Self-Care and painting amidst the "Everything"

Good tidings to you all fellow wargamers and welcome.  It's been a rough year so far for the world with everything that has been going on here in the US and globally and it's been challenging for many to cope.  So I wanted to take this post in a slightly different direction than I usually do because of what's been going on and while I could write as if nothing is going on it would not be fair for you dear reader to not acknowledge the reality of where we are as a people.  So without focusing on doom and gloom here, we go!

When I originally wrote some form of below it was during a time when the "biggest issue" was the outbreak and spread of the COVID19 virus.  Since then we have been through A LOT of other things here in the US.  It's been a really tense and stressful time for many people.  Myself being a counselor in the mental health field, have been working with folks dealing with new stressors and their own mental health pieces.  It's been challenging for many, and myself with my own mental health challenges have been figuring out how to navigate everything so that I can help those who need it.  That's partly why I've not kept up with this blog as I would have liked, but here we are in hopefully what is a moment of calm to shelter from the storm at large.

As wargamers, I would dare say that there are many of us who are struggling with some of these issues right now.  Therefore I want to help encourage you in this time and offer some insight into parts of our hobby that may not have been considered therapeutic before.  With that, I have to throw out the caveat (thanks to our litigation-happy nation) that this is not intended to diagnose/treat/provide any services to anyone who is suffering from mental health conditions.  If you suspect that you suffer from mental health concerns and need additional assistance please consult your local provider for referrals to services as available in your local area.  This article is not to be taken as mental health advice/research/treatment/etc but a source of encouragement and some considerations to be taken.

A big thing that I am going to advocate for in this time is the concept and practice of self-care.  It's a pretty common buzzword I hear a lot online that for many translates to "treat yourself" or "spend money on spa days/chocolate/whatever."  Self-care is simply making sure you take care of yourself and get the things that you need to keep going.  There is a lot of stress/anxiety/depression going around and that has an impact on interfering with self-care practices. We can easily forget at the moment when folks are faced with new challenges, old stressors, and the events continuing to take place in our world, that part of regular mental health care includes practicing self-care.

Self-care as we clinicians help clients with often incorporate things like making sure you're eating well, getting good sleep as much as possible, getting some exercises in, socializing to some degree, engaging in activities, etc.  It's about taking care of yourself in these trying times and not some sort of fantasy that society thinks you need to do.  Self-care is a personal/individual thing and while these are some suggestions for you feel free to adapt things as you need to for your routine.  I want to caution that doing self-care isn't the same as getting actual treatment or help.  This won't treat depression quite like a counseling session would, or get to the root cause of issues.  What this will do is help the foundation of "you" being at a stronger place so when those things do hit then you're hopefully in a better spot to handle them.  These things are bad enough as it is, but it's even worse when you don't feel great in general already and then it hits you.

So I've found in my experience hobbying, specifically painting, has an interesting effect on anxiety. Now I preface this with: it works for me, and I hope it helps you but if not then that doesn't mean something is wrong with you.  I've noticed that for me painting has a grounding effect on my anxiety. What I mean by it being grounding is that anxiety has a tendency to push people into this zone of "what ifs."  You know it's like you start going "what if X happens, and then what if Y happens, what if I do Z," and so on.  Grounding techniques can help bring you back down from that zone and back to your 'normal' sort of state.  You have to focus on the here and now instead of the "what ifs," so things like the colors/textures/shapes/painting can help manage some of these anxious feelings.  Personally, I found that painting plus some audio medium like a podcast has done wonders for my stress and anxiety.  It's helped bring it from some pretty high levels to something more manageable, and that's truly the goal of self-care is to make all the stuff more manageable.

Like I said it may not work for you, but if it's something you're able to do and need something to help focus on something then give it a shot.  You might find something new to help out in times of great stress you never thought of before.  It's a wild time right now with a lot of uncertainty, fear, confusion, stress, and so on so please take care of yourselves.  Do the self-care and be safe out there.  If you are reading this and you feel like you need additional help then I encourage you to go talk to someone whether it's a local counselor, crisis worker, or whatever it is you have in the area.

Well, folks, that's all I got for now.  Take care of yourselves out there, it's a crazy time and my hope is that we get through this with our health (mental and physical) intact.  Hopefully, some of this stuff helps you out, if you're already practicing it then great!  If not then I hope that it encourages you towards keeping yourself sane and floating in these times.  Next time I'll go back to the usual hobby posting and help give a break from the real world.  Until then folks stay safe out there and take care of yourselves.

Spending February deep in the Underhive

Greetings wargamers and hobby enthusiasts!  I hope your month of February was well spent and that you are faring well.  We're a few days into March already so I'll keep this short and brief hopefully.

As much as I wanted to get my Bonereapers worked on this month, I ended up not only doing the exact opposite of that but also got a large share of gaming instead.  A buddy of mine who had spent the better part of the year away for work came back and stayed with us for a couple of weeks.  Suffice to say we ended up doing a lot of tabletop gaming to a point where I have been enjoying the break.

