Exemplar Errant UA

That's right; I'm doing it.  Even after the last two disappointing Protectorate previews I'm going to talk about my hopes for the upcoming Exemplar Errant Officer and Standard Bearer.  Errant themselves are solid, and if the Temple Flameguard are any precedent their UA will boost them into the realm of teh win.

In Mk I, Errant were known for their outrageous point costs but now a Protectorate only pays a whopping 5 points for a minimum unit or 8 for a max.  For that point cost you can field an efficient jack-of-all-trades unit with at least one ability to help them fill any roll on the table:

• Melee: MAT 7, P+S 9 Weaponmaster means an average damage roll of 19 (23 on the charge).  That's enough to kill even most unbuffed Shield Wall troops.
• Ranged: Although their RNG is only average, RAT 6 is very respectable and Blessed means their crossbows will be able ignore most non-terrain defensive buffs.
• Attrition/Speed bump: ARM 16 is respectable and helps survivability against Shield Wall troops.  Bond of Life means you can keep that one important model alive until the end of the unit.

So what do they need a UA for?  To answer that you have to look at the rest of the Protectorate army, where you'll see the Errants' weakness is that there are units that can serve most roles better.

• Melee: All Exemplar sport the same MAT as the Errant and hit even harder.
• Ranged: Idrians sport better range with better RAT & POW once you factor in Combined Ranged Attack and Prey.  The Protectorate also has a glut of AOE options.
• Attrition/Speed bump: Temple Flameguard are cheaper, faster, and have a slightly better defense.  Zealots as well.

Errant UA Bare Metal

With the Protectorate's cheap warjacks and fantastic support pieces space for units and solos tends to be at a premium.  I can't afford much redundancy, meaning my unit choices have to be able to pull a lot of weight compared to the points I spend on them.  If I take Errant I'm doing one of two things: purchasing an all-purpose unit because it's all I can fit in, or banking they can fill a role "well enough" (comparatively) and hoping to get lucky enough to get some mileage out of their flexibility.

As much as I like Errants I find myself taking TFG+UA far more often if I need a speed bump because I can use their SPD 6 and Reach to run and tie up an opponent and fire off Iron Zeal (and usually Tough from Rupert) to keep them alive for a round.  Bastions have seen play as heavy hitters lately just because of their reach higher-damage weaponmaster attacks.  Redeemers and Vanquishers play the ranged role because of the Choir.

Therein lies my hope for the UA: to make the Errant equal to the top dogs in one of the above categories so that they can better compete with table-time.  For example while SPD 6 Flameguard that advance in Shield Wall may very well be giving up the charge, SPD 5 Errant with an ability like Defensive Line could move forward while firing to help thin out potential attackers before hand and still sport sufficient melee abilities to cause casualties once engaged.  Or just run 10" at ARM 18 - outracing the TFG in Shield Wall by 4" but lacking Reach to tie up models.

I could rattle off the abilities I hope that the Errant will pick up, but the short of it is they're just one or two rules shy of fighting for space in my lists.  Between flexibility and the aesthetics of the Knight Exemplar, the UA could very well turn them into my favorite unit.  But then again, now that I jinxed it...

Before I started using the S7's, I was pretty rough with my brushes.  I was guilty of all of the brush sins, including things like stabbing at models sometimes with the brush and letting paint get into the ferrule regularly.  While this wasn't a big deal when I was spending a buck a brush, I knew I had to change my habits with the new brushes, but doing so would slow me down.  Lets face it - when you're base coating, dry brushing, or otherwise just trying to lay paint down quickly, doing things right takes more time.

That's when I started going to the bargain brushes at my local art store.  They're nowhere near the quality of S7's, but they have one distinct advantage: the el cheapo factor.  For a few bucks I could pick up a couple flats for drybrushing and a few rounds for base coating work (especially for my bases; concrete patch chews up brushes quick!).

W&N S7s (left) and the throw-a-ways (right)

When it comes to layering and detail work, I stick with my good brushes, but if I'm throwing down the first layers - like the black undercoat and Boltgun base coat for metals - I can go to one of my workhorse brushes (as long as they still have a decent tip) to get the job done fast.  And when I finally mutilate them past usefulness, I don't have to feel bad about only needing to drop a couple bucks for replacements.

Rhoven & Honor Guard

First up is Rhoven and the Honor Guard.  I posted some initial WIPs of the Honor Guard a while back and since then I've made some pretty good progress.  The Honor Guards have actually been sitting mostly done for a little while now while I worked on Rhoven himself.

I'm most happy with the lower portion of Rhoven's robes so far, but there's still some work that needs to be done.  I'm going to repaint the stole for starters; the highlights were pretty borked when I did them the first time.  That and some more general cleanup work should make him ready for sealing.

Blighted Swordsman UA

Next up is my Blighted Swordsman unit attachment, which isn't near as complete as Rhoven and the Honor Guard.  I've spent a fair amount of time trying to clean up their leather armor and make it really pop but I'm really happy with the skin tones on these two.

The release of MkII has pushed these guys away from the table a little bit compared to some of the other options in the Legion army.  I've been known to paint models only to have them never see the table again - we'll see if that happens again with these guys.

Reaper 60001: Valeros, Iconic Human Fighter

After the Swordsman UA is Valeros, Iconic Fighter, from Reaper Miniatures' new Pathfinder line.  I wasn't as happy with this model once I got it assembled as I was when I saw it at first, though it makes a good representation for my character in my current Earthdawn game.

I'm still trying to clean up the mouth a little bit so it looks better, but overall he turned out fairly well.  I think I'm going to need to weight the back of the base if I can - the leaning pose makes him want to tip over sometimes if I'm not careful.  I'll be using enough sealant on him to stand up to roleplaying use though so he should be fine.

Dark Elf Corsairs

Whenever we have to hold off on a roleplaying session, my Sunday gaming group usually plays board games to occupy the time slot.  Recently we've turned to Mordheim, which has been a lot of fun.  Back in '01 I started painting a Dark Elf warband but never finished my Corsairs here.  Even though I'm running Reiklanders this time, I decided to get my Dark Elves finished so I could field them as a cohesive force, even if it was standing in for another army.

I'm going the speed-over-quality route to try and get them to the tabletop (they're still being worked on).  It's also an attempt to rely heavily on the Games Workshop washes (Badab Black and Delvin Mud) to see if they can speed things along.  So far those two washes haven't been anything special, but they do save me time in mixing my own so I feel like they've been worth it thus far.

Dwarf Warriors

Last up is another GW sampling from my Mordheim days.  A friend of mine left his plastic dwarf boxed set with me when he left the game.  They have been sitting around for a while now and I finally decided to paint up a collection of them with different weapons for use in various roleplaying or miniature games.

The dwarves painted here are only a sample - there are three of each weapon combinations and a few "officer" types all done in a similar paint scheme.  I went muted for the color scheme on these guys, and it seemed to turn out ok.  The beards, though were a fun shortcut.  I basecoated all of them (except those that would be black) with Reaper Master Series Bleached Bone and then used washes to tint and shade them the desired color.  It was a nice time-saving technique for tabletop-quality dorfs.

