A Multitude of Skorne

Another update on the miniature wargames side of things. First, some newly painted models and then two quick battle reports.

 Void Spirit. I have chosen a yellow-orange as the "magic" glow for gems and other things, and felt like the "souls" of my Skorne models would also have a similar hue. Thus, this incorporeal solo got the mustard treatment. I like the way it turned out generally, and it does make it stand out on the battlefield. 

 The reason I added the Void Spirit to the force, was to pair up with my new Warlock: Void Seer Mordikaar. He buffs them innately, and his abilities work nicely with an additional high-defense solo like the Void Spirit. I like the little lanterns he carries--I think they turned out really nicely and capture the "glow" look well, at least in this photo. 

 I also added a light warbeast, a Cyclops Brute. He's a defensive light warbeast that can take damage like a heavy due to his shield, and has a couple of protective tricks. 

The first game of the evening was a 50 point battle versus Kaelyssa, the Night's Whisper--a Warcaster for Retribution. We played the scenario with three objective markers, and my opponent won the deploy first/go first roll.

 Dan's Retribution force, led by Kaelyssa. It's a nasty group, and tier four from her list. The tier benefits are brutal on this one: opponents cannot run or charge on the first turn, and there are loads of free Arcanists that go far beyond their normal numbers thanks to all the heavy 'jacks. 

 My force was a lot less compact of a brick. A Bronzeback and a Gladiator formed the main heavies, with a Cyclops Brute and a Basilisk Krea as supporting warbeasts. A unit of Praetorian Swordsman was present as well--they were unpainted, but my new Warlock Void Seer Mordikaar needs some infantry to do his full shtick. An Agonizer, a Void Spirit, some Paingiver Beast Handlers rounded out the additional models, and a Razorworm and a Aradus Sentinel scouted ahead thanks to advance deploy. 

 The battle after turn one. The white circles are spots where the enemy heavy 'jacks laid down fields of fire--any of my models moving in or ending their turn in one would take a POW 12 hit--deadly to infanty. And the blue section was a patch of difficult terrain from an enemy spell. 

 End of turn two. The speed of the Swordsmen, even denied their charge thanks to Kaelyssa's feat, managed to get them into the midst of the enemy unit and decimate them. Mordikaar played some tricks by purposefully having one of the swordsmen slain in the covering fire, then bringing him back to life alive and on the objective for a point. The Skorne forces managed to push the elves off all three objectives to give me a critical lead. 

 Seeing that the objectives race was swinging in favor of the Skorne forces, my opponent needed to give an assassination attempt a shot. While Kaelyssa wreaked some damage on Mordikaar with her Runebolt Cannon and Phantom Hunter buff, the Cyclops Brute's protection and Mordikaar's ability to transfer damage was enough to survive the assault. Then it was the Aradus Sentinel's turn to return fire, it's deadly poisoned shot dropping her to a single hit point--and thus easy pickings for the unit of Praetorian Swordsmen nearby to finish off. 

Overall it was a very good game, with a tough opponent fielding a cagey list. The more I play Skorne, the more I realize why I like them--they are just more durable than anything I've ever fielded in Warmachine/Hordes. With my past armies being Cryx and Everblight, that's not too much of a surprise--both of those forces are glass cannons. Skorne brings a solid center that can counter-punch effectively, which I like. 

The second game of the evening was a three-player game with the same Retribution player (my buddy Dan), and Brandon, a Cygnar player. It was a small 21 points game with a single king-of-the-hill objective in the middle. 

 The elves of war array themselves again. 

 This time I took eMorghoul to the battle, supported by only one heavy beast, two very cheap light beasts, and the usual Paingiver Beast Handlers/Agonizer combo and a Void Spirit. 

 Commander Coleman Stryker and his warjacks formed one unit, while Journeyman Warcaster Lieutenant Allison Jakes commanded a heavy warjack on the group's right flank. 

