former member of my weekly rpg group (and played in our Deadlands and Earthdawn games).   Needless to say Luke’s a busy guy and that’s kept his budding Legion force unpainted.

I did a little research and found a few products and after picking them up, invited Luke over after work one day to hang out and test a possible method to speed paint his Legion beasts in the color scheme that he had implied he wanted to use.   While the results   aren’t anything that will win a painting competition the process was extremely fast and the results are more than sufficient for the table top.

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Chill of Winter & Shiny Paint

ByDankelzahn

I haven’t decided what I want to field this year at Hardcore at Privateer Press Weekend at DieCon 9 this year – my Protectorate of Menoth or my Legion of Everblight.  Most of what I’d want to field with my Protectorate is already painted so I’m going to try and get a lot of work done on my Legion before hand so I can make the final decision.

My current project is a pair of Warmonger War Chiefs that I’m painting to match the Blighted Ogrun Warmongers that I painted back in 2007. I’ve included a couple of picture my my photography rig probably won’t be up for another week or so so the quality is pretty lacking.  I really wanted to get back to posting pictures though so it’s a start.

There’s still plenty of work to do – attaching the right arm for instance.  There’s also the bone spines on the back of the left arm which haven’t been shaded yet and are still base-coated in Reaper Master Series Yellowed Bone.  And the Ogrun’s talons and the claws on his pelt that need some work as well as some more general touch-up and detailing.

As I worked on my warmongers my biggest concern was being able to match the colors on models that I painted almost two years ago but for the most part that’s been relatively a non-issue.  I had written down the flesh colors and the armor is very strait forward; the only real issue was the fur on the boots/back but I was able to match that fairly closely to my existing Warmongers’ boots.  My recipe for doing so used a few washes with P3 Armor Wash though, which reminded me how much I hate some of the paints I also think are the easiest to use – the shiny finish.

The effect I see usually happens with either hobby paints that use liquid pigments (Reaper Master Series, Formula P3) or certain washes – that being a shiny finish on the coat of paint after applying it to the model.  The problem is easily solved at the end of the painting process during final sealing when I use Testors Dullcoat but until that time the areas that are painted with these paints are pretty reflective and can obscure detail.

These reflections make it difficult – for me at least – to pick out my own highlighting as I work which has been extremely frustrating at times.  It can be very annoying to seal a model and then realize that the paint job doesn’t actually look like I thought it did when the reflected highlights are are removed.  Even with the glossy finish good paint is good paint so I’ll stick with using the RMS and P3 lines.  The paints apply and blend too smooth and easily for me for it to be worth switching.

Although I’m concentrating on my Legion, I plan on switching gears for the next post.  I’m hoping that alternating between the groups of WIPs will help prevent burnout.  So next post I’ll provide some pictures of a different project I’m working on for DieCon, and with any luck my photo rig will be set back up and they’ll be much higher quality!

January Miniature Painting – Fast Start, Slow End
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January Miniature Painting – Fast Start, Slow End

ByDankelzahn

Warbeast Group Shot
Blighted Trio

I’m pretty happy how quickly I was able to get some painting done in January. I started my Blighted Legionnaires early on and was able to finish them in less that two weeks. While I was working on them I also completed my Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew. After that I took about a week or so off and before deciding to break into the big stuff. I’ve had a few warbeasts sitting around primed – a second Carnivean, a second Seraph, and my Raek – that I decided to try to do all at once. It’s slow going and the process is pretty monotonous but they’ve been sitting in my miniature case primed for long enough.

Raek Close-up
Raek Flesh Details

I haven’t finished the warbeasts yet but I hope to in February. I’m taking my time and trying a slightly different color scheme – doing something a little more gray and a little less blue. I’m also adding a little bit of texture to the beasts’ musculature to give it some additional visual interest. I still have some shading to do on the skintones – especially on the Seraph – but I’m making pretty good progress. I finished up the dirt and stone on their bases and now just have to do the wrecked warjack on the Carnivean’s base, the Seraph’s wings, and the bone and mouths on all the beasts.