Complete schedule and details are available on our site,  or keep up to date by following us on Twitter. See all the fun-filled convention activities and preregister at the DieCon home page. Registration for DieCon X is only $26.00 until April 15th. After that, registration increases to $31.00 – still an amazing bargain. Online payments will be accepted via PayPal. Those particpating in Hardcore will have an additional 5 dollar fee which goes towards a personalized 2010 Official Hardcore dogtag. Remember to select "PP Hardcore" under the list of Saturday events to reserve your spot today and enter your requested personalization at that time. Our schedule is listed below…

Friday June 4th

2:00 PM - Iron Agenda Presents: Battle for Steelwater Rails: The Iron Agenda podcast will kick off our first day with a specially designed event. This 35pt Warmachine and Hordes event features one of the most iconic steam creations: Trains! Custom scenarios created by the Iron Agenda podcast will have players throwing down while being part of an overall story about the railways of the Iron Kingdoms.
20 Point Mangled Metal/Tooth and Claw Hardcore (immediately following the above): Our 20 point mangled metal and tooth and claw hardcore will take place after the completion of the Iron Agenda’s Train event. Our first day of Privateer Weekend 3 finishes off with just the casters, their beasts, and jacks. Warcasters and warlocks will direct their jacks and beasts against each other in flesh ripping, metal sundering action. One list per participant is allowed. Each turn will be 3 minutes and games will last only 30 minutes so you gotta be quick. Remember, this is a mangled metal/tooth and claw event so not only does assassination win the game but eliminating all the jacks or beasts does too. Also remember, this is Hardcore so all models must be painted and based. Will the machinations of men win out? Or will the unbridled fury of beasts reign supreme? Prizes TBA.

Saturday June 5th

9:00am - Official Mark II Hardcore: This is the big one, boys and girls. This is the pinnacle of Warmachine and Hordes gaming. It is a rare honor that Privateer Weekend attendees will have to compete in the first official Mark II Hardcore event. Bring your best 50 point Warmachine or Hordes list and throw down with the best of the best. Each player is allowed a single 50 point Warmachine or Hordes list and the army must be fully painted and based to participate. All games are timed. If time runs out, put down your dice and let your opponent rip into you. In order to survive in this intense combat you had better not only know your army but your opponent’s army as well. However, with a unique intense format also come unique prizes. There is a 5 dollar fee to participate in Hardcore which goes to a dog tag for each participant. All participants who preregister for Hardcore will receive a special personalized dog tag for playing in the event. Official rules and prizes for Hardcore will be forth coming but get your 50 points painted up now. You will not want to miss out on this once in a life opportunity.

9:00 am - 75 points Steamroller 2010: This will run concurrent with Mark II Hardcore. Hardcore not your thing? Then how about a grueling 75 point Steamroller 2010? This event will feature both Hordes and Warmachine factions in a standard Steamroller 2010 scenarios. The official rules for steamroller 2010 can be found here. Prizes to be announced.

35 point random caster event (immediately following the above): This event will follow the Mark II Hardcore and 75 point Steamroller 2010 events. Are you the master of your faction? Can you win with any caster? Time to prove it then, buttercup. Bring a single 35 point list that does not include a caster’s warjack or warbeast points and 6 caster choices for your faction. In addition to a printed list a player needs to have each of their 6 caster choices listed on a sheet of paper numbered 1 thru 6. At the beginning of each round, the tournament organizer will roll a die 6 to determine which caster will be used for that round. Scenarios will be taken from the Steamroller 2010. Retribution players are allowed to duplicate 1 warcaster choice in their list to fill it out to 6 spots. Mercenary list are allowed to duplicate warcasters to fill out their 6 spots but they must use each available warcaster for a contract at least once. Prizes to be announced.

Capt Saultydog's Trivia Challenge: All day Saturday. Know what the prefered food is for a Gorax in heat? Know how many hull boxes a Cyclone has? Then you might be ready to partake in the Captain's trivia challenge. Particpants are welcome to pick up a trivia packet at the beginning of the day and complete over the course of the day. All entries must be turned in by 9 pm that night. So, do you know more about the Iron Kingdoms than Captain Saultydog? Prizes to be announced.

Sunday June 6th

9:00 am - 50 point Steamroller 2010 and Warmachine Weekend Qualifier: One last chance to play in a steamroller event before the weekend concludes. This event will feature both Hordes and Warmachine factions in standard Steamroller 2010 scenarios. This 2010 steamroller has an added twist. The winner of this event will receive a free pass to Warmachine Weekend and automatically be qualified for their invitational event. Other prizes to be announced. The official steamroller 2010 rules can be found here.

9:00 am - 25-35-50 point Escalation event: Want to do something a bit different than a standard Steamroller event? The escalation tournament is designed to test players by making their casters excel in various army lists. Each player designs three lists from a single faction. The first list is a 25 point Mangled Metal or Tooth and Claw list. The second list is 35 points and is built off the first list. However, the second list may add troops and solos in addition to more jacks and beasts. The 3rd list increases the point total to 50 points and is constructed off the second list with additional troops, jacks, and beasts. The 25 point list will be played in round 1, the 35 point list in round 2, and the 50 point list in round 3 and on. Take note, you can only ever add onto a list, never take away. For instance, a player can start with a 6 man unit and increase it later to 10 but the converse is not true. Prizes to be announced.

Weekend Long Events

Painting competitions: Warmachine and Hordes is not just about pushing little figures over a table.  This year we’re honoring the hobby by adding painting competitions to our repertoire. Players will have the chance to submit minatures for the painting competitions starting at 2 pm on Friday June 4th through 10 am Sunday June 6th. Judging will be done on each category on Sunday June 6th and prizes will be handed out at the final ceremony.

Catergories are
a.) Best painted warcaster/warlock
b.) Best painted warjack/warbeast
c.) Best painted unit
d.) Best painted battle group
e.) Best conversion
f.) Best diorama

Capt. Saultydog’s Brainteasers: At various tournaments, participants will have the opportunity to win door prizes based off their Iron Kingdoms trivia knowledge. People currently participating in an event that has one of Capt. Saulty’s Brainteasers may submit their answer anytime during the tournament. At the end of each tournament, Capt. Saulty will draw answers and the first correct answer will be awarded the door prize for that event. Prizes to be announced.

Tide of War: During the course of Privateer Weekend, participants will have the chance to earn Tide of War points to compete for the Privateer Weekend Champion award. War points are awarded based on the size of the game played and whether or not the player was victorious. These games include both tournament games and friendly games played outside the tournament scene, but yet on the Diecon premises. A player does not need to play the same faction each game unless he/she is in a tournament. Games may range between 20 and 100 points. A player may not play the same opponent back to back. When the game is not a tournament game, both participants are responsible for notifying judges before the game begins, where it is being played, and the outcome of that game. If the players do not notify a judge, then the game will not be counted. So what goes to our overall War Champion? Well, we're keeping that hush, hush for now but the prize is absolutely huge. Let’s just say it will be something large and fully playable.

Hopefully the list of unique and exciting events has piqued your interest into attending Privateer Weekend 3 at Diecon X. Please check out http://privateerweekend.gamestlouis.com or http://www.diecon.com for more information or PM PG D.Vader or PG AslainKheog. For hotel information check here for special rates. Hope to see you there!

