The Bristol Big ‘Uns 2nd Warmahordes league is drawing to a close and I was asked to put together a trophy. I had a Khador ‘jack that didn’t make the cut to my army box as the Extreme version was too good to leave out. I popped this chap on a resin plinth, ordered a plaque from eBay and voila one trophy that the winner wi hopefully be happy with.
I’ve managed to make a fair amount of progress on my jokers. I’m very much enjoying these. The harlequin pattern on Yuri’s trousers was a bit of a ‘mare but I’m pretty happy with the final result. I’ve also been experimenting with a custom ruined paving slab design on the based. I’ve mixed feelings about the results so far but it’s early days and no doubt I will get better at doing this as time goes on.
I’ve been studying how to make customised pavement style bases recently. I think they might look rather nice with my Eden Jokers.
First step is to pour some plaster onto a flat surface and score in the slabs while it is still a little soft.
Once dry it’s just a case of breaking the slabs away and glueing in the desired pattern. My initial results should be visible on the joker gang.
Having enjoyed my recent game of Eden I decided to break out some post Apoc vehicles I’ve had lying around for ages. I bought these from a company called Ramshackle games. They are cheap and cheerful but have a lot of character clearly designed for post Apoc games. They won’t get a full paint job for a while but I’m hoping to get a good rusty base coat on for gaming use ASAP
Took my first steps into the post Apocalyptic world of Eden last night. I had a great time using the Jokers against Matt’s Convoy. The game is slick and intuitive with plenty of scope for tactics but with a dark humour to the action. It plays a bit like a cross between Warmachine and Infinity. Well worth looking at and read on for a few more details.
First up the board and deployment. The play area is small to keep the action immediate and brutal. I picked up some grey tiles from Homebase that just happen to be very nearly the correct size. They look a bit like Tarmac so fit the post apoc vibe nicely although they are rather heavy! Matt choose a mission that required a standard deployment called confrontation while the Jokers mission requires the other deployment that is ambush. This put my guys on the flanks but further up the board.
Matt got first turn via a bigger strategy point bet than me and we were off. Here’s a shot of three of Jokers coming down a flank. The lady is a knife thrower, the guy in the tutu is a self harming suicidal maniac, and the clown is a pyromaniac with a Molotov cocktail. It’s all very jolly in the world of Eden!
Some more action from the other flank. Anton the joker is pummelling Matt’s doggy with his lollipop sign post, while Vlad is getting to grips with his opponent. The gems represent the number of actions each model has remaining and to the side you can see a tactical card Vlad has played to allow him to choose his hit location should he be successful this turn.
As it turns out the Jokers do rather well and within a couple of turns are up against the Convoy. At that point Matt breaks through and gets Otto’s chainsaw going. A couple of good rolls and the Jokers leader is decapitated!
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After that set back the jokers gradually take out the Convoy chaps. Vlad and Anton get a nice double act going with Vlad softening up the opposition with his flamer and Anton following up with his lollipop sign. Eventually the Jokers corner Otto and Anton knocks his for six.
A great game. The Jokers take it and looking forward to more in the future.
I had a couple of hours spare and felt motivated to splash some colour on my Eden Jokers. I’m hoping to get these to tabletop standard fairly soon and convince some club mates to give the game a bash. If the game is good these guys will get the full works as these characterful sculpts deserve it.
I’ve been considering ways to speed up my painting recently. I need a fair number of winter guard for my Harkevich tier list and the great coats fill me with dread!
I have decided to give a wet palette another go to speed the blending process up. Basically I mix up a spectrum of colours from the shadow tone through to the highlight on the wet palette and just take each colour from it as needed. I managed to paint the first great coat to a decent standard in under an hour this way. It would usually take 2 or 3 with the layering technique I have using in recent months.
Hopefully it won’t be too long until I can field a couple of these teams and a winter guard death star too.
Got these two chaps finished recently. Quite pleased with the results. Like my other recent Khador models I’ve toned down the mud and snow do it only appears on the base. I think this gives a crisper appearance which is more appealing to the eye. Black Ivan is interesting in that I made a conscience effort to make him Steamroller legal i.e. he is made from the Black Ivan kit on an extreme juggernaut chassis. The black was interesting to paint and I’m fairly happy with the result including the silver weathering rather than the brown that appears on the other models.
So, I was really looking forward to running Harkevich out for his second game. This time I had the full compliment of points, had taken a Spriggan to give me more melee potential, and was looking forward to trying out a Winter Guard mini death star.
Sadly I got Harkevich’s positioning all wrong and a marauding Seraph shot him down very early in the game! Not good. To be fair the Seraph did get a bit lucky, but there are important lessons to be learnt from this rather short game.
1) I wasted Fortune on the Winter Guard. They are not going to be shooting anything in the early game, so better to start it on a Destroyer with 14in range.
2) Harkevich needs cover. Either hidden in the Winter Guard or park him behind a wall/wreck marker. In this game I tried to keep him near a ‘jack to benefit from Escort’s +2 arm, but the ‘jacks really cannot be relied on to block LOS on their own. Escort is great for the +2 movement but the armour buff is really should be viewed as a situational bonus rather than a must have.
3) When allocating focus to Destroyers use it to hit against heavy armour models. The pow 14 is needed; 7 is only going to cut it against low armour troops.
4) Although I didn’t get to use the Winter Guard death star I can see they are going to be nasty. I think it may be worth using them as Harkevich’s body guard rather than the ‘jacks. I need to think more about how to use them to full effect and in particular the order of activation and the orders they get.
Finished painting Harkevich this week. A nice model with a good level of detail. I’ve decided to cut down a bit on the weathering and muck on my future Khador models, so no snow or mud on the model itself this time – just the base. Less is more as they say!
I’m not 100% happy with the light effect on his weapon. This is something I need to practise for my Cryx force that is in the early stages of production.
I’m looking forward to getting the Iron Wolf back on the table ; i enjoyed my first game with him as he feels like an interesting and well balanced Warcaster.
Nurgleonbass 