Thursday, August 11, 2005

"He" was trying to get as much gaming as possible

which is always fun!! Overall Warmachines is mostly enjoyable and fun. Let me just add, that Styker, the masterful strategist, held the upper hand throughout the game with a "pick-em off" at a distance, and combined firepower strategy. Despite having 2 fully functional Warjacks and a healthy mage, Jon was able to stem the finishing charge AND defeat both warjacks and severely maul the Cyrix mage, with only 1 ultra powerful guy (dead). Perhaps it was luck or what-not but Mono-e Mono, the combination of the spear and stat reducer spell, plus 7 focus points is quite unbreakable. The only part of warmachines I didn't like is having to deal with all the to-hit modifiers etc which is a common issue in most/all??? Miniature games.
Magical, Magical Warmachine

Met up with Jael at this cool game store in Oakland -- they've got a big mezzanine level with tons of tables, all for free gaming. In fact there is more gaming space than store space. Several of the tables are full-on wargaming setups, complete with really well-sculpted terrain. On this bloody field of battle I did teach unto Jael the ways of WARMACHINE and lo, I was smited.

Me: Cryx. Johnny: Cygnar. It started out small, with my channelers pelting ineffective spells at him, and then turned into a mammoth fracas in the center of the board with every single warjack involved except for one of my bonejacks, who had his legs broken in the first, like, two seconds of the fight. He kept moving 1" towards all the other fighters, nursing his hurt paws. Aw, it was cute. Anyway, the mammoth dogpile ended up with every 'jack wrecked or disabled except for one of my bonejacks, who was almost disabled and couldn't do anything but ineffectual Bash attacks, and his Ironclad, who just couldn't get into the fight because Deneghra kept using Shadow Bind on it. (Her weapon effect -- it's a real bitch.) SO, our warcasters went toe-to-toe. This was a heartbreaker. I had Deneghra at full health, Stryker was down five points. He had a full round of attacks, but couldn't quite finish the job. That left me with a full round of attacks. It was my fight to lose and... I lost it. Couple of crap dice rolls. At the end of the round he had only four health left, but it was clear which way this fight was going. He pulled out his pistol and put one right between her eyes. Admittedly, she probably deserved it. Because, she is a woman.

Anyway, he wanted to play again, which I took as a good sign! Yay for my minis itch finally being scratched! Unfortunately I didn't have time for another game but hopefully we can go again this weekend. This was also my first time using my Cryx. They are definitely less straightforward than Khador. They have much more spellcasting flexibility, but their spells are not as direct or powerful.

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Funny comic strips here!
I got dentisted, hard.

Feh, my fugging mouth! I hate going to the dentist. I think that the experience, on the whole, is about as close as one can realistically get to medieval torture chambers without being abducted by a serial killer.

KinderKamp:

As for the camp, it's on like Donkey Kong! We got set back by a day because our intended destination had a barfing kid, but it seems that all is well (we hope), so we're going to head out tonight for San Dog. I'm planning on showing up at the camping site sometime Friday afternoon-ish and I'll be staying until either Saturday night or Sunday morning is my guess.

Rude-ay:

I'm going to keep periodically bugging you for some sounds.. so beware. =)

Aaaaaaronious:

Looks like things are shaping up for my trip to Oakland/SanFran in October. Some buddies have organized a luxury box and everyone has successfully chipped in, so I'll be there the weekend of the San Diego game (SD themed post, throughout!), which off the top of my head I believe is October 16th. I was thinking of flying in Thursday night, hanging out with y'all when I'm not at the game. The only other events I know of are a group dinner planned for Saturday night and a buddy of mine wants to go to some BBQ place for lunch. If you're up for either the more casual lunch or the more hearty dinner event, let me know! (And let me know if that weekend looks to be a good one for you?)

Weeeee!

Late,

~Cap'n O.

Monday, August 08, 2005

Nice! Picked up some pikemen, eh? I looked them up in the book, they look pretty sick! Terrain will definitely make a big difference. Without it the ranged guys are pretty tough, especially that Khador behemoth. Ah, that "smoking boots" incident still makes me laugh.

Enron, Johnny and I got in some good minis action ourselves -- we broke out Necromunda and had ourselves a good ol' Rumble in Dome Bronx. Johnny's Goliaths started strong, but my Orlocks came back and took all of his guys out of the fight but one. With his team decimated, and my whole team walking wounded, it was just a matter of who failed the Bottle check first. Ultimately my guys chose to exercise discretion in the face of the seemingly invincible, lone missile launcher-toting Goliath. It was a close game though. Good times! And me and Johnny's old teams were still in the box.

We didn't have time for Warmachine, but I hope we can break it out next weekend. I put in a little time with the minis today and got everything assembled. Just have to base a couple guys and glue on one sword and everything's ready! I'll probably prime them this weekend, and hopefully start painting the next.

Yay, metal men!
Gabba Gabba Hey Peter Jennings is Dead

So Denis and I played a rousing micro game of Warmachine on sunday to great enjoyment! I think that the game will play out significantly different when a) the board is larger than 2'x2', and b) there is terrain. As it was, the two sides faced off in two battle lines, and moved toward each other. The Big Cygnar warjack charged and smashed the skull of the Khador pikmen leader, the rest of the unit then surrounded the warjack and prodded it with their 2" range melee attack like natives surrounding an elephant. Many potshots were taken at the Khador destroyer, who lumbered on launching ineffectual mortar shots. Eventually, one balsy wee Cygnar warjack tried charging the Destroyer, failed, and was engaged by the hand to hand Khador warjack after Sorscha used her freezing feat. After spending 4 focus points, the heavily damaged (and frozen)Cygnar jack was thrown into some Cygnar fighting men, crushed them, and became a slag heap from the toss damage. Sorscha then moved into LOS between her hulking jacks in front of her, cast a wind blade spell at the Cynar warcaster, then finished the job by blowing him away with a well placed hand cannon shot.

All in all, a really fun game that is simple to play, and relatively fast as well. I look forward to playing again soon! Jon! Spray paint all your Cryx stuff black, then drybrush them lightly with grey, then paint the eyes green or read, maybe some skin color, maybe some metal bits with silver, and you will be done and ready to rock! Do it!

I picked up an airbrush and am trying to learn using it on my Khador stuff. It looks very "military" and "tanky". I like it so far.

Also, Denis and I have a two week timeline to finish painting and basing the DBA armies, so that means another miniatures game ready to play! Denis commented that this must be some kind of gaming record for the group!

Hockey is returning and I couldn't be happier!

AARON: Are you coming camping or not? I'm gonna say no, but please blog or call one way or another you pecker.