* 35 participants are need for Hardcore. If this number is not met, a Steamroller 2010 50 point event will be ran in it’s place.

Now then, it's been a couple months since I mentioned looking forward to playing Borderlands, so I thought I should post a follow-up. I played the game pretty intensely for a while, running through two playthroughs on my first character, a Siren, once as a Soldier, and a little as the other two classes. Most of my gameplay was single player but I got in quite a few multiplayer sessions with a couple of my friends that were a blast.

From skag hunting to fighting off the denizens of the Eridian Promontory, the game as a whole was extremely fun. It wasn't without its issues but unfortunately that seems to be standard for PC games nowadays. Regardless of some of the minor issues, I got more than my money's worth on Pandora.

For starters the mission-based system lets you hop in and out of the game for shorter sessions and still feel like you were accomplishing something. It also meant a fairly steady influx of quest XP so you never really felt like you were stagnant. Between the short quests and the fact that enemies respawned, you were always able to just go out throw lead around whenever you felt like it.

The ability to rearrange your character's skills and the ease of doing so (it just costs money, which is plentiful) really let you play around with customizing your character as you go. There was more than one occasion where I'd find a weapon or class mod that suited a certain playstyle so would just re-spec and switch over whenever I wanted.

It's hard to find a Borderlands forum where people aren't complaining about the end of the game. I admit it's the weakest point of the story, but Borderlands isn't about telling some grand epic, it's about giving you a gun to go shoot things and take their stuff. It's unabashedly a bullet-driven character-building engine, and in that regards it succeeds at its goals.

The biggest problem with Borderlands on the PC out-of-the-box was its multiplayer capabilities. It uses GameSpy as its multiplayer client, which caused all sorts of headaches for my friends and me. I heard many players using third party VPN-like products to get multiplayer working, but proper port forwarding fixed our issues, though it was still a hassle that we shouldn't have had to go through.

The first two DLCs for Borderlands were released a little while back, and there's where you start to see the problems with the game - or more likely the publishing company. The PC version was delayed for some time (as were patches for the base game) and when it was finally released, it included SecuROM. In fact, the latest Borderlands patch on Steam actually installed the Borderlands SecuROM files on your computer whether you wanted it or not, it just left them inactive until you added the expansion pack.

That was pretty much the end of Borderlands for my friends and me.  With other games being released that we wanted to play, we didn't really see the need to mess with SecuROM.  SecuROM itself isn't a dealbreaker for me, but there are so many other options out there at the moment that I don't have to mess with it to be entertained.  It was the last straw for the two gamers I usually played online with though.  After struggling with their multiplayer connectivity issues SecuROM was enough for them to bail completely.

According to Steam I've logged over 100 hours of Borderlands, and I've enjoyed every minute of it.  The game isn't complex and the story isn't deep, but it's just fun.  My only concern is that Gearbox seems to be looking to continue released DLC for it and if they want to succeed, they're going to need to make sure that they can ditch the SecuROM that's been convincing players not to continue to buy their products.

The cover is a draft of a flier that was put together for the first Privateer Weekend at DieCon 8.  I have a similar one featuring Lylyth that I'll use when I do something similar for my Legion cards.

In a few days I'll finally have my hands on my MkII version of my Protectorate cards. Even if I'm not completely happy with the layout and design of the cards, they'll still be better than playing off of the printouts that we've been using since the MkII pdf was released.

"Hordes is Risk Management, where Warmachine is Resource Management."

I cringe every time I hear that.

The analogy comes from the fixed amount of focus generated by a warcaster as opposed to the way that forcing and leeching works for warlocks and their beasts.  Unfortunately, it breaks down completely when you actually consider the implications of the labels.

Hordes is Risk Management

The risk involved in Hordes centers around the manipulation of fury between the warcaster and the warbeast.  If he does not manage this resource effectively, his army won't perform optimally.  In fact, in some cases it can lead to the army self-destructing if it frenzies at inopportune times.

Warmachine is Resource Management

Focus is a resource that a warcaster uses to power his jacks, but it is a resource he can only distribute in the beginning of his turn.  The warmachine player has to allocate that focus by playing the odds of him being able to achieve his goal for each model/unit for the round as his plan plays out.  This is risky, because if he mis-allocates focus, misjudges probability, or doesn't get the rolls he needs to execute all of his plan, then he will not get the most out of his resource for the turn.

What it boils down to is that both focus and fury are resources that must be managed efficiently or you run the risk of putting yourself at a tactical disadvantage.  This is true of both games.  So while the statement "Hordes is Risk Management, where Warmachine is Resource Management." is catchy, I don't think it's accurate enough to use when describing the two games.

Half the dungeon, post-smite.

Since my Sunday gaming group is waiting for after Christmas to kick off our upcoming campaign, Hardarian Blackleaf, Ale, Mr. Wizard Nickelbane III, and Elfin John continued their Quest (tm) to become Heroes (tm).   The story was thin but the cardstock terrain was think as... well... cardstock.   And so the smiting commenced!

We ran through a couple more pretty generic quests this week - find a good wizard then go kill the evil one.  Considered we played Are You the Traitor? beforehand (which features a good/evil wizard mechanic) I suppose there was a theme running throughout the evening.

At this point the party is getting pretty well equipped.  The one oddness to the game is that it follows the D&D trope of "the wizard can't use cool equipment."  So while the dwarf, elf, and barbarian all have shields, helms, and armor (the barbarian even has artifact armor) and good weapons, the wizard is stuck with a weak magic cloak he found and a pointy stick (read: quarterstaff).  He's been collecting some interesting magic items, but he's still the weak link of the party and will crumple if the monsters get to him.

The gargoyle smites Elfin John!

Camp is still the name of the game.  Moondog has been the best Zargon of the group hands down.  Among his achievements is composing the soundtrack known as "march of the mummy."  We always know when a mummy is coming at us.

Moondog missed this week, so I tried to add my own twist this weekend with moonwalking, "Thriller"-singing chaos warriors (and completely silent zombies, just 'cause).  Unfortunately I fell short of Moondog's greatness.

There are only five more quests left, but we're taking our time.  Hero Quest is a fun game to play for nostalgic reasons and we don't want to take it too seriously or risk getting burnt out.  But as a occasional diversion it's still two thumbs up.

"That will be 25,000 gp in diamonds, please."

There's a running joke that in high-magic fantasy games, death is naught but a revolving door and the party cleric is the doorman.  I haven't played much 4e myself, but I've heard many of the epic-level abilities start out "Once per day, when you die..."  If there's a bigger way to hang the "death doesn't matter" out for everyone to see, I haven't found it yet.

What about villains, though?  Unless everyone is playing a pulp-style adventure, having the villain inexplicably escape every time he's encountered can seem contrived and simple GM-fiat, but can the revolving door be used as a plot device to present the players with a unique challenge?

In our previous campaign, I introduced a group of villains who were for all intents and purposes immortal, able to re-form their bodies if they were physically destroyed.  While this could easily become 'cheezey' or unfair, the rationale fit with the background of the game in this case.  This changed the nature of the characters' interactions with the villains (who had no fear of death) and had some interesting effects on the story.

