Despite a slow as 2017/18, this is the 200th post we've put up here. I'm as suprised as anyone that any of us managed to keep an interest here (we are magpies after all!) for any length of time, least of all me.
Painting?
Yes! Painting. I'm pretty sure I said I should paint some Cobras that I need for an upcoming TY event (where we will play part 2 of a campaign and the brave NATO troops will fight off the WARPAC hordes!) and I have been looking for a camo scheme for ages. I found an amazing one used by the Jordanian army that they've used on Cobras and Blackhawks and it is SO COOL. This got me thinking about Khalids and...let's just stop this train of thought right now.
So Cobras:
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| WUB WUB WUB! |
Tank and I have the same problem, that we'd both prefer our Cobras to have MARINES slapped on the side, so I've not done the transfers yet. Overall, they'll fit nicely into the randomly camo-ed MASSTER army. I am pleased.
I did hate assembling these. I do wonder about sprue design at BF sometimes. But they're done and I would consider another two at some point if I ever feel like burning 14 points in a TY army for another two very mobile ITOWs.
Vanguard!
Tank and I had a test game of Mantic's Kings of War Vanguard, using the free rules and lists Mantic have published online. That, coupled with the fact that Tank already has a bunch of Mantic Orges (note spelling), seemed like as good a reason as any to give it a blat.
The game went well - we tried some things to see how they worked out and had to talk through a bunch of stuff to understand how things worked. We got wound up in a combat where my Prince punched the Orge Sergeant and failed to kill him. Was punched in return and lived through it. Got punched AGAIN and still didn't die and then got up and put the Orge Sergeant in the dirt. He was promptly sacked by a Goblin Biggit and another Orge. It felt wrong to begin with but as we worked through the stats and the rules, it made sense in the end. By the end of the game, I had a wizard left who wasn't fleeing and Tank had two fleeing Orge grunts, a shaman (oh man that's a cool model too) and a Goblin Biggit.
I built all my wizgangs for Frostgrave from old Fantasy miniatures because they look cool. Part of the reason I wanted to play Vanguard is that I wanted that to matter again. Tank's Orges were a blunt instrument with many melee dice (although low skill) and lots of wounds. My Elves were squishy AF and had fewer melee dice but with much better skill.
I liked the power dice mechanic and each list having it's own things to do with it's power dice also adds to the variation. I think there's some interesting depth in using your power dice for extra dice on fights or saves as well as using it to fatigue models for extra activations. There'd definitely an art to that methinks.
The lists having cheap grunts and better (and slightly more survivable) warriors is a nice distinction (with each having benefits) and a nice selection of support models for each of the lists. I was able to just upgrade one of my spearman to a cavalryman by adding 'horse.' Also, being a lover of terrible dad jokes meant that I enjoyed the fact that an Orc warrior is called an Ax. A stronger Orc warrior with more weapons is a Morax. Because of course it is. Teehee.
Anything I didn't like? Not really. I've never been a super fan of exploding dice but, at least in our test game, they definitely seemed less awful than either of us expected. They turned 2 successes into 3 more often than not. Some of the terrain rules and how 'height' works (particularly as it applied to cavalry) were a little less clear than I would have liked but once we'd worked through them, they were fine.
Overall? Tank has already brought the rulebook and I won't be far behind him TBH. Pel and McBeth also tried out proper KoW as well and they really enjoyed it. Props to Mantic for putting out a free rulebook that was broad enough to test the game out and decide whether it warranted further investment!
Good News!
The best news of the week was that Pooch noticed that I could get some backpacks for my Cadians locally. I bought many. Probably too many. I think the phrase is...oh dear, how sad, never mind? One of those things that has always vexed me about all the Imperial Guard (do not talk to me about Astra Militarum. That's just Latin for 'Star Army' and is lame.) models GW has ever made is that Guardsmen don't really have enough kit. I always feel like they're more like modern soldiers, carrying all their stuff with them, so they should have backpacks.
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| Carrying ALL THE THINGS |
Next Week
Some Guardsmen. I've started painting them already (and I've done a test model already - you saw him in our Wrath and Glory run through) and loving how they're coming out. Oh, and I have a couple of HMMWVs I need to paint too.
