TheBeninator

1 hour ago, BenKerr said:

We are teammates now... We'll just see each other on the top tables in the later rounds. Then we shall have let the dice gods choose

Hahahahahahahaha...

top tables....

Always with the jokes

1 hour ago, Andrewgeddon said:

I'm allowing challenges, but if you challenge someone you have to play them all 5 rounds.

Not really.

Glad to have you back this year @SkavenInAZ! I'll get you and @valourunbound on the list 🙂

Alright @BenKerr, a challenge to see who the dice gods find most handsome?

Though, we are on the same team now... Perhaps the civil rivalry is unwarranted?

Aaaaaaaand

Horses! 30 min

That'l be 3 primary rider colors x 4 riders, each main rider color on a different colored horse. Therefore there will be 12 unique combinations of primary rider color and horse color.

All things must remain equal!

32 minutes ago, Ish said:

On the book front, I highly recommend 1066: The Year of the Conquest by David Howarth. I haven't listened to it as an audiobook but I've read the dead-tree edition a half dozen times. 

Yeah, the first Crusade was MUCH more interesting than the second. Nothing quite as epic as the taking (and even more astounding the holding) of Antioch.

Ill probably need to switch subject matter after this book. Its about 24 hours of content, though it hardly holds a candle to the last book I got through "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" which was about 56 hours of content. Still, there is a lot of Sci-Fi out there that needs a listening.

Update!

Yes, I am probably updating too often, but it keeps me engaged!

Made some color decisions and just went to town. I find that I often dont start projects because I dither about on what the color scheme should be. This time I took all of about 5 minutes to pick the colors for riders and horses.

First up we have 4 primary colors for the riders/shields. I decided to just go with 4x of the blue/red/green, and make all the capes the brown. The reason for this is that in the end, all of the cav will look pretty darn similar. Differentiation by cape color seems like a good way to make it easier for people to identify what is what in game.

Next up is the horse colors. I wanted to try a few different colors out, but I like the idea of a mix of horses. Makes me feel more like the army is mustered, and not a highly regimented and correctly equipped professional army.

Finally here is about 30 minutes or so (dont have my log with me) of air brushing. The extra time is switching out colors 4 times. In addition, I did about 70 minutes of metal painting (the arms, necks, and ankles are all chainmail). This process was slowed down substantially by Season 6 of The Office.

For some time savings, I think I need to stay away from half watching the Office and concentrate on my current Audiobook. Right now I am rocking "The Crusades" by Thomas Asbridge. It is a fairly comprehensive telling of the story, ripe with the tales and intrigues of the time. A neat feature to this book is that he tries to tell the story from both the European perspective, and the Middle Eastern perspective. Still seems like there is a slight slant towards the European perspective, but I presume that has a lot to do with availability of sources in his native language. The mention of crusading peasants, Teutonic Knights, and siege warfare really gets me jazzed when I paint.

Next steps are getting base coats on the horses and the rider heads. Then the clipping from sprue begins!

49 minutes ago, OreoGolem said:

Hey, WWizard or Ben, I have a friend who's just started poking his nose around miniature gaming. He's liked playing the 3 or so games he's got in, but his scheduling would make him a likely poor fit for an organized league. Just wondering if there's a low commitment option or should I simply suggest "hey come with us when you can and see if you can snag a game"?

If personally say bring them on board. As it stands, there are already going to be instances of people who cannot make certain weeks happen. I’m throwing myself in the pot of being odd man out if the case should arise. 

This brings up the question of what happens to your retinue or General if you have to sit out a scenario. Perhaps having a third track of “General has an excellent vacation” perk or some such to keep upgrades rolling for everyone. Again the concept is that win or lose, you get an upgrade, just the fluff behind the upgrade is associated with the win/loss/vacation or what have you. It’s all going to be random dice rolls (mordheim style), there are basically tables already made by someone else who has run one of these campaigns.

I don’t recall how the retinue stuff works.

also it’s worth nothing that I’m not certain there is a decision that your retinue unit or General can never change during the campaign. It makes sense that a Thane would be promoted to King, or a lesser demon grow up into something truly horrific. Just as your lists, things are mutable.

As for the retinue, perhaps the choice would remain constant, but could be filled out with new recruits and upgrade choices during every scenario. Again, I have to read up on how retinues “evolve”.

55 minutes ago, Andrewgeddon said:

 

Oh The nostalgia 

Hell Baal runs anyone? Need some zods.

I don't need a third alias, Mr. Geddon. 

Put me in as Ben Bael!

Plz-K-thx Andrew Geddon.

36 minutes ago, BenKerr said:

Already working on lists....

Warriors?

So @Andrewgeddon, it appears I am 9 points ahead of you in the rankings. 😎

That is assuming we add together you and your alter alias, and me and my alter alias.