• The players were able to directly confront their enemies face-to-face from the start, they didn't have to crawl through layers of an organization to get to them.  Their enemy was quickly personified for them and they were able to attach their animosity to a single small group of entities instead of successive levels of middle management.
• Because the enemies couldn't re-form instantly, the characters were able to hinder their enemies through direct interaction.  The characters could vanquish a foe, costing them valuable time and possibly resources in the process, but the foe could come back for revenge eventually.
• I didn't have to worry about making the enemies miraculously escape, since in effect they couldn't be destroyed permanently.  No bodies hidden from view as they fall or magic just-in-time teleportations - if they died they died.

There's definitely a danger in this sort of thing of the whole setup being too heavy handed. If it's not explained sufficiently or just hand-waved, then revolving door villains can be just as frustrating to your players as the miraculous escapees.  But if you can create a plausible explanation that fits in your game world and doesn't break immersion, it can by an interesting plot device to exploit.

A gamemaster should watch his players' reactions and shouldn't let this go on too long - at some point the players should obtain the ability to defeat their opponents permanently, otherwise the game will get quickly become repetitive and predictable.  When the enemies realize the characters have obtained a way around their insurance policy, they'll suddenly have to approach them in a new way, as they have to learn how to think like mortals again.  Maybe some will defect to the characters' side, or others will start to seek non-direct means of interacting with the party.  No matter how things change, the gamemaster has the opportunity to take the relationships that the players have built with their enemies and twist it in interesting ways.

If you're like me, one of your initial reactions to that last sentence is "a race and a discipline isn't a character concept," and you'd be right.  However, for this post I want to specifically talk about some of the changes to Earthdawn from a character generation standpoint.  So while a character back-story and personality are crucial to a good character, they're going to be outside the scope of this discussion.

Attribute Generation

While the Derived Attribute table is mostly intact from previous editions of Earthdawn, racial mods are now done in a reverse Polish manner.  Instead of getting flat bonuses or penalties, each race has its own set of starting attributes.  Humans (being average) begin with 10's across the board.  Other races start with slightly higher or lower stats depending on their stereotypical characteristics.  You are then given 25 points to purchase modifiers to each ability (and get refunds by lowering abilities).  Again, like previous versions of Earthdawn, the purchase rate isn't 1:1 for higher attributes - going from a +5 to a +6 will cost you 2 points, for example.  Going up to +7 will cost 3 more.

Having the racial modifiers pre-calculated really doesn't gain you anything new, but it really doesn't cost you anything either.  Honestly, this 'new' system doesn't feel any different than the old one, the starting point is just now 10 instead of 0 and you have less points.  You can't lower abilities quite as far (8 is minimum now) but I don't know anyone who went much below that too often anyway.

Racial Abilities

Sight-based racial abilities were mostly unchanged.  The biggest difference is that the Windling's astral sight ability grants them access to that talent just like the human's Versatility talent.  This adds scalability that was badly needed to keep the ability useful throughout the character's career, as well as remove the need to distinguish between "windling sight astral sensing" and "Astral Sight talent astral sensing."  A balance and a streamline: good modification.

The biggest change was on the racial front and is the new karma rules.  Every race now has the same karma die (d6) and the same cost in LPs.  The difference between races comes in their karma multiplier.  An adept can have a maximum amount of karma point equal to their Karma Ritual rank multiplied by their racial karma multiplier.  I'm not sold on the variable karma pools yet - it's just something else that needs tracking on the character sheet - but I'm willing to give it a shot in game play to see how it works.

Discipline Flexibility

I mentioned this in a previous post, but disciplines have been loosened up to allow some choices in talent selection.  Some choices are a no-brainer.  I can't imagine many magicians not taking the second Spell Matrix at 1st circle or any adept not taking Durability as their option at 2nd circle (yes, it's optional... why I don't know) for instance.  But now a character does have options instead of being on a set path.

Skills & Skill Selection

Initial language, knowledge, and artisan skills are assigned just as in 1st Edition, but now you get 8 more ranks to apply to skills any way you see fit.  However, the talent versions of some skills have been toned down (or removed) to help balance things.  Avoid Blow, for instance, can be used a number of times per round equal to your rank if you know it as a talent.  As a skill it is limited to once per round but otherwise functions the same.

Equipment

The "Adventurer's Kit" is still around - a quick one-item purchase to give you starting gear.  For players that don't like to mess with too many equipment lists, it's a real quick and easy way to get started.  Now though, you start with that: a set of clothing, week of rations, artisan kit (if necessary for your skill), and a dagger plus 100sp to spend elsewhere.  Basically the items that were pretty much standard you don't have to worry about and you can spend your leftover starting funds on whatever other gear you want, which includes weapons and armor.

The characters we created this last weekend spent most of the starting cash on weapons and armor, but when the rest of your gear is already provided for you, there's not much else left.  There were a few odds and ends picked up, but  mostly by the magicians who didn't need fancy weapons.

One side note I'll make, and this isn't new but it's something I very much like about Earthdawn.  No wonky weapon/armor proficiencies or knowledge base.  It doesn't matter what discipline you follow (if any), you can wield/wear any weapon/armor you choose.  Want to be a wizard in plate armor?  Go ahead, the only penalty you'll suffer is the initiative penalty of the armor - same as any warrior who wore the same thing.

Aftermath

Even if there are some minor differences, both the process and the end result of character generation in Earthdawn 3e still feels the same as previous editions.  A warning though: character creation in Earthdawn can still be an involved process if you don't have an application available to help out.  The EDCG was fantastic for earlier editions, so I threw together a quick spreadsheet just to do attributes for ED3.  It wasn't pretty but it was functional.

As I mentioned earlier, I built my character ahead of time so I'd be more familiar with the process and could help answer questions for the other players.  Still, we took a few hours to get everyone finished (not counting time to do the character concept).  So there's a bit of a time sink, but I've found it to be acceptable for the level of enjoyment I get from the game and the settings.

By the end of the night we had an elven troubadour, a t'skrang illusionist, a dwarven beastmaster, and an obsidiman elementalist to go along with my human warrior.  Afterward, we started our first "adventure" and helped out a small town, despite them thinking we were someone else.  We're such nice people. 

Granted, the rules play just as well either way, and there are plenty of communities that are using the MkII printout exclusively and aren't having any issue.  It's really just a psychological thing, but since the MkI rules are still solid enough to play, I'm finding it difficult to give up my cards for some printouts.

January can't get here quick enough.

Angry Mob or Menite Party?

Privateer Press has tightened up their forum policies since the the Warmachine field test and are currently in the process of updating their forum software.  Whether or not that means they are more hardline regarding doom-saying and complaining on their forum will be seen soon but the forums will definitely be busy for the next few weeks.

I've discussed the optimism I have towards the new rules before, and that still holds true.  I'm going to be going through at the very least the Legion of Everblight, my own faction, to compare changes but only so far as to keep me from trying to play MkI rules and styles in a MkII world.  Then the glorious re-education process begins.

The miniatures that I've put in my last couple of site updates have each been photographed a few times now, and there are about half as many up as there should be, simply because they haven't turned out any good.  I'm using the same photography set up I've been using for a few years now, but suddenly it's like I've forgotten what I was doing.

