Report indicates some sort of detail, which I won’t be able to provide so long after the fact. A couple of weeks ago I played my first game of Warmaster in years. To make the situation even better I won.

The battle lines are drawn. My miniatures are the immobile ones on the bottom left.

I arrived at the host’s house and met the players. I was treated to a nice red wine which made me think of black currants while we discussed how we would handle the evening’s match. There were three of us, I with 1000 points of Orcs and Goblins and my opponents with a varied selection. Fortunately, one player had 2000 points of Dwarves at hand and my host 1000 points of Orcs and Goblins. This solved our odd numbers situation and we decided to fight a straight-up brawl with the two Orc and Goblin players giving orders to their troops as part of the same turn. I was given the honour of fielding the army general.

The field of battle had a good selection of terrain. A large two-tiered hill dominated the center of the table with a few stands of trees surrounding it. I commanded the Orc and Goblin right flank. I cannot remember exactly what my opponents fielded. I know the Dwarves had a gyrocopter, at least three or four units of slayers with big blocks of warriors fronted by thunderers. My colleague had a giant, warriors and goblins. I think I remember some boar riders as well. I had two units of orc warriors, two units of goblins, a unit of black orcs, wolf chariots and boar riders and a giant and rock lobber. In reality, I would prefer to have more warriors rather than the giant or rock lobber.

The orc and goblins advance. My orc warriors never managed to move out of those woods

In the end it didn’t really matter because I wasn’t able to move my army the whole game. My ally ended up doing all the work. The dwarves made it to the hill first. Before they could spend too many turns disrupting our lines with thunderer fire my ally disrupted their line with a giant and followed it up with an assault of ogres. This pinned down the line and allowed him to get a unit of boar riders on the flank and begin rolling it up. It was getting late so we decided to call it.

If I was a general worried about my career I could take credit for the victory, claiming that my refused flank strategy pinned down half the dwarf force while my ally defeated the rest in detail. In reality, I just managed to fail almost every command check. The only thing I managed to do is get my giant in a position where a favourable “giant goes wild” result would send it careening into some dwarfs. Of course, when it did go wild the result was that it charged into an innocent group of goblins who weren’t bothering anyone.

The scrum in the center hots up.

It was a bit boring to stand around failing command checks then waiting for my ally and opponent to move, but I did enjoy pulling out my miniatures and “playing” with them. Hopefully next game I’ll have more luck moving my army.

Tyler

Last week I had the opportunity to play a game of Warmaster. I packed up my camera alongside my Orc and Goblin army and took a lot of pictures. To go with them I’d like to write a decent battle report, but don’t really have time today. To hold you over, here’s a picture of the action.

The main assault on the hill.

Here we go, starting in on the new style of blog posts. For the longest time I’ve been using this website less as a blog and more as a regular website with WordPress as my content management system. The other day I complained about lack of traffic. Instead of complaining and doing nothing I’m changing things up. Hopefully the increase in updates will show a similar increase in traffic.

I am sure that there are more than a few of you reading this and saying that traffic shouldn’t be the primary reason for creating this site. While that is true to an extent, if I didn’t care about traffic why spend the time and energy putting this online when I could easily create a project journal in Microsoft Onenote. I do have project journals that I find useful, but I also want to show off and share my hobby with others. All bloggers are in some way exhibitionists with enough of an ego to think other people will care about what they have to say. Most, like myself, were probably inspired by similar sites. We know people want to read this sort of thing because we want to read this sort of thing.

The very tempting Assault on Black Reach Starter Set.

Just a quick note: I am aware that the images on the top-left are skewed. This was part of the site redesign and I need to recreate all of the images. At the same time I’ll add some more. Otherwise, any feedback is much appreciated.

Current Projects

Speaking of projects, I’ve recently been rethinking the projects on my workbench. I’ve written about this before. I’m the kind of wargamer known as the Butterfly. Manly. The butterfly flits from project to project and generally shows the attention span of a gnat. As an example, I picked up a White Dwarf for the first time in forever. A podcast I was listening to mentioned that GW was focusing more on painting and modelling in White Dwarf. The theory was that this is to compete with games like AT43 by promoting the hobby sides of the game as a selling feature. A good idea, and the type of articles I felt I was missing when I stopped reading the magazine. I happened to be at Chapters and decided to take a look at the magazine. When I picked it up my mind was immediately made to give the issue a try. It wasn’t the cover, but the physical feel of the issue. White Dwarf #28 comes with two sample miniatures from the Assault on Black Reach game; a Space Marine Terminator and an Ork Nob. Sold!

I’ve enjoyed reading through it and realized something very important about myself. No-one is ever an ex-GW Fanboy. The recovering process, like that of alcoholism¹, is ongoing. As I read about the new release I thought that it might be fun to pick it up. After all, I am not the wargamer I was when I first played GW games. The last boxed set I purchased was Starship Troopers, and I’ve painted all the miniatures from that box. Perfect rationalization for buying a new boxed set. Nevermind all the other projects I should finish first, nevermind that I’ve decided to avoid GW products in favour of all the other excellent wargames that are much more affordable. I must have it. It must be mine!.