You still hold the title for best performance at an event.

Ahh I have a basement, doye, that had not occurred to me.

What’s your primer of choice?

Update!

Ok, getting serious about this timing jazz. 

I threw down a primer coat last night. I am using an airbrush for a few reasons. 

1) I'm out of rattle can primer

2) I am wary of using rattle can indoors

3) The humidity is not optimal for rattle can priming anyways (though I have no clue if the same applies for airbrushing or not).

What I found is that I spent 53 minutes between setup and breakdown (plus airbrush cleaning) to prime just 7 sprues (more like 5). Rattle cans should take something like... 10 min max?

This looks like an easy spot to save some time for the future. So I pose to you rattle can primers.

What do you do in the winter when the humidity is not within the bounds of what people say is "optimal"?

@paxmiles

Not sure what to tell you. There are inaccuracies in the things you say, and I have tried in vain to explain them, but at this point I don't know if it matters so I wont bother trying again. You seem to have made up your mind already.

Ill pull myself from this exchange and spend my efforts on folks who wish to engage in constructive dialogue.

22 minutes ago, OreoGolem said:

Hey most likely daemon player, I'll make the case.

A major point of customization for our army's characters is locked behind choose a 350-700 point (before upgrades) general. These character customizations are also unit buff and characterful design choices for how our units operate. (It's not just a Succubi squad it's a poison attack Succubi squad). 

Since this escalation does potentially lock us into a general I have. Addendum to suggest for daemons.

"Master in the Rafters: at game one of the escalation game, a daemon player may declare a greater daemon to be the 'Master in the Rafters' even if it is not and could not be in the army at that point level.

"With this choice declared a single Herald of Chaos in this army can gain access to manifestations related to that Sin if it is the general as though the army had a General of that Sin."

Again I'm not sure what the extent of "leveling up" the general would be, it might be crazy for a gigantic model to get those upgrades. But if the focus is on a retinue and a character let us use our Heralds as though they were marked at least until we put down a GD.

Well put!

6 hours ago, paxmiles said:

For starters, your comments really feel like a witch hunt against my specific army - which is not fun. I'm very close to dropping out, as I don't feel welcome in your "fun" escalation league which seems stacked against DL, while greatly favoring armies like the Kingdom of Equitaine.

Beyond that, sounds like you want to start at 1k. At 1k, I'd only have 400pts for characters, which would limit me to a Deceiver or a Harbinger.

 

To be fair, the Kingdoms of Equality-tane does enjoy a good witch burning.

But no, I am not on a crusade against your army, or you as a player. Do you honestly think that I am relishing in the idea of holding down a new player and elevating myself by crafting specific rules that eek out advantages for myself only? If I was serious about winning, I wouldn't be painting peasants.

These adaptations to 2k are fairly general concepts that I think most veteran players can agree to. Here is another curve ball, the winds of magic cards would probably be different, because again, the amount of magic power dice for a 4500 point game does not scale to 2000 points. These ideas are not mine, they are taken from other people in the T9A community who have a lot of experience running 2k games, narrative campaigns, escalation campaigns, ect.

1k? I dont think I mentioned 1k anywhere? I will be bringing a 130 point paladin on a horse. Heck, I may even just stick him on foot with the peasantry. His stats are pretty similar to a Chaos Warrior (core choice), so I don't think I am pulling the wool over anyone's eyes here.

Hero is an old term, it more or less boils down to. if it can be a bsb, or is cheaper than your bsb option, it’s probably a hero. With some exceptions

as wentwisard said, it’s about a story and having some fun battles, don’t worry too much about the specifics. If you aren’t sure, wentwisard will make an exception for you. You already agree that a Scourge has no place in a 2k game, so your heart is in the right place.

deceivers and harbingers look like the appropriate character candidates for DL, but feel free to make a case for something different. 

Despite the rule book having suggestions for 2k games, the game is not balanced or priced with scaling in mind, therefore the scale will favor certain factions over others. Hopefully with the changing point limits each scenario, it will balance that favoring out.

4 minutes ago, Ish said:

My WHFB 8th Edition Empire army had a massive 100-man infantry block of spearmen, plus their supporting detachments of handgunners and halberdiers; Next to them was a 50-man block of greatswords, plus their supporting handgunners and halberdiers; then there was the big, long line of archers behind them... and the long, thin line of skirmishing archers in front of them.

Not one cavalry model in the entire army. 

That's a beautiful thing.

Were there really no unit size caps in 8th edition?

1 hour ago, paxmiles said:

Are you a Line Formation?

That is 12 wide for display purposes only. Realistically the only way to run them is 5 wide, 12 ranks back to remain steadfast as long as possible. You can give them spears, even halberds, but that is a total trap. Parry+Shield is where it's at.