I'm just going to have to keep trying to fix my color balance and re-trying, but my goal of getting caught up by the end of the year is looking frustratingly less and less likely.

Setting-wise, nothing obvious has changed, with the exception of the story being advanced through the events in Prelude to War.  On the system side, there were a number of bigger changes, but nothing that breaks the game.  First off the d4's and d20's were removed from the Step System completely - now you only need six-, eight,- ten-, and twelve-siders.   I've made similar changes before to tweak the way dice roll in the game so I can't complain, but RedBrick also published an alternative Step Chart on their web site as a free download if you want to add the missing dice back in.

Disciplines got a bit of an overhaul as well.  Now instead of having fixed talent lists, you have a few choices to make as you advance in your chosen profession.  It does give you more flexibility, but skills always covered this roll as well.  I've always been a fan of the stricter interpretation of the discipline as a magical entity, but players do enjoy choices so I can't say that the changes that were made were bad ones.  And if it makes the game more accessible to players, who can complain?

A lot of talents and skills got rebalanced, and I'm not going to go into all of them here.  There were a couple issues I have with some changes (or changes back from Earthdawn Classic) but all in all, many of the uber-talents have been toned down to make the disciplines a little more even in power.  Many of the changes were clean ups or simply moving old talent knacks into general use.  For example, now anyone can try to make a check to leap to their feet to avoid losing their combat action and/or movement in combat, but there's a chance they'll fail the check if they're wearing too much armor.

I haven't dug into thread magic too deeply, but conceptually it operates the same way as previous editions.  I've always been a fan of the way that thread magic was implemented in Earthdawn.  The idea of magic items growing with characters or the ability to begin the game with a heirloom that you won't toss out the first time you find a +1 sword is far superior to the D&D style of loot and scoot.  Even D&D itself has tried to duplicate ED's item growth system in some of their own expansions, but it's always been crippled by it's integration to d20's purely level-based system.

I could go on about the ED mechanics for a while, but I'm going to touch on the art and layout of the core books before wrapping this up.  I very much enjoyed the combination of more modern (in technique, not necessarily graphical style) layout design with some of the classic ED1-era art.  Living Room Games went the way wrong direction with ED2, and it's good to see RedBrick returning to art that properly conveys the grittier feel of the people and places of Barsaive.  Kudos to them for that.

I'm an Earthdawn fanboy, I'll admit it.  But while that means I love the IP, it also makes me critical.  ED2 was in my mind a giant failure on the part of LRG.  I'm extremely pleased that RedBrick has not stumbled into the same mistakes that LRG has.  Third Edition is still different than First (or even Classic) Edition, but it's still Earthdawn.  Most of the changes are just balancing and streamlining the game, but more importantly Barsaive is still intact as the wonderful setting that it is.

The Heroes(tm) on a Quest(tm)

While my role-playing group is between campaigns, we're filling our weekly sessions with boardgames and one-shots.  Last week was a blast from the past: Hero Quest by Milton Bradley.  I couldn't find the doors and a few figures were MIA (the elf in particular) and had to be proxied, but the old school charm remained.

Matt took on the role of the vile Zargon for the first two quests, leaving Chad, Wayne, and me to take on the mantles of the Elf (Elfen John), Wizard (Mr. Wizard), and Barbarian (Thud).  The Dwarf (Ale) was thrown in for good measure.  For the third and final game I took over behind the screen and Matt claimed the Dwarf.

We fully embraced the camp of the game, with "Zargon" reading the boxed text before each adventure with as much melodrama as could be mustered.  As casually as we treated the game, our role-playing roots came through and there were a few more descriptions than dictated by the adventure book as we stomped around the dungeon, hacking up orcs, goblins, and other minions of Chaos.

Wayne Nukes the gobbos

The first adventure was a fun re-introduction to combat, but things got interesting at the end of the second quest.  When you enter the prison room of the NPC you have to save, all of the monsters remaining in the dungeon are immediately put on the board and start activating while you try and get him to the exit stairs.

It was actually a lot of fun, but you could tell we were all MMO players of various experience.  Chad immediately blew a spell to walk through the nearby wall and defensive buff himself to block the choke point, while I ran to the other.  Wayne and the Dwarf provided support as we just held up the lines while our escort got the heck out.

Then we slaughtered all the goblins and took their stuff.

Even though as a group we enjoy the role-playing side of our weekly game, it was fun to have a weekend of mindless hack and slash.  We decided to keep the characters around and break the game back out from time to time whenever a role-playing game is canceled at the last minute.  Maybe I'll finally have the chance to see all 14 quests that come with the game.

Maybe I'll even be able to find the doors.

Borderlands has been described as a FPS version of Diablo II, which is a fairly accurate description.  You are given a choice of one of four classes, each of which has three skill trees which you can choose from to customize your character to your liking.  Loot seems to be a big part of the game, and the constant variety keeps you engaged by ensuring there's always the possibility of something better than what you have dropping from the next enemy.

Especially now that the XBox version of the game has been released, there are plenty of videos on youtube, as well as Borderlands' own web site showing game play off, but the one that was the most helpful to me was a co-op playthrough I found on giantbomb.com.  This half-hour video features four-player co-op play and some accompanying discussion by one of the players an observer.  The discussion answers some related questions and discusses aspects of play that weren't directly shown and is very informative.  There are also screenshots and videos on the Borderlands site, as well as the skill tree for each of the four classes for anyone who wants more information.

After doing some reading, I think I'm going to try out the Siren as my first character.  Apparently I was the last person to decide what as I was going to play.  To paraphrase a discussion I had over IM with a friend I'll be playing Borderlands with:

Me:  BTW... I'm thinking siren in borderlands
MD:  LOL no kidding.  I already knew that Fishboy would be Mordecai, You'd be Lilith, Rav would be Roland and I'd be Brick.  'Cuz those are our universal archetypes.
Me:  Heh.  Wait... I'm a chick?
MD:  me = do that one thing, Rav = do it all, Fishboy = be a ninja, you = be a fucking bastard shitcock sneaky twink 

I guess that makes sense... I am a Legion player after all.

After throwing around a few possible casters, I decided on some of my lesser-used options to see how they changed in MkII.  I was curious to see if they and their battlegroups would fit my playstyle better now, or if I would be able to change my playstyle to better suit their abilities.

My first selection was to go with Grand Exemplar Kreoss.  Kreoss has always been my favorite Protectorate warcaster from a character perspective, so I felt it was time to give his epic incarnation some more attention to see how it would hold up.

I paired him with the Avatar right away.  The free focus, the spell immunity, and the reach on his sword made him a strong heavy to anchor my lines.  Even if he couldn't wreck face on his own - which he certainly can - he can still act as a tar pit and give the rest of the jacks a clearer path.

Reach was also given to the Reckoner in MkII, which I decided to include so as to allow him to potentially attack multiple jacks under eKreoss' feat easier.  My final heavy choice was the Fire of Salvation - I hoped to surprise some people with it's extra movement and catch them unaware.

My light options were highly dependent on what I owned.  The Devout was added as another Reach jack and the potential Spell Ward if necessary against Cryx.  I wanted to add two more jacks in with my last 8 points to give my opponent more to deal with but I only own a single Dervish.  So ole 'Penty got thrown in as the last bit of filler.

