Still alive!

Yes, I am still alive :) Lots of stuff happened in the last few weeks, which kept me from doing anything for my hobby.

First my needed vacation (and luckily we came out of Egypt before all the planes where canceled after the plane bombing).
Then the typical flu attack and years end chaos in the office.
And if that was not enough: My PC slowly and quietly died.

I know have a knew one including a bigger monitor and have to setup everything (Photoshop, Camera etc. pp.) and hope that I can start posting again soon.

Hope someone still reads this!


So long,
Paradox0n

We are Back in the Future!

Just to spread some geekiness: Today is Back to the Future Day! If you don't know the movies: When Marty McFly got in the Delorean (his time machine), he went forward to today! Even if the scetched future of the movie is not the present, it is absolutely awesome (in a geeky way).

So if you have the possibility enjoy the movies today (many tv channels or streaming providers have the movies today on broadcast).


So long,
Paradox0n

Terrain from spare parts: Building a dead tree

Today I want to continue with my articles about how you can make terrain out of chunk or spare parts. This time I will show you, how you can make a dead tree (the one you can see on the left side) completely from chunk.

What you will need for this:
- Paper towel
- A twig or dried flower stem
- Something for a base (e.g. a washer)
- Glue
- Sand/Earth
- Static grass/flock (completely optional)

Twigs

Paper towel

Blog Babble - Interested in photography stuff?

Long time no see (again). But as usual I am drowning in work. My travel to Romania didn't help either and the loss of all my prepared post made it even worse. But hey, in Germany we have a saying "Unkraut vergeht nicht" ("A cat has nine lives"?). So Yes I am still here and No I haven't recovered from the loss of the articles yet.

But since I started hiking again and started experimenting with my DSLR (perhaps you remember my older article about it) I have a question to you all: Are you interested in a) Landscape pictures and more important b) Tutorials about using a DSLR and filters and maybe even picture composing/editing? If so, I will start with some articles to this topic.


So long,
Paradox0n

Why is the rum gone?

Last weekend started with a big WTF. When I checked my blog (and why the connection to the social media networks seemingly doesn't work) I saw that nothing was published to neither the blog nor the Twitter, FB or G+.
So with some big eyes I just saw that my pre-produced and scheduled articles are all gone. I have no clue what happened, but I had planned two articles to post the last 2 weeks. Everything gone... At least from Blogger, I can see that my pictures are still on Picasa.

So sorry for not posting anything for such a long time. I have lots to do atm and thus wanted to use the free time I had to pre-produce some stuff, which clearly didn't work out :(

 Since I will travel to Romania again next week, maybe I can use the spare time in the evenings (if we are not on the road) to produce something.


Have a good start into your week!


So long,
Paradox0n

Painted Abyssal Dwarf Mortars

There are really signs and wonders around. I finally painted up something! Seems like an eternity since I painted and thus it also feeled when I struggled with the paints and brushes again. One thing I recognized pretty fast: Next time I paint with a wet palette again. The whole time the paint just didn't feel right, especially since I paint now with longer bristle brushes (reason why, see here) which really struggle if the paint is too thick.
Nonetheless I painted and I will show you the results: An Abyssal Dwarf Angkor Heavy Mortar and an Abyssal Dwarf G’rog Light Mortar for my upcoming Kings of War army.

Nothing fancy or so, but since they got me back to painting I am really happy with them. The Heavy Mortar was quite a miscast sadly but I tried to do the best and cover that a bit with the paint. I think from a distance it is OK so far and that's what these two are about: Being painted for the battlefield :)


One thing I experienced through the process was that it seems that one of my Spray Primers got bad. It sprayed and everything but when it was dry, the paint didn't stick to it but dripped off of it. Like it had some strange Lotus Effect or something. Never had that before, but I was not happy with it before and now I think I just throw it away (12€ for the bin :( ).

Some more stuff is already on my table and I hope I find enough time and motivation to paint even more.


So long,
Paradox0n


P.S.: I think I will experience with showing WIP pictures and stuff also through Instagram and Twitter. Maybe that helps me to stay a bit more motivated. I hope that feedback turnaround is much faster there, because the comment section is mostly not used here :(

Short tip: Care for your brushes!