 The Void Spirit moved up into the Lancer's face to offer it poor options--move away and get smacked with a free strike or sit around and be useless with no magic weapons. While Cygnar shooting had started to take its toll on my support elements, I wasn't out yet. 

 The Cyclops Brute normally hangs back and protects the warcaster, but this time he had to get up into the mix himself. He survived a punishing amount of fire from the Elf force, only to be slightly healed by the remaining two Paingiver Beasthandlers and drive the Elves off the central objective. 

 Lieutenant Jakes' Ironclad squared off against the Elves' Phoenix. Their mighty weapons exchanging ruinous blows. 

eMorghoul lived up to his Lord Assassin title as he used his feat and danced up to to finish off the Lieutenant, leaving her warjack disabled and non-functional on the battlefield.Things fared no better for Commander Stryker, as he got too close to a Titan Gladiator during the feat turn, and found the great beast right up in his face and smashing him apart. The Elves attempted to finish off Morghoul, but they we unable to put him down--falling just a single point short. Healing slightly, it was clear that his force would win the day over the opponent's mangled and out of place 'jacks. 

Another great game. It's good to get newer players into the tabletop side of things, so I was glad that Brandon brought his Cygnar to the game. I'm going to look up some different 3-player scenarios so we have some variety for those games if they become a regular thing.

Also I'm going to structure my wins/losses record a bit more simply. Right now it's manageable, but it's going to get out of control soon. So I'm swapping to just which foes I've won and lost against. Teams and three-player games will just be listed per casters, and I'll not list number of losses to each--just want a record to see which warnouns I'm successful against, and which cause me difficulty.


Battles (Privateer Press):
Overall Total 2015: 15 (Win/Loss: 12/3/0)

Skorne:
6 Wins (Fiona, Sorscha, eMorvahna, Ossrum, Borka, Kaelyssa, and Stryker)
2 Losses (Kromac, Kaelyssa, Kaya)

Protectorate of Menoth:

2 Wins (eMorvahna, Kaelyssa)
0 Losses

Legion of Everblight:
4 Wins (eCaine, Kaya, Sorscha)

1 Loss (Fiona)

Clashes and Battles

Another omnibus entry for painting and games for Warmachine and Hordes. Just like the last post I've gotten a fair frequent number of games in and wanted to share some of the photos and results. In future posts I'm going to track a bit closer the actual games--as I've been completing my two forces (Skorne and Menoth), I've been a little gun shy given the incomplete paint jobs of some of my models.

 So why not start with an unfinished model? This is the in-progress shot of the Siege Animantarax. He's mostly painted as of now (as you can see in some of the shots below), but he's not finished. So this is the best close-up of him I've got. I love the model, though he's pretty meh in the rules. 

 These are shots from a four-player teams game that pitted my Skorne and Dan's Circle of Orboros against Tony's Trollbloods and Rico's Rhulic Mercenaries. Each player brought a 40 point force. 

The worms of death lead the way in front of eHexeris' forces on my side of the line. 

eKaya led her (beautifully painted) druids on the left flank. 

The Dwarves and Ogruns on the opposing side advanced confidently in the shadow of their massive colossal. 

Look at that line of weapon master trolls. Just nasty, with Borka leading the way. I love the classic Trollblood scheme of the force. 

eKaya's gambit to teleport up into the Rhulic caster's face managed to keep the forces distracted long enough for my side to generate an advantage in the victory points total. My Skorne managed to get a Titan into the Trollblood Warlock's face and finish him, while the Dwarves finally took out eKaya. With each side down one caster, the victory points slanted our way and the alliance of Skorne and Druids triumphed. 

Here are some shots from a different and smaller multi-player game. Roger's excellent fox-themed Circle of Orboros face off against my Skorne. 

Meanwhile Dan's militaristic-themed Retribution clamored to the objective in the middle of the board. 

