Carnivean
For my second Carnivean I decided to change up its pose in two ways - I placed the head on facing forward instead of to the side (filing and greenstuffing the neck to accomodate this change) and I put a wrecked bonejack on the base under his front foot. Minor changes overall but just enough to make my two Carniveans easily differentiated on the table.
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Crusader
I painted this Crusader quickly to match my first one. The quality isn't as high as I could have managed, but I really just needed to get this one done so I could get it on the table. As far as posing goes, I decided to assemble this one as if he was in mid swing as opposed to the first crusader which was rearing back.
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Grand Exemplar Kreoss
As impressive as the concept art for Epic Kreoss is in the Apotheosis rulebook, his miniature is only so-so. Instead of being the giant, imposing symbolic bastion of the Menite faith, he looks like a squat child wearing his father's armor.
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Mage Knight Brass Golem
I painted this figure up a few months before I started playing Warmachine as a test piece. I wasn't sure how easy it would be to use colors such as green on a large flat metallic area like a robot's body and wanted to get a feel for it before I decided if I'd be able to do a Warmachine warjack. While the golem is hardly a work of art, it was good enough for a first attempt to convince me that I'd be able to do more mechanical miniatures with a little practice.
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Gudrun the Wanderer
I painted Gudrun towards the end of 2008 as a diversion from the Legion models I had been rapidly turning out. His color scheme was primarily chosen to let me test out P3's Ordic Olive color, which I used on his cowl.
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Alten Ashley
Even though I only really use Alten with my Protectorate forces for mixed games, and even then almost primarily in Mk I, I really like the model and wanted to get it painted. He really captures the 'dirty old hunter' look and the bell-shaped riffle barrel is a nice touch.
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Sleeving & Storing WM/H Stat Cards
Stat cards are a tremendous benefit to the game of warmachine and hordes, allowing quick reference to the entire suite of your models' rules and abilities, as well as providing a place to track damage done to multi-wound models. They're definitely an invaluable resource to the game, but as expansion books are published, each faction gets access to more and more models and units. For the player that means more and more cards in their collection to keep track of.
When I first started playing, most locals sleeved their cards individucally and kept them in a deck box. I quickly adopted this method and found a couple products that I really liked - Dragon Shield card sleeves and Ultra Pro deck boxes. I've used this set up for years - it's quick and dirty but it works. I never had any problems at all in actual play, but as my army collections started getting bigger, keeping the cards sorted became harder - I started chucking whatever I had played back in the box after each game. Searching for cards when building armies on the fly started taking longer and longer, so I started looking at alternatives.
Alternatively the Dragon Shield Box will double as a cheap (but less durable) deck box.
Word of Everblight vs. Spirit of Everblight
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).
Everyone’s Favorite WM/H Mini-game
Guess...
the...
LEADER!!!!
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.
MkII Hordes Cards’ Improved Aesthetics
The Hordes MkII cards were previewed a while back but now that I have mine in hand I'm noticing something I glossed over before. The Warmachine MkII cards seemed to receive a negative reaction on the forums, but it looks like PP took some of the feedback and made a change that I much prefer.
Spirals aside, I definitely think that the Hordes cards came out looking better than their Warmachine counterparts. The contributor is the card backgrounds themselves. Where the Warmachine card backgrounds are gear-filled and busy, the Hordes cards have more organic and subtle designs without light-effects. They encourage the eye to look past them instead of jarring the eye to stare at them like the Warmachine cards do. The cards just feel less busy overall, and as a result also feel more spacious and less cluttered.
The spiral issues is just a personal gripe of mine that isn't going to change one way or the other. Spirals aren't going to change (unfortunately) so it's just something I have to accept. Although I will say the MkII Spirals are definitely better than their MkI counterparts. The spirals are larger and each aspect has a different colored background, making it easier to follow them around the spiral.
So overall the MkII Hordes cards are definitely a step in the right direction. There are a few areas of design that could be improved but overall it will definitely service for the next couple years.
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