Damaged brushes

Since I am into painting stuff again (the temperature isn't something around 40°C anymore) I have a really important tip for you guys out there: Care for your brushes!
I could throw four brushes away because they didn't keep their tip anymore. The first picture here shows what can happen if you don't care or just throw your brushes around. OK ok, those here are more than 10 years old by now, but if you paint a lot, this could happen much, much faster.

So my tip is: Give your brushes from time to time some love. Rinse them in clean water, then soap with whatever you have in your reach e.g. shampoo and rinse them again. After that, form a nice tip again and let the bristles dry (best with the tip down so that the water doesn't collect in the ferrule and weakens the glue).

Brush soap

If you want to go a step further, use some special brush soap. They come from different manufacturers. Mine was part of my DaVinci brush set but there is also a special one from "The Masters" which was a long time not so easily to buy in Germany. Only know that from videos on Youtube and everyone seems quite happy with it.

But whatever you do: Curd Soap, Shampoo, special Brush Soap... Show your brushes from time to time some love and clean them :)


So long,
Paradox0n

Farming "wife points"

Perhaps you can remember my post about using a laptop cushion as mobile working station for preparing my minis? If not, I gladly provide you a dip into the past with a link back to the review.

As I get slowly back into the flow of doing hobby stuff again, the cushion now also gets into use and I can only say: Yes, it is working. At least for preparing the miniatures like clipping them from sprues or removing mold lines or gluing your stuff together.

That means I can also farm some "wife points" :) Its pretty cool, watching your favorite TV series together, while doing preparation works or sitting together while she is learning french and I scratch away mold lines. Nothing better to keep one going than sharing time instead of being separated in different rooms...

So today I was priming a whole lot of minis (and getting a strong dislike for my brown Army Painter Sprayprimer). I hope I can also paint some stuff up. Kings of War is calling!


So long,
Paradox0n

ReRoll-Weekend!

Today only a short promotional post :) On the first November weekend (All Hallows), the Tabletop Network does held a charity weekend: The ReRoll Weekend. The rules are pretty simple:

• In every game you play at this weekend, you can buy rerolls. 
• Every reroll costs 50ct 
• The reroll has to be accepted

The money you raise will be collected by the TTN and be donated to the Weisser Ring e.V.

So warm up your dices and play games at that weekend :)
More information about that charity event you can find on the delivered links. Warning: All in German :)

So long,

Paradox0n

P.S.:

And some shoutouts to new followers. Welcome to The Responsible One and Morikun. Take one of the free seats and enjoy the flight.

Review: WarMage MDF bases - Part I

Yesterday the postman brought me a small package which surprised me because I didn't expect one. As he gave me the package with the comment: "This is no package, this is a letter" i was really curious what is in there. But as soon as I opened it and smelled the odor of burnt wood, I did know immediately what awaited me there :)

So today I will show you the MDF leaflets from WarMage, a German company which somehow specialized in lasercut MDF pieces. I first saw the stuff on Brückenkopf and as it was not added to the shop after a week I got into contact with them. I got a very fast reply on my questions and Nils (the owner) seemed to be a nice guy. And since there was not only the small base version but also two other ones (as he told me, the salesman he seems to be), I opted for a bigger version, containing 3 leaflets and having place for roughly 31 pieces of  trees and rocks.

For me it is the first time that I have some lasercut stuff though I have already some experience with MDF pieces :) So I will describe my impressions I got from the product from here on.

The leaflets are bigger than a DIN A4 paper and the cuttings are very clean and as far as I have seen precise. There are no leftovers in the cuts, therefore the pieces are secured with crepe tape to hold everything in place.

The MDF is ~3mm thick and therefore sturdy enough for even the roughest gameplay. If you count in that the design is a layered one, where you have a base and glue on a second layer with the slots for your trees, that should be more than enough.

As you can see in the pictures, there are 3 types of bases and with my chosen package you can build: 

- 2 times a big 5 slot base with 40mm slots

- 3 times a small 3 slot base with 40mm slots

- 4 times a small 3 slot base with 2x40mm and 1x30mm slot

I primarily bought the stuff for creating some nicer and more flexible wood pieces, but it looks as if I can play around a bit and do also some rough terrain with rocks or something completely different (since I only have 9 ugly old trees).

But that will be something for another part :)

Hope you liked the first impression.