I considered Reznik for a long time but decided to switch to Amon as my second list at the last minute.  As above, jack ownership played a large part of model selection, so instead of three Crusaders I added two and the Fire of Salvation.

To fill out the list, I switched to lights with Reach to add both model count and threat range to the list, going with a Devout and a pair of Revengers.  There was no more arcing Sandblast in MkII but I hoped Powerful Charge would help me start building Synergy early.

Round 1: Brakus' Cryx

My first game was against Brakus, and he brought a pretty hard hitting Cryx force. I knew that using eKreoss, I was probably going to be giving up the charge in exchange for a round of retaliation with his feat, but Brakus could (and did) feat after engaging to mitigate that and give himself a second round of attacks unmolested.

Luckily the Avatar with Inviolable Resolve survived and kept everyone in place with his Gaze of Menoth throughout Brakus' feat turn.  On my next turn, I feated and I was able to wipe out everything but Skarre and the Leviathan.  The Deathjack would have been harder to kill but with the Fire of Salvation's ability to dispel Death Ward, I got the last few points of damage in I needed to wreck him.

Kreoss took some big hits from the Leviathan but I was able to use the Avatar's Gaze to pin him down long enough to get to Skarre and take her down.

Round 2: LegalGun's Cygnar

Round 2 I had to face a heavy-focused Kraye list.  I wasn't looking forward to dealing with it but at least it wasn't the Kraye and triple hunter combo.  Choir should be legal in Mangled Metal.

LegalGun sent in his Hammersmith as his first strike and hit my lights that I had positioned out in front, but didn't quite finish them off.  The Avatar Gazed and ran to hold the Hunter in place while the other jacks wrecked the Hammersmith.  Next turn Kraye feated and sent in the Centurion and Rowdy, while the Defender took some shots, brutalizing my Reckoner but leaving my other jacks functional.  I counter-feated, had the Fire grab the Centurion's shield to deny him that armor, then wrecked him with my forces.  I did some fair damage to Rowdy, and Kreoss one-shotted the Hunter himself, but the big move was Gazing and running the Avatar up to catch Kraye, setting up a next turn Avatar-kill.

Round 3: Rassi's Protectorate

Rassi's always been a huge Amon fan, and MkII has only made him a better caster.  I thought about bringing my own Amon out but I had devised what I thought was a nice way around his Avatar to jump on Amon before he expected it.

As usual, I left my lights out to get charged first and put the Avatar out on a flank with Gaze up, then positioned the Fire where it didn't have LOS to where I thought the Avatar would wind up.  I was right, and it trashed a light, triggering the Fire's ability to move in the Maintenance Phase, still keeping the Avatar out of LOS.

Then, during my turn we realized I was thinking MkI Gaze rules (you having LOS to him, not him having LOS to you) and my assassination run went bunk with Kreoss hung out to dry.   Rassi had his jacks start things up and Amon himself finished Kreoss off.

Final Thoughts

We're going to miss playing at Game On! but they went out with a fantastic event.  I'm really enjoying the MkII rules - things like jacks being able to charge over rough terrain (even if at half speed) just make the game more fluid and it's harder to get pinned in and left out to dry.

I'm not sure how much MkII play will pick up in St. Louis before we get stat cards we can play from, but as a whole the community is ready to hit the ground running.

I'm sitting back in my room after day 1 tired but still ready for tomorrow's events.  I arrived last night with Brakus so we were there for the 500-point Mixed Steamroller event that kicked off the weekend.    There were already a lot of familiar faces showing up, which was a bonus.  Last year I met a lot of great players at Warmachine Weekend and it was good to see many of them making it back.

I took a couple Protectorate lists, one featuring Kreoss and another with Severius, but I wound up using the Kreoss list all event.  Anticipating some of the tougher competition I knew I was going to see down here, I put together some dirty shenanigans that worked extremely well through the event.

First round I faced a Kaelyssa-led Retribution force in No-Man's Land, which I was able to win on scenario.  Still Kaelyssa was a constant threat in the backfield with that dart gun of hers, and Vilmon (who was engaged at the time) was one of her first victims that game.

After that I ran up against a Darius force in Mosh Pit.  With Anastasia netting me first turn the typical Idrian Road Bump tactic let me keep enough out of the Mosh Pit to claim it and win the game.

My third and fourth rounds were two drastically different Deneghra lists.  Third round I faced Brakus, which was entertaining considering we were going over lists together the night before.  He brought Deneghra but hung back just a bit first turn then feated second, wiping out his two units (Revenants and Biles).  Deneghra launched a strong counterattack but she didn't have enough models to seal the deal and I was able to finish her off.

Fourth round was a mind-screw list featuring all sorts of command-affecting craziness.  I wound up feating second turn to kill Nightmare (Harm + Holt, then a charging Redeemer no less) and an arc node, then spread out to claim enough areas in Process of Elimination the next two turns to win.

Final round was against a Sorscha list.  She used her feat first turn to start taking out Idrians, but it turns out that Protection of Menoth and the armor bonus from Go To Ground helped half of them stay despite Winterguard sprays and CRAs.  I wound up getting a little too close after that and Sorscha was able to charge Kreoss in a last ditch effort to keep me from claiming the Mosh Pit, but she ended her turn out of focus and with Kreoss (who hadn't feated) with 3 life left.

All of my opponents were really good sports and it was a fantastic event overall.  The 750-point event started while the 500-point one was going on so I wasn't able to join that.  Josh and Flanzer had planned on making it down for it but got here late so they (and Intern Tim) played their first games of the weekend in the 350 MM/TC event that took place afterwords.

I gave my lists for tomorrow some more though so I'm going to tweak those tonight before turning in.  Then it's up for another 9:00am start and likely constant tournaments until midnight again.  Something tells me I'm going to be exhausted when I roll into work Monday morning.

Of 2008.

It would be fair to call that significant slackage.  It's not that I haven't painted anything since then, I just haven't taken the time to photograph my miniatures and post. Yet.  Time to shame myself into action.

I looked back over my collections to see what hadn't been posted to my site yet.  I came up with 36 models, or what would be 25 entries in the gallery.

Protectorate of Menoth (& Mercenaries)

• Hierarch Severius
• Fire of Salvation
• Blessing of Vengeance
• High Exemplar Gravus
• Vassal of Menoth
• Exemplar Bastions (x5)
• Rhovan's Honor Guard (Rhovan's on deck)
• Anastasia di Bray
• Orin Midwinter
• Thor Steinhammer
• Dougal MacNaile

Legion of Everblight (& Minions)

• Lylyth, Shadow of Everblight
• Thagrosh, the Messiah
• Typhon
• Nephilim Protector
• Blighted Nyss Shepherd (x2)
• Incubi (x5)
• Warmonger Warchief (x2)
• Strider Unit Officer and Musician
• Gudrun the Wanderer

Other Models

• Reaper 2591: Valdarynn, Arch Mage
• Reaper 3324: Stern Kestrelmen
• Rackham Mercenary Assassin
• GW Mercenary Sprue Mercenary
• Human Shadow Priest

Considering how slow I paint, that's actually not too bad as far as pacing goes.  I'm not going to win any speed painting competitions but that's not why I got into this hobby anyway.