I fielded my first different Warlock for this game: eMorghoul instead of eHexeris. He was not as impressive as I had hoped. He definitely pulled off his "trick": being thrown by a Titan forward while under the effects of a Cyclops Brute's no-knockdown animus, sacking his action and instead moving up to the enemy caster and casting flashing blade a bunch of times. Yet the trick is generally a losing proposition. Had to play back to pull it off, requires a ton of different pieces to be effective, and countered the instant the enemy knows it is coming. Plus, eMorghoul is as fragile as a leaf in autumn. He was defeated by an elf mage and an elf mechanic on a subsequent turn when he got knocked down. The fox-themed Druids ended up winning the game because of caster deaths, though the Elves had the moral victory of scoring 5 objective points to the Druids' 1 and my Skorne's 0. 

Finally, I've also been working on my Menoth. I wanted to have a Warmachine faction as well as a Hordes one, and while I enjoy my Skorne a great deal thus far, I wanted the option. I went for the most standard caster, good old starter-box Kreoss, to begin with. He's effective with a mean feat, so I'm not minding at all. 

This Monolith Bearer from the Zealots unit shows the color scheme I'm working on for the force. They're creams and reds, with the red confined to the "totally not a cross" Menofixes and the dust masks on peasants. 

And this is the color for the Warjacks. I wanted to try a non-metallic color scheme, so all the "metal" areas on all the models you see are in shades of grey. As for the color plates, it's dominant brown with white and orange highlights. It seems odd at first, but I really kinda like it. 

Here's a completed Vassal Mechanic showing the mix of non-metallic metals and other color schemes on an infantry model. 

And of course... what Menoth army would be complete without Wracks? These miserable fellows are honestly pretty miserable on the battlefield too. Yet they're so cool looking and thematic for my zealotry-themed army that I wanted to paint up a set. And they're essential for my first alternate Warcaster choice. It won't take too long to guess who it is!

In all, lots of good games in a month's time and some good painting progress as well. I'm hoping to record more detailed battle narratives as I complete more painting--so stay tuned for those.


Battles (Privateer Press):
Overall Total 2015: 13 (Win/Loss: 10/3/0)

Skorne:
4 Wins (eHexeris v Fiona; eHexeris v Sorscha; eHexeris v eMorvahna; eHexeris and eKaya team v Ossrum and Borka)
2 Losses (eHexeris v Kromac; eMorghoul v Kaelyssa/Kaya)

Protectorate of Menoth:

2 Wins (Kreoss v eMorvahna, Kreoss v Kaelyssa)
0 Losses

Legion of Everblight:
4 Wins (Absylonia v eCaine; Vayl v Kaya; Vayl v Sorscha; Saeryn v Sorscha)
1 Loss (Absylonia v Fiona)

Chelish Command and Privateer Press: Legion of Everblight

Again, another double-update of Skull and Shackles campaign info and painting toward my Privateer Press force. As usual, the campaign comes first. 

Skull and Shackles

Adversaries of Renown:
Vice-Admiral Delthretta Pavane is the current commander of the Chelish forces in the Arcadian Ocean. An elite fleshcrafter in training, when she set her eyes on commanding naval forces she soon rose to the top. Given the relative freedom of the seas and her absolute authority over her armada, the Vice-Admiral has pursued greater and greater devilish infusions into her body than would normally be seen among elites within Chelish borders. Plumbing the depths of fleshcrafting, she has transformed parts of her body with infernal power.

The darkness grows from within

As a sign of pride and command for her troops, the one thing she has refused to adjust is her peg leg--having lost it to a cannonball shot at the Battle of the Nine Coasts. Her sailors, many of whom have also been crippled in the course of battles, look to her example with a source of pride. 

All dressed up but no parties to attend

Vice-Admiral Pavane is the one behind the surge in Chelish fleets deploying great fleshcrafted beasts of war on their ships. This creature, a blend of sea monster and hellfire spitting devil, is but one of many creatures dispatched with teams of handlers to man Chelish vessels large, small, and in-between. 