So long,

Paradox0n

Disclaimer: This post is not sponsored by WarMage in any kind, I bought the stuff myself, it was not given to me for a review.

Review: Army Painter Warpaints Inks

Finally some hobby time again. And to start off I will do a review which I postponed now quite a long time. With my slow switch away from Citadel paints, I was also looking into something which could replace my washes which slowly dwindle away. Since I didn't like the Vallejo Smokey Ink (and thus stepped away from all their inks), I ordered me some Army Painter Inks, because I heard only good of them. And whoop here they are :)

The Inks (or Shades) come inside those handy dropper bottles and contain 18ml of fluid. That is 1ml more than the Vallejo bottles (17ml) and 6ml more than the Citadel pots (12ml). Price-wise I can't really tell the difference, because I got them in a set and with a discount but a short look at one of my shops its ~2.75€ for AP vs. ~3.20€ for GW. For completion, Vallejo Inks are roughly at 2.50€. So there is a huge difference here. But price is not all, thus I switched into painting mode and prepared a test.
Fun fact: I also have some very old paints left (Chestnut Ink anyone?) which had 17.5ml bottles and where around 3 Deutsche Mark (today something around 1.60€). And that was already an expensive price at that time because I bought them at my LGS without discount or anything :)

For testing the paints, I took a very old Skaven shield sprue and primed it with my trustworthy Vallejo Gray Primer (a review you will find here). After that had dried I just applied a coat of each color to one shield. No diluting, no wet palette, nothing. Straight out of the bottle. And to be honest: I liked it. I have the feeling that they are a bit more diluted than my old Citadel Inks.
If they have less pigments, that could also explain the price difference, but I can't evaluate that. The Inks dry out dull, no shine to see, also not on the Strong/Soft/Dark tones.

With a special eye on the Soft/Strong/Dark tone I tried to compare them with the old Devlan Mud and stuff. They come pretty close, maybe event a perfect replacement. The only thing I see is that if you want to replace old Gryphonne Sepia with the Soft Tone you will miss the slight reddish tone of Gryphonne Sepia. But that could also be because of the gray primer (and no metal basecoat). Dark Tone is a good replacement for Badab Black and Strong Tone for Devlan Mud. Please don't ask me how these colors are named in the new Citadel range, I honestly have no clue and I don't care anymore :)

Following a more detailed view of the colors, without the bottles:

Green | Red | Blue | Purple | Strong | Soft | Dark | Pure Primer

Conclusio

To make it short: I like the Army Painter Inks. For me they have just the right consistency to play with. If you want to have it stronger, you can always shade twice. With the dropper bottles and the right price, I think they are the perfect solution for me. And if you use already Army Painter paints they match perfectly to this color range (and colored spray primers).
There if you are in search for a new Ink, give them a try.
Hope you liked that review, I am interested if you share my opinion, have different experiences or use completely different paints.


So long,
Paradox0n

ETC in Prague

www.etc-events.eu

Last week ended for me quite surprisingly with watching the livestream of the European Team Championship event in Prague. The event consists of 3 team tournaments in Flames of War, Warhammer 40K and most likely the last time this year Warhammer Fantasy Battles. It is paired with the ESC (the Singleplayer Championship) which I didn't follow.
"Bastion" or "Saper" had a really big bulk of equipment in Prague and made an awesome coverage of the event on Twitch. At the moment it looks like he is uploading the matches and stuff on his Youtube channel, so if you are interested please pay him a visit.

I was quite fascinated because I already lost interest in the GW games but the presentation of the event and the nice mixture in the reporting kept me looking and returning to the stream.

The Flames of War table which was shown was absolutely fantastic and looked more like a diorama than a gaming table. It is only shown partially on the picture stream of the events Facebook page but you can guess how the whole thing looked like:

Flames of War

The stream itself is full of random geekiness and tournament impressions so it is worth a look.

This year Germany dominated in Warhammer 40K and achieved a new points record and  took home the first place. Also in Warhammer Fantasy Battles the team placed first (after some unbelievable close final matches) and in Flames of War they achieved a respectable 9th place. Congrats to all of the players and also kudos for playing in those rough conditions. It was extremely loud and roughly 40°C without working AC.