Then reason started to creep into my thought process. I purchased a large set of Space Marines years ago that I never painted. I have a couple of Tactical Squads, an Assault Squad, a Bike Squad, a Captain, Librarian and Chaplain on Bike, a Landspeeder and Predator tank all waiting to be painted. That’s enough for a decent starter army at least.

This boxed set almost ended my relationship with my wife before it even got started. In a fit of oxygen deprivation at a GW Store auction I spent all of my money on it, not realizing it would leave me too broke to even take my wife, then new girlfriend, out for her birthday.

Even this small level of madness passed; a display of awesome wargamer willpower. I already have enough on my plate that thinking of adding something new at this point is a bit premature. However, it’s not like I have so many projects that I can never add anything new. Which got me to think about what projects I do have on the go. Being a wargamer butterfly, this seems to change day by day as new projects grab my interest and old ones are temporarily forgotten. Here are the projects in the order I plan to tackle them. Remember, for me, a project is something like painting a wargaming unit, not a whole army. Right now I don’t get to play much, so painting an army is less of a priority than painting something interesting and different.

• TMP Article: This is a short project. I am painting some miniatures for The Miniatures Page. I’ll link to the workbench article when it is finished.
• Warlord Games Romans: I painted 16 Warlord Games Romans for a Battlesgames article. I haven’t heard if it’s been accepted yet, but I still have the remainder of the box remaining. Instead of packing them away I am going to finish painting them to create a complete unit. Unfortunately I won’t be able to describe how they were painted for a while, if ever, because of the magazine article.
• Warhammer Fantasy Orcs: Remember when I was painting these guys? I stopped before they were finished in order to paint the above Romans for a deadline. Once I start painting them I’ll actually be able to get some more WIP images on the site. I started painting this to encourage a friend to paint his Tomb Kings. He hasn’t even started so I doubt I’ll be playing with him. Meanwhile, one of my Magic and D&D players, an ex-Assistant Manager of a local GW store, has started painting again after a hiatus. He’s doing up some Warhammer Chaos figures, giving me a reason to continue and perhaps expand this fun project.
• Heavy Gear Blitz! Army: While the army is complete, I still have plenty of Gears to paint to increase the size and give me more options. Now that my current job means I’ll always have weekends off I can consider playing this game regularly. Actually playing a game is a great incentive for painting.
• 1812 Project: This project has been on the backburner for a long while. I need to take some pictures of my miniatures in terrain and paint some new figures. It’s something that I’m interested in, but it is a long-term project and not something I expect to be able to play anytime soon. Sometimes I get the urge to move faster on it and painting up a unit will scratch that itch.
• Field of Glory: Although I’ll have a unit of Early Imperial Romans based for Field of Glory soon, I’m still undecided on what army I want to collect. Although I started with a lot of enthusiasm, much like my 1812 project, I despair of ever finishing it.
• Warhammer 40K Space Marines: Will this become a project, or will the urge fade by the time I clear my workbench? I certainly plan to paint the Terminator and Nob as soon as possible.
• Necromunda: Some of my friends still idly talkk of starting a new Necromunda campaign. They’ve been away from wargames for a long while and I wonder how much is nostalgia, and how much serious plans.
• Warmaster Ancients: Another Ancients wargame where I’m not set on which army I want to paint. I’m not sure if I’m going to ever return to this.
• Warmaster: I’ve painted two armies, not sure if I’ll ever add to them.
• Battlefleet Gothic: Another old friend is talking about returning to this game. While I have fond memories of playing it, I sometimes think I’d rather find a similar game and use some of the awesome Ninja Magic miniatures. They have their own rule system too, hmm. Oh no, another project!

Well, so much for more frequent, quick blog posts. This one has turned into a monster. Once again, feedback is much appreciated. Please do me a favour and take the time to leave a comment. It’s simple and easy, no login required.

Tyler

1) I am not seriously comparing purchasing hobby products to the disease of alcoholism. Buying GW products is never romanticized in movies or tv. Seriously though, I’m just goofing.

Warmaster Dwarf Command

Round bases are a must for command figures in my opinion. I love the way they look and plan to use them in all my projects. In Warmaster, round command bases are accepted, to the point where The Battle of Five Armies supplied round bases for the command figures.

Warmaster was not the first game where I discovered round bases. I remember, years before, playing an American Civil War game at Ottawa Miniatures Gamers. Someone else had supplied the figures and I was struck by how the round base set the figure apart from the rank and file troopers the officers were leading.

Not all games can use this style of basing. Most Sci-fi games use round bases already, making it necessary to increase the size of the base to make the commanders stand out. I’ve experimented with this, it definately works much better when there isn’t much melee combat. In my Back of Beyond forces, I gave the officers a slightly larger bases, which isn’t that noticable. Larger, and there may be a game effect where more of the enemy can make it into base contact, or the figure has a hard time hiding behind cover.

Painted: c. 2001 with Vallejo Paints.

Warmaster Dwarf Cannons produced by Games Workshop.