Anyone got a breath mint?

These developments in the Chelish naval fleet have led to worrysome effects for the pirate residents of The Shackles. Not only do privateer crews need to prepare for the solid Chelish marines, but they never know when the hold of a pirate-hunter boat may belch forth one of these monstrosities. And if that were not enough, the other nations of Golarion have gotten word of the Chelish plans and are attempting to arm their ships in similar fashion. The great nation of Rahadoum, a somewhat uneasy competitor with Cheliax, has been rumored to be importing massive beasts of war to help supplement their own slave-driven ships. Even some free captains of The Shackles have taken to the practice. Rumors abound across Port Peril that Captain Barnabas Harrigan of the Wormwood keeps an Owlbear chained below decks for just such a purpose. 

Privateer Press

Two things have been added to my Legion of Everblight forces since the last update. First, the Warlock Absylonia, who is my preliminary commander. And the Ravagore, a heavy warbeast with a great shooting attack option for my force. 

Fire in the hole

I'm really pleased with how the painting has gone on these models, and the battlegroup is looking really tight in my eyes. The bigger beasts having the higher red-to-orange spectrum makes them eye-catching. Then the details can all be cooler colors in light shades, such as the light blue dress of Absylonia or the green fire from the Ravagore. 

I spent a lot of time getting the green fire color right... I'm proud

I've played my first few games of Privateer Press with this group, and so far I've split 1 and 1 at the 20 points size level. The first battle had some great infantry killing by my forces, but I bumbled control of an objective on a critical turn and ended up losing the game. Totally my fault, but it was a fun match. Second game I reversed the trend by using my lesser warbeast Shredders to help secure objective points--and the enemy took the bait and focused on my big beasties (who took a pounding) until it was too late.  

Absylonia's battlegroup thus far

In all, I'm pretty pleased with how the force is doing--particularly on the painting side. I'll be painting up the first infantry models of the force soon (as the Skull and Shackles game needs enemy "Chelish Marines" to fight), and I'm working on their battle engine as fast as I can manage. So far so good!

Legion of Everblight

Models Painted: 6

Points Painted: 25

Warlocks Painted: 1

The Imperial Navy of Cheliax: Fiendish Might

Skull and Shackles

North of Port Peril and the Shackles region lies an enormous whirling hurricane in perpetual motion called the Eye of Abendego, and just north of that is the Arch of Aroden a thin passage to what is known as the Inner Sea. Commanding the Inner Sea, and now turning their eyes outside to the Arcadian Ocean (where the pirates of the Shackles ply their trade) is the grand nation of Cheliax. A lawful evil society based around devil worship, the Chelish field fleets of naval vessels to support their control of the Arch of Aroden and gain influence and control of the greater ocean. For more information on the nation of Cheliax in the Pathfinder world, check here.

Essential to our purposes in the Skull and Shackles campaign is that the Imperial Navy of Cheliax are the primary formal navy and pirate hunters of the region and the campaign. More worrysome to aspiring pirates is the sheer might of the Chelish forces. Their ships of the line include the Chelish Man-o'war, a massive three-decked vessel that normally is fitted with 20 ballistae per side and huge catapults on both the fore- and aftcastle. As if that is not bad enough, the current Vice-Admiral of Chelish forces who has been tasked with the elimination of piracy in the Shackles is the infamous Delthretta Pavane, a deeply cursed woman whose raw savagery is augmented from a most dire pact with some devilish force. Vice-Admiral Pavane has been equipping her naval crews with not only the normally-sturdy Chelish Marines, but with strange devil-bred hellspawn made from the unholy matings between devils and sea beasts: sharks, sea monsters, and worse.

Behold, the Scythean!