For the next year there is already a discussion taking place what game they will take instead of WHFB. Kings of War is handled here as follow up, which would be quite cool.

Hope you enjoyed and have a good start into your week!


So long
Paradox0n

Short tip: Paint compatibility chart

Just a very short tip, because I see this question in lots of threads in painting forums or hobby related forums or even in tutorials and very very often it is something like: "I don't own this and that color what should I use?" or "I don't like this and that brand which color can I use to replace it?".

Maybe most of you already know but if not here is maybe an answer to questions like that: The Paint Range Compatibility Chart from DakkaDakka.
This chart is really helpful to get the matching tones from different brands. Even if they are not exactly the same, it really helps (I also used that one in the past).


So long,
Paradox0n

Blogger changes - Cookies!

© dreamstime.com

Maybe you wondered why now a strange message box in the head of many blogs appears: That is because of some recent changes in blogger's cookie policies. In the EU there are some legal restriction for dealing with cookies and at some point you as user have to accept the usage of cookies. With those cookies you enable the website to track your behavior and, depending on the kind of cookie) your interests and stuff.

As always in the WWW there are good and bad cookies. Some are really needed for websites (like session management and stuff) others are somewhat neutral (tracking your likes and thus providing ads which fit to you) others are clearly harmful. 

For  my part, I have a cookie blocker which kills hopefully most of the harmful stuff. Other side of the coin is, I have to whitelist everything I want to allow. But that is up to your decision how you want to deal with all this :) 

I would be happy if you would allow me to track your visit for my statistics and also to display some ads (even if not personalized). If enough people choose to click on ads and have analytics track them, the more one gets for an ad. I will not get rich by this, but maybe (at some point) there is enough there that I can buy some paints or stuff, which I could make a review on or so ;)

So far for this more technical update. If you have questions about cookies and stuff, feel free to comment, maybe I can help you (if it gets not too far). 

So long,

Paradox0n

MMM - No system is safe! Who am I O.S.T

A wonderful morning to everyone. After a weekend of fun and party (yes it was my birthday, so I had a reason!) I return to my Monday Morning Music and Musings series with the playlist of an O.S.T of a movie I recently watched: Who am I - No system is safe a German movie about a hacker group who wants global fame.

The film struck me a) because of the fitting music and b) because there was much stuff in there which I (as "professional") had do acknowledge the makers of doing their research, which (sadly) isn't done too often.

As you may know, normally electronic music is not my thing, but this O.S.T is quite nice especially since it really suited the movie.

And for some musings today: While watching the latest Age of Sigmar reports and the growing interest for Kings of War here in Germany, I am more and more excited about the arrival of the first wave from the 2nd Kings of War Kickstarter. Also the weather gets nicer (temperatures below the 38°C mark). So maybe this could be the turning point for my motivation :)

Have a good start into this week!


So long,
Paradox0n

Kings of War 2nd Edition is out

Mantica

Mantic Games continue their more aggressive promotion of the new Kings of War edition and released the core rules and the nine base army lists as free download.

If you didn't follow the massive amount of blog posts they did and are not sure if Kings of War is something for you, you should risk a look. The articles are really great and have lots and lots of information in them:

Everything You Need To Know About Kings of War… But Were Too Afraid To Ask! P1

Explains what the game is about and the basics of gameplay.

Everything You Need To Know About Kings of War… But Were Too Afraid To Ask! P2

Tells you a bit about the different armies and their style of play.

Discover the World of Kings of War

Tells you a bit of the background of Mantica (the world of Kings of War).

To be honest, I am quite excited and can't wait for the rulebook and all the stuff to arrive. With the demise of Warhammer Fantasy Battles and Age of Sigmar not really being and alternative for me so far, this really comes to the right time. Especially since I already backed the first Kickstarter of Mantic Games and thought the first edition was quite nice and on the right track.

The only thing which I think one shouldn't do is to try to compare the game to the old Warhammer Fantasy or Age of Sigmar. They are different games, with a different focus. Kings of War is clearly based around armies with units and not so much on the single heroes which could kill nearly everything on the field on themselves. And to be honest: I prefer the first variant (why I started to like WHFB 8th edition). So let's see what the future brings for Mantic Games and especially Kings of War.

So long,

Paradox0n

The End has come - Farewell old friend!

