Tag Archive for Miniatures

Architect of the Divine

Stolen shamelessly, but somewhat appropriate...

Stolen shamelessly, but somewhat appropriate…

 

Okay it’s been too long and I never got off my butt and finished showing the stuff I picked up from Templecon, but we’re going to struggle and work through that as soon as i can get this stuff done.  And I’m working on it, so apologies to all for the lengthy absence again.

I recently had the privilege of receiving the Lost Hemisphere Blog’s review copy of Father Lucant, the Divinity Architect to assemble and paint, and let me tell you what a joy it was.

 

JOYBURST!!

Creative list building vs. “the meta”

vip2

Meta (from the Greek preposition and prefix meta- (μετά-) meaning “after” or “beyond”) is a prefix used in English to indicate a concept which is an abstraction from another concept, used to complete or add to the latter. 

If you’re anything like me, the first time you heard the word ‘meta’ it was probably attached to the word gaming, you usually heard it playing RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons, and it wasn’t something you wanted to be accused of.  Meta gaming meant using your out-of-character knowledge to make in-character decisions and was typically most loathed when it was done for personal gain.  But I digress, many of you dear readers may not be as nerdy as I am and perhaps the first time you heard it was in the Warmachine and Hordes community where it gets thrown around so often.   If you listen to any of the multitude of podcasts on the subject (including the brilliant and amazing Lost Hemisphere Radio Podcast) you’ll hear the term thrown around a lot, but what does it mean to you?

The way people in this community use the term it basically means ‘the style or styles of play that are most advantageous and/or successful within the current rules, accepting the current range of models available for play’.  In other words; whatever is working right now.  That is the basic concept of Warmachine meta.  It is different from place to place and highly affected by the size of group playing the game at or in any given event or community, but it’s a fascinating concept and it’s a neat experience to travel to Cons, tournaments and even just stores outside of your local in order to see other metas.  Something that I have been noticing more and more recently is the trickle down from the national meta to the store level meta, probably because of the massive increase in the popularity of Warmachine podcasts these last few years.  People hear casters or other models reviewed poorly or read that they are bad on the forums and simply dismiss them without a further look, instead favouring options more popular on the forums or among the top national players.  On the one hand I think this is great because it gives payers everywhere a chance to try out a list or some tech that one of the best in the world put together, but on the other hand I worry that newer players may get sucked into the whirlpool of competitive play before they have a chance to bask in the glory that is the storyline, themes and narrative of the Iron Kingdoms – and of course the basics of the game itself.  It’s important to get a firm grasp of the basics before diving into last year’s Warmachine Weekend winner’s Masters list.  You want to remember that the game is fun too, and keep it that way for yourself and others as often as possible.  That’s most of what I want to address today but before I get too carried away:

Deathbot Unboxing Begins!

Stolen shamelessly, but somewhat appropriate...

Stolen shamelessly, but somewhat appropriate…

 

Without much ado and any further delay, let’s start the blog articles showing you what was in those lovely blisters and boxes acquired from TempleCon 2014!

 

First up is one I think a lot of people were waiting for, the Iron Mother herself, Directrix and her Exponent Servitors.  This was a heavy blister containing all the pieces you will need to construct your own Deathbot Warcaster Vessel and her floating hoverbots.

 

Chock full of robot-y goodness with none of the distracting nougat.

Chock full of robot-y goodness with none of the distracting nougat.

Post TempleCon Blues

 

Having just returned from TempleCon 2014 and made reparations at home for my time away, I find myself a bit morose and melancholy at my desk as i write this, thinking of all the people I already miss and all the fun I just had.  If no one minds I think I’ll go back through some of the highlights here and talk about why TempleCon means the world to me.

Fearing the approaching snowmaggeddon, we hastily decided last Tuesday to depart early and drive all night to beat the majority of the snow and mess that would come with a Winter Snowstorm the day we were meant to drive 8 hours to Rhode Island.  We LITERALLY would have been driving through the worst part of the storm for the majority of the day, and that is not something I really wanted to do.  So rushed packing and hasty departures had Ragnarok and myself in the car and on the road by 8 PM, hoping beyond hope to not hit snow till early Wednesday.  We made good time and crossed the border fast after an awesome chat about being unique and different with the border guard and quickly got underway crossing the desolate space that is the I-90 in New York State.  Making but one pit stop for gas and a bio-break, we had what i consider to be a pretty good run all the way to Warwick, Rhode Island and the Crowne Plaza hotel.  We had heard from the second car that they were getting some snow, and I expected to get hit when we started to head south towards Providence/Warwick, but fortunately our car made it all the way to the hotel with no snow.  We checked into our room at around 4:45 AM Wednesday and went back out to get the bags from my car, only to be greeted by 2cm of snow already down in the time it took us to check in.

