A Campaign Commentary (And a Sneak Preview!)

Why isn't GW doing something like this?

Privateer Press is doing a series of linked campaigns... and supporting it with rules!  As you can see in the picture, I have a campaign tracker, a booklet to document my progress and upgrades, and a campaign card to augment my army with.  The winner gets a nifty coin but all the participants will get a badge.  The badges link with other campaign badges to form a larger emblem...

...and doesn't that appeal to the ruthless collector in all of us?

The Master Manipulator (every store needs one) ordered this set for us at Privateer Press.  It cost our FLGS owner a bit of out of pocket money, but he made that up when we all kicked forward our $10 bucks to participate.  We're going to have a month of gaming followed by a tournament... *trademark infringement alert* and there can be only one!

What's not to like?

Now yes, I'm aware GW has done campaigns in the past, but haven't those been huge, sprawling, world-wide affairs?  Yes, I'm aware they've released supplements where you can create maps to fight over, and that's all to the good...

...so why am I so excited about this?  Why do I feel like it's different?

You tell me.

Brent

PS:  As an aside, this is Strictly Average's 450th post.  Not bad for a personality-centered hobby blog, huh?  

PPS:  I've decided to do a contest or drawing of some kind when I hit 300 Google Followers.  Details to come - this is just a sneak preview type of thing!

Editorial: Evil Homer and the IT Army

Evil Homer is my nemesis.  (Hey, check out this article!)

I've mentioned that before, right?

Point being, of all the local characters - most of whom are pretty top flight competition when they want to roll out their best army - I play ol' Homer the most.

I've given it some thought in the past and I believe it's because we have a pretty similar skill set, so all our games tend to be close affairs.

More than that though, he's always - always - pushing the envelope of competitive play.  He sits down to win.  He's a thinker, in the game and out.

Sometimes I think these obsessive traits bite him in the *SELF-EDIT* some.  Whereas most of us can let something go, I'm not sure he really can.  He's never satisfied.

I doubt he ever will be.

Warmachine Tournament: Game I

I'm taking my Menoth, Amon Ad-Raza list against Gauthic's Striker Cygnar.  It's fair to say this game went entirely may way... until it didn't.

Setup...

Top Tip: Basing on the Go!

Bigger Barrera's Custom Sculpts

Little Barrera's brother, Bigger Barrera (who isn't, really) brought his sculpting tools to last Saturday's Warmachine Tournament.

Amon Ad-Raza

I don't claim to be an expert in Warmachine.  In my area we've only recently started playing it.  Still, I have a Warcaster I'm really fond of so I thought I'd share.

Amon Ad-Raza is a 'Jack-Caster', meaning his spells, abilities, and Feat work best with plenty of Warjacks to take advantage of it.  That's not necessarily standard, either, since loading up on infantry and solos are viable strategies.

Nothing hits harder than a Warjack though, so anything which allows you to get these monsters into combat is very useful.  Amon's spell Mobility gives all the Warjacks in his Battlegroup +2 Spd and Pathfinder, so even Menoth's heavy Warjacks who have a standard speed of 4, can suddenly start tiptoeing through the tulips like infantry!

Team Tournament Round III: Finally!

So, here we are... finally!  I'm not sure why it took me so long to get around to writing this game up.  Part of it was time, because these reports take longer to do than any other article type... and maybe part of it was due to Not Brent's Coup of 2011.

Don't say his name three times in front of a mirror.  (Try it!)  Maybe I shouldn't have even put that out there... you won't actually summon Bloody Mary (...Mary, Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow?) but instead will summon Not Brent, who will serve you a Bloody Mary with way too much tabasco.

Moving on, (...probably a good idea) I'm playing Cory-who-is-not-Cody, aka OverCaffeinated, and his buddy who shall not be named...

Not Brent Presents: Not GW and Not Warmachine, III

So we've come to Confrontation.  Or at least a few Confrontation miniatures.  He's got more, but I can't be bothered to take pictures of them, so you'll have to wait.


You can click on the picture, if you've a mind.

Not Brent Presents: Not GW and Not Warmachine, II

Here we go again.  This time we're looking at some of the miniatures Brent uses in the D&D games he runs.  As an aside, Brent's article on painting Amon Ad-Raza was posted on the Blood Angels: by Jawaballs this morning.  


I guess two years of near-constant Stalking Jawaballs (since 2009) worked out of for ol' Brent.  He's probably giddy, the poor sap.


Still, I'll save my pity for his wife, Jennifer - she's long suffering, poor lady.  If only I wasn't trapped in this digital landscape...


Lord but I'm already bored.  So these were painted several years ago - you can tell by the lack of washes.  Has anything changed painting quite so much?

Not Brent Presents: Not GW and Not Warmachine

Okay, for something a bit different I'm bringing you three days of pictures from Brent's collection that AREN'T GW and Warmachine models.


'Cause frankly, I'm sick of it.  I don't know about you, but I needed something a bit different.

Top Tip: Evil Homer Edition

I got this idea from Evil Homer; if he's got a speciality in the hobby world, it's organizing his tools and trading his miniatures.  Regarding the last, the less said the better - I'm only now vaguely on board with the possibility he's not completely crazy.  Regarding the former... there's a lot to learn.  I got this idea from him.

Two Warmachine Games!

No mystery here - I've been loving me some Warmachine and have been playing every chance I get.  Amon Ad-Raza is my current favorite, replacing Feora in my heart... at least for the moment!  The two will make up my force in the next tournament.

For you 40K'ers, Warmachine uses a sideboard, so you can choose which of two armies will face your opponent.  There's a ton of strategy in this, which of course I love.  Moving on...

I was struggling with an opening setup for awhile... and this ain't it!  Sure, the 'Jacks have to gain some space right out the gate, but Amon has to cast Mobility first and the Choir have to run in Round 1 in order to be in position in the following rounds.  I've since corrected this.

Little Barrera's Warmachine Mercs...

Protectorate of Menoth, 25Pt. List (and other pics)

Just a couple of random pictures to share today.

My current 25pt army.  I'm extremely satisfied with it: it has defensive and offensive weapons, great synergy, and a nifty Feat turn.  

As I've mentioned, we're all new to Warmachine, so any experienced player out there, feel free to critique.

Team Tournament: Game Two

In game two Whit and I played... the Mighty Mighty Carlos and the Professor.

Yup.  We drove two hours to play dudes we play all the time.  It was basically Game 4 of the practice series.  It sucked, frankly.

What sucked worse is it was a random draw!  The TO wasn't doing a Swiss but was randomizing the games between rounds.  There's a reason that system isn't used... *foreshadowing*

The game was Kill Points and Objectives.  We got the half we wanted and our deployment couldn't have worked out better.  We divided our army: here's the left flank.