I am so sad. Really! As it seems I finally have to say "Goodbye!" to an old friend, which was part of my gaming life (even if it was with big breaks) in the midst of the 90tis: This night the rules for Age of Sigmar, the so called successor of Warhammer Fantasy Battles came out. At least the first official glimpse with the free rules and the Warscrolls...
Even with all the rumors and those pictures of the Sigmarines I had a bit of hope left. But this is destroyed now.

I don't know what those guys/girls did take for drugs but honestly, the rules souond as if my godchild had written them, while taking some of the Space Marines from my old Starquest and doing "Pew Pew Chhhhhhhh" sounds. Honestly how can you call that a game with rules like "the count of models defines the army size you play" (as if 30 Skaven are as strong as 30 Sigmarines) and special rules like "If you do as if you ride and imaginative horse you get rerolls and if you even talk to this imaginative horse you get this and that bonus".

And the translations are also as if they where put through Google Translate or something (at least the German ones). Fluent reading not possible. Not that I would require German rules but nonetheless...

There is so much wrong in all this that I can't find words for it. Either it is a (very) late April Fool hoax or I don't know...

How convenient that the Mantic rules will be presented this week and they started a Kings of War offensive some time ago. Maybe this will be the new ruleset for all kind of Fantasy Battles in the future. I am already on that train and eagerly waiting for the Kickstarter stuff to be shipped. Maybe I then can convince my old gaming partner to give it a try, because for him WHFB was aleady dead some time ago. Otherwise my thousands of points of Dark Elves and Skaven will find a dark and silent grave again in my cellar.


What are your thoughts on the new rules? Are you happy with them? Or as disappointed as I? Please feel free to leave a comment below.


So long,
Paradox0n

Lock & Load: Outpost Germany

Last weekend the first Lock & Load event in Germany was hosted in Frankfurt. For me as Warmachine/Hordes noob this event was clearly positioned in another world. Both in costs and players level :) Nonetheless I followed the discussion on the german Warmachine/Hordes forum and it really sounded as if the German distributor and the especially the organisers put in a lot of heart-blood to make the first of its kind a big bang and show that it pays out to do something like this in Germany :)
If you are interested in the games, they made a playlist of the main games which they also streamed on Twitch:

To give you a little impression of the event, Dominic from Phantasos Studio made a short video:

And on the German Brückenkopf Online, you can also find an article with some impressions of the event.

The only thing I am a little bit sad about is that you couldn't get the limited stuff on the shop from Privateer Press because as soon as they went online, the shop went down for 2 hours or so. Seems like too many people wanted to have this insane plush shredder:

As said, this is only collecting various stuff I found concerning the event, but I thought that maybe some of you missed it and are interested.


So long,
Paradox0n

MMM - So many things I got to do

"Gotta keep my sanity" is the first line of today's song and this should be my daily motto at the moment :) I already missed so much great new issues of the magazines I normally read and all your great posts of the last weeks. But hey first life, than work, than blogging :)

So I can finally yell: Jippieiaeeeeh! Vacation is coming. Next week I will travel near the border of Germany/Austria to hopefully get some nice hiking days in the Alps.

So while listening to the song "So many things" from Macka B I wish you a good start into your week:

So long,
Paradox0n

Warmachine/Hordes: Batrep Nr.3 - Legion vs. Khador

New day, new game, new opportunities. After my lucky win in the Claws & Fangs game the day before, we decided to play a bigger game this time. Since I only had the contents of the 2-Player-Box and a Spawning Vessel, we decided to play a ~25 points match. We also took another scenario from the rulebook, this time the Killing Fields scenario, where you have to conquer and hold 3 objectives on the map for victory points. And we decided to use a chess clock for timing our game, although not counting it as win condition by Deathclock. Just for information how long we use for turns and stuff. Nonetheless we set it to the standard tournament timer of 60 minutes per player.