Angelius Tail Resulpt
Angelius Tail Repose

On top of the painting I’ve also started work reposing my second Angelius. I hacked apart the end of its tail and repositioned it using an paper clip armature. I’ve added some bulk with greenstuff already but haven’t gotten any detail work done on the top layer. I’m looking to finish the sculpting and assembling the rest of the model by the end of the month. That way I can have both Angelii primed and ready to paint so I can do them both when the mood finally strikes me. Given how much I like using these beasts I hope the mood strikes me sooner rather than later.

I did pick up Aiyana and Holt as well as a box of Incubii and a Feralgeist in January. I also had a few gift certificates that let me get a second Angelius and a box of Farrow Bone Grinders. Thirteen models in and twelve out left me one in the whole for the month, dropping my running total to a negative seven – definitely not the direction I was hoping to go.

At least there’s only about 7 models from February through April that I’m interested in getting, so I’ve got a good chance of pulling back into the positive pretty soon as long as I can keep up a decent pace. With any luck I can be in the black by the end of March.

Foodmachine St. Louis, 2007

ByDankelzahn

Creamed CornLast year one our local Privateer Press Pressgangers and his friend in Indianapolis got together and devised a competition between our two cities to collect canned goods for our local food pantries, with the city donating the most cans per player to take ownership of the Harvestthrall Trophy.

This event, dubbed “Foodmachine,” featured interesting twists on the typical Warmachine rules to help encouraging food donation – in addition to having the entry fee replaced with a required can donation by donating additional cans during a match a player could have a number of effects on the game such as generating extra Focus points and re-rolling his or his opponent’s dice.

After the success of the event Privateer Press provided coverage of that event in No Quarter Magazine and promote the second year of the event nationally. In 2007 the Foodmachine event, organized on the Harvestthrall web site, featured nearly fifty competing local communities across the globe.

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Bloodstone Marches – Destroy Supply Fortress

ByDankelzahn

Destroy Supply Fortress
Sunday, October 28th, 2007

With a number of Trollkin rescued from the Skorne at Ternon Crag, the Trollbloods were in desperate need of supplies to feed the newly freed hungry mouths. To assist their kin fighting in the area, Madrak had decided to lead an attack on an recently constructed supply fortress south of the town. Unfortunately unbeknownst to Madrak Everblight had claimed the supply depot as his own only shortly before. At the Trolls push for the fortress the blighted Nyss stationed there rally to defend their newly claimed prize.

Prorpger declared his first attack on one of his Strategic Objective deep in my territory for round 2. The fortress itself was a 6″ x 10″ structure located in the middle of the defender’s deployment zone with a lone door facing the defender’s table edge. The Trollbloods had two opportunities to win: destroy the structure (ARM 18, can take 10 damage per 1″) or hold the structure for one round.

Table Layout - Defend the Fortress

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Bloodstone Marches – The Escape

ByDankelzahn

Bloodstone MarchesThe Escape (Castle of the Keys)
Sunday, October 28th, 2007

After their victory over the dragon Pyromalfic, Everblight’s escape required his scattered forces to escape the ruins and regroup. Thagrosh had located a promising escape route through an unstable tunnel below the ruins and lead what forces were nearby away from the castle. Before the blighted forces could completely withdraw they were sensed by Balder, who quickly gathered what constructs were nearby in an attempt to cut off the dragonspawn’s escape.

StonefallThe Escape is the Legion’s second Strategic Objective of the Bloodstone Marches theater of war, and the first fight of our second round. Although the victory conditions were the same as a standard assassination game, the fight was contemplated by the unstable cavern it took place in. To represent this the table was divided into 8 12″ x 18″ segments as shown here. During the Legion player’s Maintenance Phase he would check for a cave-in by rolling a d6 for each section, starting with section 1. If the roll was a 6, that section would suffer a cave-in at the start of the Legion player’s next Maintenance Phase and stop checking sections for that turn. When a section suffers a cave-in every model in that area suffers a POW 15 damage roll and is knocked down. All terrain is removed from the section and the entire section becomes rough terrain.

As with the rest of the campaign proxies were allowed, and Saultydog took the opportunity to let a Warpwolf stand in for the second Woldwarden which is currently in pieces on his painting desk. I was hoping he wouldn’t pick up a second one but it’s not like it’s unexpected. I hate those stoopit things.

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