 

This was clear 5 minutes ago...

This was clear 5 minutes ago…

I’m Conning your Temple, 2014!

HobbyHys2.jpg

That’s right people, it is Thursday, February the 6th of 2014 and right now, somewhere in the Crowne Plaza hotel in Warwick, RI I am sleeping off the first of many nights of copious amounts of drinking.  Alternatively I haven’t slept and am in the line to get access to the new Privateer Press shinies when their booth opens in the morning, hoping beyond hope that Stryker3, Vengeance Softcover and ALL THE CONVERGENCE DEATHBOTS pre release models will be mine.  TempleCon 2014 is here, and the best FOUR days in gaming have begun.  Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful, but it’s fine to resent me for the fact that i am here amongst many friends and fans of the Warmachine & Hordes games (including High Command!).

…Exploding On The Highway Like a Slug From a .45

MPA

Speed Painting 101

A common question I receive from friends is “How do you paint so fast?”.

It’s not uncommon for me to hammer out a full 50+ point army in roughly a month’s time.  How do I do this?  It’s likely a combination of experience and technique.  I’ll just run down some quick pointers and then there’s a 52 min video of me painting a Bull Snapper model from start to finish.

 

 photo olsen_01_zpsb9e50771.jpg

Wear a smock or something if you’re going to speed paint like this guy!

Rise of the A.I.

Banner being designed, this was too cute to pass up.

 

One of the things I see happen frequently is people making, sharing and discussing lists that they have created for an event, game night, or tournament appearance that bears some scrutiny by their peers.  The Privateer Press message boards have specific sub-sections for all of their factions to dedicate to list building and critique.  I enjoy building lists as well, and certainly listening to podcasts that discuss list building theories, ideas, and the merits of the pieces and parts to each list included.  With a blog like HH it’s going to be harder to get a full conversation going but it will allow me to get some of my list ideas out there and flesh out the why and what of the list, as well as if it has any merit or play test possibility whatsoever.  I’ll be looking for feedback in the comments section, as well as in any of the forum posts where I link the article.  And go easy on me, I am pretty simple/not that good at this game.  🙂

2013 Year In Review

 

I call 2013 the Life and Death of a blog.  Because really, I tried to get it up and running and recruit lots of people to blog, write and talk about what they are doing with their hobbies, but that hasn’t really worked out like I thought it would.  Turns out blogging is like work, and we all try really hard to avoid work at all costs.

 

However we here at HH are not to be deterred.  I am gonna look at the design of the blog, look at getting some more articles up and running, and see about motivating (with a whip) some of the guys whose content I know was well-written and well received by the small audience we have out there.  That being said, let’s talk about what I did accomplish in 2013:

Hey, I know a guy who lives in that city…

NFL(GS) Game Tape

MPA

Professional sports teams review old game tape for hours in order to improve their own skills and abilities as well as to learn their upcoming opponents’ play style.  These are athletes that are at the top of their game and studying game footage helps to keep them there.  What exactly are they looking for?  Well you can’t control what your opponent will do but you can investigate what they’ve done in the past and possibly learn strategic tendencies and tactics and from that info, you can learn how to counter it.  You can also study your own gameplay and determine what you can improve on.  So if you’re looking to get to the top of the Warmachine/Hordes competitive scene, why wouldn’t you review old games?

 

Enter the NFL(GS) Game Tape (Notable Friendly Local Game Store).  Alright, admittedly competitive Warmachine is not a professional sport but it is a competitive tournament environment where knowing the play styles of the major competitors and the typical models you’ll encounter across the table is essential to success.  More important is learning how to improve the strategies or positioning of models a typical player can make during a game.  Can you learn to recognize that your plan to out-attrition your opponent will fail and you should switch to assassination mode? Maybe reviewing the game a few times can help! As such, following in the footsteps of Matti K from endgamegaming.net, I have taken it upon myself to record a “game of the week” for the local players at our local gaming store, Heroes World.  Several of the players here will be going to Templecon to test their skills against the field and while only one of our local players has aspirations at seriously competing for the Warmachine Masters crown, I felt it would be good to let a variety of players assess their own games to see where improvements can be made.

 photo FilmRoom-091213-01_zps63aedba7.jpg

In Play 1, Knowshon Moreno wants to charge into combat but doesn’t know eEiryss is going to shoot all the Focus off of Peyton Manning. After studying the game footage, the player realizes he should have done Play 2, and sent Moreno to charge Eiryss so she can’t shoot Manning.