Khador Epic Kommander Sorsha Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich Juggernaut Kodiak Battlemechaniks Winterguard with Bazookas, Officer and Standard

Legion of Everblight Lylyth, Herald of Everblight Carnivean 2 x Shredder Full Blighted Ogryn Warspears Small Spawning Vessel

My plan was to move one Shredder to the objective on the left, contest the middle one with my Ogryn and fight for the right one with the rest of my army.
In Turn One not too much happens, everything moves forward, my Ogyrns Assault the Winterguard, which is nearly unkillable through Tough, Bob&Weave and Iron Flesh. My left Shredder frenzies and runs to the Winterguard and my Carnivean contests the right objective and kills the Juggernaut. The Spawning Vessel spawns a Stinger but the spray does nothing.
That is already 2 victory points for Khador

Turn Two brings even more death. The Winterguard happily kills all of my Ogryn without me able to do anything against it. My left Shredder advances against the left objective and contesting it. The Spawning Vessel spawns another Stinger, and the Kodiak battles against my Carnivean. Everything pretty tough so far.

In Turn Three I decide to Feat because I see no other possibility to win the game as to go for a caster kill. The Winterguard is at the moment not killable for me and dominates the center of the field.

So I poke Sorscha with Lylyth to get the mark on her, but have not enough Fury to cast Parasite. Nonetheless I have to go all in.
After some rule clarification, I make an Assault with my Carnivean which allows him to spray onto Sorscha. Also my Stingers spray and try to do as much damage as possible. Not enough, but the Carnivean gets into contact and pumps himself up to its maximum fury and kills Sorscha.

If you say now: Uh the charge wasn't possible, that is because the right image is a bit misleading. It was taken AFTER the kill when we discussed who it could have been prevented. NumbDice made the error to move his Mechaniks because he thought his Kodiak needs the support. Otherwise I only could have sprayed which would not have been enough here.

Victory through caster kill (again). If this all or nothing wouldn't have worked, I would have lost the game through scenario. On the left you can see the remaining time (although we played no Deathclock) and the victory points.

Lessons learned this game:
- Again: Time your Feat correctly!
- Fury management -> Couldn't cast an important spell because of missing Fury
- You can wound yourself for Fury in your upkeep!
- Ogryn are no match for the Winterguard deathstar
- Play with enough points! I played with 4 points left as allowed (which I just realized while writing this down)

I also should have played some things differently. First I should have put my Ogryn on the left flank, completely contesting the objective. With no fury management needed, the would have been the much more stable option. Second: The only way in this setup to get the Winterguard is to kill Kovnik Jo. And/Or to bypass the armor (e.g. Spine Explosion on a Shredder).

Hope you enjoyed this battle report. The battle was fought some time ago, some things were only roughly in memory so I could have forgotten something. But in the main it should be OK. If something is unclear, please ask ;)


So long,
Paradox0n

Calming down

Wohooo! Seams like slowly the spambot attacks are going down. That is a good sign, so I will start posting again and see whats happening :)

Hobbywise things do calm down even more, since soon we will rebuild our complete working/hobby area.That will also mean more space for storing stuff and hopefully a bit more room and cleanliness. ATM its just a pain to start painting or stuff because my desk is full with other stuff and I have to clean everything up and also store the paint stuff again. That really sucks because I am more the slow painter and if you always have to store your stuff you will never make progress...

And I just saw I have a new follower. So :Welcome aboard Dan! Hope I found out the correct blog for you :) Search yourself a seat, the airship slowly fills up.


So long,
Paradox0n

Still in the trenches

If you wondered why it is so quite on this blog: No I did not quit writing or trying to do some hobby stuff. I just had some "active" weeks with travelling to Romania for work and more private stuff.
Also I am still pretty p***ed about whats going on with all those spambots. Looks like Russia does a cyberwar against my blog, three days ago I had more than 500 hits only with those spambots. But it seems that this was the last spike and things are calming down now...

So cross your fingers that this stupid wave is finally over please :)

See you soon!
Paradox0n

Calming the waves

Nichiren Calming the Seas by Kuniyoshi

Yes, I am still alive. I did take a short break to (hopefully) calm down the spambot waves a bit. Through my latest posting and pushing rhythm it seems I got quite the attention of a lot of spambots. I could see a LOT of doubtable referer URLs in my statistics and also got some spam in the comments.On the one hand, attention is nice but on the other hand only if its from real readers and not just sutpid bots.

Meanwhile I did change my about page a bit, to reflect the latest changes in the hobby.

Finally I got the pictures from the shipmodels convention I visited a week ago. Just scanning through them and finding the best for a short report :)

Also my Warmachine/horde battle report is still waiting. One ie preproduced and the other one is in the making.