For instance, the most recent reports from a few sailors who managed to survive their ship being wrecked by a Chelish attack talk of a large beast which was driven onto their decks by its Chelish Marine handlers. The strange beast seemed to be a cross between a devil and a plesiosaur, and tore into the pirate crew with unmatched savagery. This corresponds to similar stories of small two-legged shark creatures that were delivered by strange agents on floating rafts to assail other ships north of the Eye of Abendigo. For now, while the massive hurricane continues its whorl, hopefully the Imperial might of Cheliax and their devil-bred ocean beasts is held in check.

The regions of Golarion that are primarily involved

Privateer Press

So while in the Pathfinder campaign, the models will represent the devil-bred forces of the Chelish navy, they're the Legion of Everblight in Privateer Press' twin games Hordes and Warmachine. The painted model, the Scythean, is the first heavy warbeast that I've painted for my force. I like the way the color scheme worked out on the model with a lot more area. The prior ones, the Shredders I posted about first in this post, had only smaller areas that were in the red-to-orange spectrum. I really like the way it came out in the larger model.

Side and back view

The Scythean is a seriously nasty foe in combat, with brutal attacks and the ability to punish large groups--it has a chain attack ability that goes off if it hits with both of its initial attacks. While I have plans on doing a Ravagore and a Carnivean to give some depth of options for my force, I decided to paint up the Scythean first. The reason: simplicity. I'm still learning the game, and the beauty of the Scythean is that it's just a face-wrecking melee critter. Plus, I'm saving the complex tech for my next addition: the Throne of Everblight

Awww Mikey, give us a little lickery-kiss

It's still being assembled, because the kit is HUGE. But I wanted to do a Throne as it's honestly the model that inspired my vision for this force. I pictured a massive beast that burst up from below-decks in a ship due to the commands of a master sorceress. Normally, the Throne has kind of a parapet at the top. I changed it up, with some Sculpey and bits from other models, plus ample numbers of the coffee stir sticks I am using for decking, to look as if it burst up from below decks.

It came from below!

That shot of the full model gives a good sense of my intentions. I still have work to do on it, such as finishing the tentacles, adding the pirate details to the sorceress on the deck, and putting on the broken and splintered deck from the base (which I am going to at least try to paint a recessed image underneath... we'll see how good my painting skills are). But I'm really pleased with the progress thus far. I love the look of the piece for Privateer Press--let alone what sort of horror it will be for the Pathfinder gaming table in my Skull and Shackles game!

Legion of Everblight

Models Painted: 4

Points Painted: 15

Warlocks Painted: 0

Sighted on the Horizon!

Skull and Shackles

Reports have reached Port Peril of a small raft that was sailed up to a ship (the Sea's Largess) from an island, and a horde of small shark-like beasties with legs clamored aboard. A strange woman was guiding them, but as the ship's crew fought and finally repelled the beasts the sorceress escaped in a burst of magic.

Landsharks!

Keep tuned for more emerging threats that will appear throughout the campaign!

Privateer Press

So this blog is going to do double-duty, as I am painting up some Privateer Press models to be the villainous (and friendly) crews of various other ships. This is the start of a Legion of Everblight force that will be serving as a crew of blood-thirsty beast-handling aquatic raiders. I'll divide my comments and thoughts about the Privateer Press portion from the Skull and Shackles comments with headings. 

These are three Shredders from the Legion of Everblight force I'm working on. I saw some trollbloods that were done with purple bodies and red-to-orange stones in their skin, and thought: "I could do that with scales!" I've been looking for a color inspiration for my force for almost 6 months, and finally found one that I liked. It's going to be interesting to see how I can handle the skin of the Nyss and Ogrun (the elves and mountain ogres that fight on behalf of the awakened-but-not-corporeal dragon Everblight), as the purple will pose a little concern. But I think I have the idea handled. 

Next on the painting table is a heavier warbeast and two warlocks to give me some variation in the leader of the force. 

Legion of Everblight

Models Painted: 3

Points Painted: 6

Warlocks Painted: 0