My posting rate, though, is far less impressive.  Initially I had to dismantle my photography area when that room got redone, then we had guests using it over the holidays, and as time wore on I just didn't feel motivated to break everything back out.

Truth is, excuses are a dime a dozen, and I really need to get back to updating my gallery. I've volunteered to help take pictures for members of the St. Louis Fight Club, so I've started getting pictures of my own miniatures at the same time.

This weekend I will start putting together web pages and uploading them to my site so expect see some no photographs either right before or right after Warmachine Weekend.  With any luck I'll be caught up with my own miniatures right around when Fight Club games kick off in January.

I've been asked a few times how long it takes me to paint a model.  Most of the time I don't keep track of how much time I spend on a given model - I usually don't want to know how many hours of my life I've spent on this hobby.

Usually I listen to podcasts, music, or DVD's while I paint, and the length of one of the podcast episodes I was listening to happened to correspond to a painting step that shed a pale sickly light on how long I had been at work on my exemplars.

First, a little setup.  Painting exemplar armor is a fairly complex process because I prime in gray.  I tried priming in white on my Knights Exemplar Errant, but the time I saved on the armor plates was quickly lost in the recesses of the model.  From prime to finish, my process goes something like this:

1. Base coat the armor Reaper Master Series Yellowed Bone (usually multiple coats).
2. Two light coats of Applebarrel Goosefeather.
3. Wash the white areas with a thinned 2:1 mix of Goosefeather and Territorial Beige.
4. Blackline the edge of each plate where it has a border that will be metallic.
5. Base coat the metallic areas in GW Boltgun Metal.
6. Paint the metallic areas in a 1:1 mix of Vallejo Game Color Glorious Gold and Vallejo Game Color Polished Gold.
7. Highlight the metallic areas with Vallejo Game Color Polished Gold.
8. Was the metallic areas with a mix of P3 Armor Wash and GW Brown Ink.
9. Touch-ups & final highlights (plates and edges).

The time I spent on step 6 for all 5 Bastions and the Honor Guard pretty much corresponded with the running time of the podcast I was listening to: about 1 hour.  That got my models to this point:

Exemplar WIPs

Unfortunately, I've been able to estimate roughly an hour per coat to get this point; so roughly 8 hours so far.  And there's still plenty left to do, including all of the purple areas after I finish cleaning up the metallics.

Aren't you a little short for an Exemplar?

As a side note, I've found working on the Bastions and Honor Guard at the same time to be mildly humorous.  As medium based models, the Bastions are far and away the largest models in the exemplar ranks of the Protectorate of Menoth, far huskier than any of their compatriots.

On the other hand Juviah Rhoven's supposed Honor Guard are vertically challenged even by Knights Exemplar standards.  Yet as pewter miniatures, the two Honor Guardmen weigh far more than the five Bastions.

Gius and Cassian sure have been packing it away.

There's also the issue of the omnipotent adversary.  Inexperienced gamemasters can fall into the trap of giving their adversaries full knowledge of the party's actions even if said adversary lacked a sufficient means to gain such information (by spying, scrying, etc).  But again you can run into the trap of the cookie-cutter with things like the traditional wizard with a crystal ball.

When my turn to gamemaster came around in our current game, I decided to use a little trick to get the party invested in one of their adversaries as well as explain why the characters had been oiled in their recent attempts to accomplish their goal.  Unbeknownst to the players, I made one of their characters the adversary.

Occasionally we've found ways to write our own characters out of the story temporarily when it comes to our turn at the head of the table.  Early in the campaign, one player helped another get their character out the session before the second player took over as gamemaster.  There was an elderly woman, we believe some sort of wizard,  who offered to show him information regarding a conflict he had set up in his background.  The character agreed, promising to catch up to the party when he returned.

The character showed up a few sessions later but soon thereafter the party suffered a number of setbacks.  When I took over as gamemaster, I continued the setbacks, including the theft of the party's MacGuffin.  Given how exacting the theft, the party knew that it has to be an inside job, but they were all alone and there were no NPCs around who could have sold them out. Suspicions started mounting and tensions built, but no accusations were made aloud just yet.

The party tracked the thieves to a ruined temple and as they prepared to launch their surprise attack, I handed the following note to the player whose character (Saxon) had just got back from his leave of absence.

Note: Through the Looking Glass
You may not read this aloud.

The last thing you remember clearly is stepping through the portal with the old woman that night between Perrin and Kroson.  After that everything was dark for a time, then you became vaguely aware of your surroundings, though through a haze of pain.

You’re not sure how long everything lasted, but you remember having things done to you.  Experimentation.  Operation.  You were never conscious enough to know exactly what was going on but you were always aware of the pain.  Especially when they carved out your eye and did... something.

Unsurprisingly, this should be confusing to you – it’s not something that your character knew about.  That’s because the character you are currently playing is not Saxon.  Who or what he is is irrelevant but right now you are not playing Saxon.

When the battle below is joined, you have specific instructions:

• Draw Plot Points until you have 10.  You may spend these freely and you will get back however many you have right now +4 when you regain control of your original character.
• Turn on the party.  I would suggest starting weaving your flame wind spell “to help”, then after it’s up surprising folks by hitting a party member.  I would ask you to put a big hit on Marcus first (we’re 100% he can take it ), but from there do whatever you want to cause problems for the party.
• Add a d4 to all Channeling rolls.

Your actual character is one of the people bound and hooded up front.  Every round I will be rolling Saxon’s dice to escape his bonds.  When he is free you may assume control of him and I will take faux-Saxon.

As expected, hilarity ensued.

Not the "malicious gamemaster likes to mess with players' characters" or the "evil gamemaster likes to watch his players get screwed" kind of evils either.  I had approached the player about the disfigurement previously and he agreed to it, though he didn't know the context at the time.  And the players weren't mad at my "hijacking" a character at all.  In fact it made all of their sabotages of their previous few goals make perfect sense.  There was no resentment towards a player for turning on the party, because the player never actually did until I made him (and only for one fight).

I think it's a testament to my group's maturity and the trust that exists between each player/gm that this went as smoothly as it did, and I wouldn't recommend it to a gamemaster unless he was sure that it would go over positively with his group.  Without trust players can feel cheated because the one thing they control in the world - their character - just got pulled out from under them.

If your group is willing to accept this sort of plot twisting, it's not hard to set up.  It works best when there was an opportunity for the switch to be done that the player put their own character in.  In this case it was Saxon's side trek off camera with the old woman (who turned out to be one of the campaign's antagonists).

After that it's just a matter of observing the party's dynamics and having the character do things when he gets the chance to work against the party and not telling the player.  Things like (in our case) taking the MacGuffins out of their storage place while he was supposed to be on watch and delivering them to an NPC that had been tracking the party.

There is the danger of resetting a character too much, though.  In our case we added two players to the group since Saxon's replacement, meaning he (Saxon, not the player) was away from the party for four sessions.  So the relationships that he had formed with the new characters had to be re-formed.  This wasn't an issue for our group but it's something that a gamemaster has to be cautious of.  If you reveal an impostor after dozens of sessions, that's a lot for the player to try and rewind in his head and keep straight.