So stay tuned,
Paradox0n

Hobby Magazines: Wyrd Chronicles Issue #17

And another magazine I nearly missed! Wyrd Chronicles Issue No. 17 is out since beginning of April. And I can only say: Fear the Bunny! Really awesome cover here ;)

Wyrd Chronicles No. 17

In this issue you can find among others:

• Festival Day: It's a Wyrd Earth Day story
• Building a Park: Learn how to assemble some fantastic terrain!
• Smuggler's Run: A one-shot adventure for Through the Breach
• Luther the Pascha Hare: A hare raising tale full of cuddly (and nod so cuddly) bunnies
• Tyrannus' Tutelary: A guide to painting the War Wabbit
• Painting Contest Winners: Frozen Moments
• Painting Contest Winners: Crystal Brush

My favorite article this time is the tutorial for building the park. Very good ideas and tips in there and it looks really cool!
So even if you are not playing Malifaux, you can find some interesting stuff in here.


So long,
Paradox0n

Hobby Magazines: Ironwatch Issue #32

Issue #32 of Ironwatch Magazine, the Mantic Games Fanzine has arrived in the beginning of April. I nearly missed it so with a bit delay my post.

Ironwatch Issue #32

As usual it contains a nice mixture of Kings of War, Warpath and all Mantic related topics like:

• Iron Forge
• The Battle of Gawick Upon Tibble
• The Bloodstone of Cerillion
• Tutorial: How to Paint Dreadball Xtreme Convicts
• Building it Up for Those Damn Martians to Tear Down
• and many more

I especially like the Mars Attacks tutorial from Terrain Tutor, since I also followed the process on his Youtube channel.

If you haven't checked already, take a look, its free and fanmade and totally supported by Mantic. I like this pretty much therefore I to spread the word as usual :)


So long,
Paradox0n

MMM - Anyone alive out there?

Another episode of my Monday Morning Musings (and Music). Today I am asking myself if anybody is still reading the stuff I post. There was not much feedback on the last stuff I posted which dampens my motivation for posting a bit at the moment.
As you all know, comments are a bloggers best friend (also like/shares etc.pp. help to keep a good mood). So if you still read my stuff, I would be happy if you find some time to post a small comment from time to tome, even a "sucks" or "great" if you have not much time.
I see that I have lots of visits (increasing from month to month) and sometimes up to nearly 300 a day but no active participation like comments or likes/shares in the social media.

Therefore I shout out in the blogosphere: Is anybody out there?! with some hardcore music from Neophyte:

Warmachine/Hordes battlereport Nr. 3 is already done and will be posted this week. I also had a fourth game last Monday. Sadly I took no pictures but I will give you a short summary nonetheless.


So long,
Paradox0n

P.S.:
And another new follower. A warm "Welcome!" to Alejandro Lii. Take a seat, grab some tea and enjoy the ride. If you have a blog, please tell me, that I can add you to my blogroll.

Warmachine/Hordes: Batrep Nr.2 - Legion vs. Khador

Since my Legion of Everblight 2-Player-Box arrived some time ago, Numbdice and Me met for a gaming session and sent our wives on a party :) After scanning through the rulebook and all my stuff, we decided to start with a Mangled Metal match so that I can learn the rules a bit more and get a feeling for the Legion of Everblight.

We grabbed some terrain pieces from my board, got 4 pieces of my modular table and created a terrain which we thought would be nice to play on.

Since Mangled Metal is normally only played with the contents of a battle box, I played pLylyth, 4 Shredders and a Carnivean. My opponent had eSorsha, Juggernaut, Berserker and a Kodiak. Not exactly a battle box but in the points limit and so we played exactly that :)

First round wasn't really spectacular, everything moved forward and we stared each other into the eyes (or whatever Lylyth has). I had to be careful with my Fury since Lylyth can only soak 5 points so with running I was already at the limit.

The second round was a bit more interesting since I didn't run anymore but used the Animus of my lesser beasts to make tough Lylyth and the Carnivean a bit more durable. Lylyth moved into the woods do hide herself and get a bit of shooting into the Jacks.