It’s been a while since I updated the gallery. I was enjoying talking about my wargaming thoughts for a while. I plan to continue to do both.

Tyler

World of Warcraft

Ehhh, I cannot actually blame the holidays for my lack of postings. It’s not that hard to post, and although there was a rush for a few days while I visited family, I missed more than a week of posting. So I apologize. Most of my free time has been spent with video games, from World of Warcraft to Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass on the DS.

I’ve let my WoW trial expire without renewing it, and am still waiting to try Dungeons and Dragons Online since it seems to rely on grouping more than WoW. I want to make sure I have the time to really try it.

To be honest, I’ve found my evenings fairly full watching hockey and playing on the DS or Wii. So, I haven’t felt the pull of trying a new MMORPG. After playing WoW I feel like they’re all so similar, and aren’t really what I’m looking for. Basically, everything in a MMORPG feels so generic. It’s not just that hundreds of other people have done the quests I’ve done. This is the case in all video games. It’s the fact that they are currently doing the quests, side by side yet separate. Add to that the generic nature of the collection quests I’ve played leaves the game feeling very repetitive.

Sure, my Tauren Shaman cast more powerful and slightly different spells. Yes, I was going after higher level creatures. In the end, I was still weaving my way through various aggro creatures to find the one I’m hunting, attack it until it’s dead, make sure I have enough resources for the next fight, then move to attack the next creature.

Specifically for WoW I felt the level at which creatures no longer aggro you was too high. When I’m over twice a creature’s level, I would think that even beasts would know not to attack me. As it was, it was either slowly weave my way through aggro creatures I didn’t feel like fighting, or slowly fight my way through aggro creatures I didn’t feel like fighting.

Dwarf Cannons

It’s about time I updated my gallery. Since there’s been a distinct lack of miniatures related posts recently it would be good to see something I’ve painted, even if it was years ago.

Warmaster Dwarf Cannons

Looking back at these cannons, I really wish I had spent a bit more time on cleaning up the casting and drilling out the barrel. At the time I was rushing to get things done, and I never really spend much time on prep work. I’m more of a painter than a modeler.

Painted: c. 2001 with Vallejo Paints.

Warmaster Dwarf Cannons produced by Games Workshop.

Tyler

I tried to paint the Rangers in muted colours compared to the bolder, halved uniforms of the Warriors. Unfortunately I found it just made them come out dark.

Little ax-throwing balls of beard.

Painted: c. 2001 with Vallejo Paints.

Warmaster Dwarf Warriors produced by Games Workshop.

Tyler

I really enjoyed painting these Slayers. For one, I liked that I didn’t have to come with all sorts of different hair shades. Slayers have orange hair, it’s the law. If you do something so dishonourable that the only way you can redeem yourself is to die in battle, then your hair should be orange.

Orange hair, blue pants. When you’re trying to suicide by vicious monster to redeem your honor, colour-coordinating is the least of your worries.

Painted: c. 2001 with Vallejo Paints.

Warmaster Dwarf Warriors produced by Games Workshop.

Tyler

These Dwarf Thunderers were painted at the same time as the rest of the Dwarf army, back in 2001 after Warmaster was released. I remembered waiting until all the announced armies were released before purchasing the game to ensure it was fully supported. At the time Games Workshop seemed to be constantly releasing games with a six month lifespan where players felt ripped off when their new favorite game fell out of favour.

These long, skinny stands are hard to photograph.

Interestingly Warmaster seems to be one of the first games where this really turned around. I think it was Warmaster where Games Workshop stopped releasing games only as expensive boxed sets. While Specialist Games has had a rocky road support for these satellite games has become more stable. Games which previously were considered dead, like Necromunda and Epic 40, 000, are still receiving new models and support in White Dwarf.

Painted: c. 2001 with Vallejo Paints.

Warmaster Dwarf Warriors produced by Games Workshop.

Tyler

Whenever I read people complaining about their wives getting in the way of their wargaming hobby I can only roll my eyes. For myself, I have a wonderful relationship with my wife, and her Dwarf army is a wonderful case in point.

I had just finished my Warmaster Orc and Goblin army and was talking about putting together an opposing army to play with. My wife and I talked about it and she decided she rather fancied the Dwarves. I’ve never painted Dwarves before, so I also thought it would be a good army to paint, especially as Dwarves are the traditional enemy of Orcs and Goblins.

I am slow and careful with my wargame purchases. I don’t like to buy more than I can paint easily in one or two weeks at a time. This means I don’t have a huge pile of unpainted lead, and I am able to buy miniatures frequently. Imagine my surprise when I came home from work that night to find my wife had gone to the local Games Workshop and picked up a Dwarf army box.

Three units of Dwarf Warriors.

The warriors were some of the first miniatures I painted from that box. Surprisingly I was averaging a unit every day or two and finished the whole thing in two weeks. I guess it was just a good combination of enthusiasm and available time. Later, my Battle of Five Armies box took much, much longer to paint, averaging a unit a week.

Painted: c. 2001 with Vallejo Paints.

Warmaster Dwarf Warriors produced by Games Workshop.

Tyler