I've gotten a lot of positive feedback from my group regarding Saxon's replacement and betrayal.  But like any good gamemastering advice, this is going to boil down to knowing your group.  A role-playing group is built around trust between the players, and the last thing a gamemaster needs to do is ruin inter-player trust.  But if that trust exists, twists like this can be very enjoyable for everyone involved.

To our players:

We have decided to do something radical. We’ve been paying a lot of attention to our forums and talking with our players at the conventions this summer and it’s clear that the anticipation for MkII is driving everyone a little batty. Many are excited, some of you are a little afraid, but the suspense is killing everyone and the speculation is killing us! So after a great deal of deliberation we have decided that the best thing we can do for the mental well-being of our community is to completely change our plans and do what we said we wouldn’t: we’re going to put all of the MkII rules and model information online as PDF downloads, because four more months is just too damn long for everyone to be holding their breath.

There are some disclaimers and explanations that need to accompany this.

First, the rules and stat info are final. While the books and cards are still in layout and will be for the next few weeks before they go to press, this is the final form this information will take. So you can be confident that nothing you see here will change between now and when the rules come out in book form unless we find an editing mistake at the last moment that needs to be corrected. But our development on this is locked. You have the final data.

Second, as the book and cards are still in layout, and because we want to give this information to you now, you’re getting the no-frills version. The rules PDF is the book layout but does not include any backgrounds, art or diagrams. And in several places, you’ll note that icons are displayed by name rather than their graphic (these are waiting to be plugged in) and there are many instances of ‘see page XXX’, which is a placeholder for a page number that gets filled in as the very last thing we do in the layout process once we know that nothing is shifting around in the layout anymore. As well, the model info is being taken directly from our development files, so they’re not nice, neat little cards. Each model’s stat info is on a separate page as just the data with no graphical layout or whatnot.

So while this is an unpolished, un-beautiful version of what will be found in the final product, and while you’ll have to read around the ‘XXX’ and icon names, it IS the final information, and we know that’s what everyone is dying for right now anyway. Think of it as seeing a movie before all the special effects, color correction, sound track and sound editing take place. It’s the movie, just not how it’s meant to be presented.

A few final notes; once again, we want to thank our community, all of you players, for your involvement and feedback in shaping the MkII rules. While we know that this has been an inconvenient transition, we do believe that all of the changes made in MkII will improve the play experience for the community as a whole, and we also believe that this process has yielded the best possible final product. We hope that you will see the impact and the influence that your feedback has had on what MkII has become.

While you will no doubt be eager to take everything for a spin, please be aware that our ‘official’ events will continue to be supported with MkI rules for the remainder of the year. Naturally, what you do in the privacy of your own game store is up to you and your opponent and the event organizer, but as far as we’re concerned, MkII will not be supported in organized play by Privateer until January when the book comes out.

And a final word to our Hordes players who still have a much longer wait ahead of them; please know that we are working very hard to put out the Hordes MkII field test as soon as possible. Because of what we have learned through the MkII field test, we believe our first public draft of the Hordes MkII rules will much more closely resemble what the final rules will look like. Because of that, it is our intention to make the Hordes MkII Field Test rules official upon posting so that Hordes players can continue to participate in our organized play events alongside WARMACHINE players until the Hordes MkII book comes out next summer. The caveat of course is that things WILL change, but probably much less dramatically than some of the WARMACHINE changes that we observed.

Thank you all for your patience, your feedback, and your continued support.

And play like you’ve got MkII…

Matt Wilson
Privateer Press
Chief Creative Officer

*To download the files, right-click, then save as.

Here is the link.

So how do you want it?

Sealants come in a variety of finishes, but for the most part they can be grouped as gloss, satin, and matte.  Most people prefer a matte finish on their gaming miniatures but this brings with it a problem.  Unfortunately the strength of a sealant is usually proportional with how glossy the finish is, meaning matte sealants tend to offer the least amount of protection to miniatures.  This isn't as much of an issue with a display pieces but with a model that will face the rigors of the game table it means being more susceptible to damage.

Fortunately there's a pretty pretty simple solution, which is to seal your miniatures with a coat or two of a high-gloss sealant for strength and then a matte coat to give it the desired finish.  My personal choices are to use Kylon's Crystal Clear for protective strength, and then use Testors Dullcoat to give a matte finish.  I've heard many recommendations for Krylon's Matte Finish spray to use instead of the Dullcoat but I haven't used that product yet myself.

Keeping it Clear

Like spray-primers, sealants can have some wonky effects on models if they're not applied correctly.  One of the most common sealant accidents is a fogging effect as the model dries.  Occasionally re-sealing the miniature can clear this up but more often than not it just winds up in a ruined paint job.

I've adopted a few practices to minimize the chance of fogging my miniatures.  The first is the easiest - shake the sealant.  A lot.  Shake it until you think you're done, then shake it some more.  I've heard folks recommend as much as 2 minutes or so if you haven't used your sealant in a while.  Since there's no harm in over-shaking, you're better off going long than not shaking enough.

Another concern is the prevention of condensation on the miniature, which could interfere with the sealing.  The best way to avoid this is to only use your sealant when the temperature is in the range listed on the can and to acclimate the can and your miniature to the climate wherever you're going to do the sealing.  Wherever you plan on sealing your miniatures - be it a porch, basement, garage, or spray booth - leave your miniatures and your spray can there for a few minutes before spraying.

Application

Different brands of sealant have different suggested distances between can and miniature when sealing, and it's best to stick with the recommendation.  I use a cardboard box to catch any over-spray and will spray a couple spurts onto that to make sure there's no clog in the nozzle before approaching my figures.

Make sure not to start or end any spray on the miniatures itself - start to one side, spray past the figure, then let go.  Occasionally a nozzle can spurt when it's opening or closing, and that can add some unwanted funky texture to your models.

What about Basing?

One of the questions I had to work through once I started basing my miniatures was if I should seal them before I add features like grass or snow or after.  After some experimentation I've found I get the best results by sealing the miniature with my usual 2-gloss-2-dull protective coats after I've painted the ground but before adding any "additives."

After that I'll add the static grass, flock, or snow.  Once that dries a last quick Dullcoat will help everything stay on the base.  Finally I'll do any water features (if any).  I don't have a lot of experience with basing using water features but I've heard that they react badly to sealant, so I'd seal my miniatures first before adding any water to the base.

Other Options

I use spray sealants almost exclusively but many people swear by brush-on sealant.  I haven't had any issues with spray sealant myself and it's infinitely faster but I do use brush-on sealant for one purpose: post-sealing finish.

For the most part, a matte finish looks good on miniature but there are some places where you want a glossy finish.  The easiest way to achieve that is just to brush on a glossy sealant at the very end.  In the past I've done this with crystal balls, gems, and materials that are supposed to be lacquered.

Clear-coat this Post

The importance of a good clear coat can be overlooked easily - the best sealant jobs are the ones you can't tell have been applied.  You won't know you're doing something wrong until you see the dreaded sealant fog on your figure, so the best advice I can give is be patient and take all the precautions you can.