The Berserker moved in direction of the woods, the other two Jacks charged my Shredders (exactly what I hoped they would do).
On the picture you can see my selfmade tokens in action :)

In the third round the fighting really began, the Berserker battled against my Carnivean, the Kodiak and Juggernaut killed my Shredders and Lylyth bushwacked into safety. At the end of the round, the Berserker exploded and left a pile of garbage in the woods.

All in all I was pretty lucky that nothing more happened to me and the bit of damage I got could be either mitigated or soaked.

So I prepared for the last round of battle, because my Lylyth stood in a good shooting position on Sorsha. And with an Assault order I could also spray on her with my Carnivean. And exactly that I did. The result of: 2 boosted shots on her -> Witch Blood and Parasite and a Carnivean spray you can see on the left picture :)

Win through caster kill. I was really happy with the result, because if that wouldn't have worked, I would have been dead in this or the next round. All my Shredders were killed and my Carnivean can not stand up against 2 Jacks. So it was all or nothing at this point.

Lessons learned in this game:

- Don't forget when to Feat!
- Shredders are nice cannon fodder and can annoy but will not win you a game. Take one for the Animus on your caster
- Lylyth's ability to shoot and move out of the way and THEN cast her stuff is great
- Carnivean is not so bad as thought. Spraying and then close combat is quite effective, especially on feat turn

And we had some spectators on the game. Loki, one of my cats, took a seat and had a suspicious look what we are doing :)

Was a really nice evening, with lots of talking and beer drinking and stuff. Sadly I couldn't convince Labschi from the game. Otherwise I would have playing mate directly in reach.
The second game awaited us then on the next day.

Hope you enjoyed this short battle report. The game was already some time ago, so I also could have forgotten something. But in the main it should be OK. If something is unclear, please ask ;)


So long,
Paradox0n

Hordes: Reinforcements arrived

Doppelpost today! Okay so I still have my big package flying around with lots of fancy stuff I want to use in the future for my Legion of Everblight force.

In this picture you not only can see the All-in-One army box. But also the UAs (unit attachements) for my Ogryn Warspeers and my Strider Rangers. Also you can see two more Acolytes for the Spawning Vessel to make it a big unit, a Forsaken and a Swamp Gobber crew.
Plus there is the official template set.

Aaand I was running out of or missing washes. Especially a blue and a purple one is needed, so I opted for the Warpaints Inks because I heard lots of positive stuff from them. Let's see if they are really this good.

And I am still owing you some Warmachine/Hordes battle reports. But I had too much on my mind and nearly no motivation to really blog. If you follow me on the social medias you may have seen that I am still alive because I made some advertisement for the Wasteman kickstarter which was successfully funded this weekend. Very happy that someone can make his hobby to his work :)


So long,
Paradox0n

Happy Easter to everyone

Today only a very short post: I wish all of you a Happy Easter. Hope you can party with your family and have some nice free days.

And a warm welcome to Kodos der Henker. Have a seat, take some tee and cookies. And enjoy the ride.


So long,
Paradox0n

MMM - Farewell T.P. and Melting the Ice

© The Smiling Grouch

Welcome back to another Monday Music and Musing episode! Before I really want to start my musing, I have to start (again) with some mourning: Last week one of my favored authors of fantasy (comedy) novels died: Terry Pratchett.

“DON'T THINK OF IT AS DYING, said Death. JUST THINK OF IT AS LEAVING EARLY TO AVOID THE RUSH.”

Many artists made drawings and paintings to honor the creator of the Discworld and writer of many many fantastic novels. The picture shown by me is from The Smiling Grouch. On the Tumblr page you can also find some other interesting pictures.


But now let's continue with something not so sad: On the weekend I had the chance to play two Warmachine/Hordes matches with my Legion of Everblight against NumbDice's Khador. First a Mangled Metal with only one battlegroup to learn the rules and then a 25pts scenario game with the complete content of the 2-players box. I don't want to spoil too much because I will try to write down some short battle reports. But since I am still owing you some music:

Power of the Dragonflame by Rhapsody of Fire (formerly Rhapsody), an Italian metal band.

The games where lots of fun and really, really thrilling. I found it absolutely interesting how the game changes in scenario play. Can't wait for my other stuff to arrive to build a more balanced list.

Have a good start into your week!


So long,
Paradox0n