4 minutes ago, valourunbound said:

I'd bite. 11 points for a fast cav model? Wow. 

The real issue is that 5 fast cav does the same job as 15... for cheaper. 

I challenge you to find a good use for 15 Outriders!

Ya, I thought you could break a unit by getting in the rear and charging.

Then I read that you have 0 ranks with light troops >_<

15 might be able to take on a plague catapult....

might...

12 minutes ago, valourunbound said:

That's 48? Oh geez.

What's the recipe for 8 CR? 3 ranks, banner, bsb, 2 legions? That gets me to 7.

 

Oh it's not a BSB. The Castellan can just be an extra banner and you can take 2, each with a Legion enchantment.

Yerp, could throw the BSB with legion in there too, but that gets really expensive for 10 CR. But! A paladin BSB can take Piety which would give them all a +6 Aegis. Combine that with a reliquary and they become 4+/6++ parry with 69 effective models (reliquary is a 2x3).

Again, that is just a basket of eggs asking to be smashed.

Thanks,

That's actually not a full sized unit, still room for another 12 (60 total).

The unit however is a bunch of peasants. weapon skill 2, low leadership, Resistance 3, strength 3, light armor and a shield. They are just there to hold a line, they really cant put out the hurt.

The only good thing they have going for them is numbers, and if I invest a bunch of extra points, I can give them a pretty insane static combat score (8). So although they will die in droves, you have to kill at least 8 every turn else you lose combat and potentially flee from the great peasant horde.

If you flank them however, poof, peasants are toast.

Truly, they are glorified clanrats.... Peasant crusaders on the other hand are glorified plague monks, except that they are a special choice >_<

I believe at the 2k level everyone will be restricted to "hero" type generals. Meaning no high princes on dragons, demon lords, dwarf kings, dukes on pegasus, ect. 

Also, I believe casters will be kept at adepts.

12 hours ago, paxmiles said:

Does the Retinue really have to be a Core choice? And for that matter, what if your General can't join units? And any sort option to have the General become a higher price model later in the game.

Can't even go Wrath at 2k.

I dont speak for any of the final decisions for the campaign but I do have some insights.

1) Yes, the retinue would be a core choice since it will be "upgraded" over the campaign. This is to elevate a core choice into something great, not an already great unit into something neigh unstoppable. 

2) Yes, you miss out on being officially labeled wrath due to the lack of a GD for DL. The solution is to use the ol' imagination.

Odd that Vampire Counts keeps coming up in relation to you John....

Its almost as if the universe is trying to tell you somthing.

Army looks great! 

@Ish Ah! Makes sense, this old English (or whatever it is) is heavy stuff.

Hobby Update!

For this unit of fast cav I wanted to try and keep a log of time that I spend on each process. This should help me identify places where I spend too much time. Many times will be longer than they aught to be primarily due to watching the Office at the same time. No pictures for today, but I went through and did some initial cleaning up of the bits for the light cav. Most everything looked pretty good. Mold lines were primarily on the horses and on the hats of the riders. Some chaff bits were stuck to the spear tips, and the connections from the sprue to the horse heads were in an awful spot (right in the middle of the horse face) so I cut those early as to not fix them later. 

In all I spent about 30 minutes cleaning these up, inspecting the bits to figure out roughly what I would be putting together, and washing the whole lot with soap and water as to better take on primer. Next step tonight will be primer white through the 'ol airbrush. Color scheme is still up in the air, but I was thinking of some slight alterations to the tone, going with something a little darker. There will only be 12 of these, so I was thinking of going with 4 total colors such that there are 3 riders who share a primary color, and who each have a different secondary color. Current ideas are:

Prussian Blue (which is darker than the peasant blue)

Dark Green (I have several options here)

"English Uniform" (basically a darker version of beige)

Dark Red (which oddly, is just my "red")

Horses will probably be a brown, a mahogany (reddish brown), a grey, and white (with a tinge of blue). Might drop mahogany for something else as it will start to blend in with the saddles too much.

On 11/12/2019 at 1:22 AM, Ish said:

What do you get when you combine a ten-hour graveyard shift and nothing much else to do during it?

• First Row (L-R)
  •  Per pale argent and azure
  • Barry of twelve azure and vert fimbriated sable 
  • Argent a cross gules
  • Argent a pale vert
  • Argent a cross tenné 
  • Per pale vert and tenné
  • Vert a cross gules fimbriated sable 
  • Tenné a pale gules fimbriated sable 
  • Quarterly azure and tenné
  • Azure two palet gules fimbriated sable 

Question....

Why do shields 5 and 7 have different descriptions? They are the same style, different colors.

Were you just making stuff up this whole time?