While we played a large variety of games, 3 of them managed to stick out the most: Age of Sigmar, Warcry, and Necromunda. 

BONEWALL

When you forget your Lord of Change you get Lord of Cups

My friend plays a few armies in 40k and one of them is Tzeentch Daemons, so it really wasn't too much of a stretch to get him to try out AoS.  After our first game, I think it got him hooked because he ended up swelling his ranks with Kairic Acolytes and Tzaangors.  He managed to get a game in with my dear friend and Ironjawz player Corey (who gave those slippery daemons a boot to the head/birdface) and with each game, we played it was like we both got hooked.

Boot to da face!

I managed to cycle out a couple of legion traits in our games and tested the Null Myriad and Petrifex Legions against his Tzeentch dudes.  While I like the idea of the Null Myriad, I think it really is niche in its matchups but when you get that matchup is it like golden honey.  The Petrifex Legion is just straight up busted though.  A +1 save to everyone AND I can spend a discipline point to add -1 to my rend?  Oh, and the basic bonedaddy unit can reroll failed saves in the combat phase? 

Warcry is just a solid game.  Fun, easy to pick up, and interesting.  It's better than Kill-Team.  I said it, but we were all thinking it!  It was a nice warm-up game or just quick "hey work sucked and I'm tired except for this" kind of game.

CAW CAW there's Batman!

Now if you've read my blog some before I know I've mentioned Necromunda before but I've not really like dived into the game as I did this time around.  We sat down and after a couple of games, it just clicked like it hadn't before.  Now I'm hooked on it, despite the flaws of the system and the flaws of GW.  It was so fun that my friend bought a gang for himself.

As a side note, the Corpse Grinder Cult is bullshit*

I really like the game and I think it's thematic as all hell, which I really appreciate.  The potential shenanigans an Arbitrator can bring to a campaign is like music to my ears and just resonates with my years of being a DM.  It certainly feels like the game is a "diamond in the rough if that rough kept going because of GW" sort of adventure but despite that, with some polish, it would be phenomenal!  I liked it so much that the only painting I finished this month was my Goliath gang. 

The Forge Kings

Speaking of Goliaths, I appreciate that GW is putting forth some effort on making the older gangs a little more interesting than they have before.  Don't get me wrong, the differences between the gangs before were there, but now with House of Chains it's even more evident.  I originally wasn't too interested in the beefy boys of the Underhive but now that I can take a skill that lets me flex and scare people because my biceps and pecs are amazing?  I mean how can I refuse?  Also if I take cigarettes my more stupid gangers think my leader is so cool they get a bonus because of it?  I can elbow drop off of a ledge to kill a dude?

The game against brother: Cawdor leader charged Enforcer sniper, got killed/bonked by a Shockmace after failing all rolls

So yeah.  Not a lot of painting but enough gaming to stoke the fires of passion for a couple of budding game-loves.  I hope your February was just as kind or fortunate and I hope you've enjoyed your hobby time.  Until next time folks stay safe and happy wargaming!

*I mean sure they might have some weaknesses/counters (according to Internet Wisdom) but when you group activate your Butcher and Cutter to use Overseer on said Cutter and he moves 15+d3" for a charge and gets like stupid amounts of attacks that hit on a 3+ and deal enough damage and AP to where it just auto-takes out guys essentially (which said Cutter gets permanent 1" stat increased per dude he kills) and you can't shoot the damn dude without passing a Willpower test and he starts off with a 3+ save because I don't know why...yeah CGC is bullshit.  Don't @ me.  Still love Necromunda though.

For reference with that combo his Cutter can reach the center in 1 activation

It's popular! Yet another Contrast paint post!

Hello, fellow wargamers and tabletop enthusiasts and I hope you are reading this under good fortunes.  It’s a little early for my bimonthly post, but as the title suggests there have been some big changes to our hobbying world with the introduction of the new Contrast paints from GW.  I managed to grab some for myself and like many others, I’ll give my opinion on them and show some stuff that I managed to get painted in a pretty rapid pace (compared to my usual that is).  So without further ado, here’s yet ANOTHER Contrast paint opinion piece!

I won’t lie, I have been hyped with these paints since I heard about them from the beginning.  I like I imagine some other collector’s out there, have a stupid amount of unpainted models.  Like an embarrassing number of them.  The kind of number where you might say I have an addiction problem.  So an advertised method was with less effort I can get tabletop quality standard pretty quick, and that certainly has my attention.  Then I started seeing what pro painters had been able to do, then the pictures of random folks online and their results, and so on and so on.  I had not only bought a hype train ticket but I upgraded to first class and have been counting the days, but despite the hype, I also have some aged wisdom and wanted to secure some of them so I can see what I can work with.

After I painted the first model here is my emotional reaction:

With the test model completed, I then started on a Malifaux crew I had that was lightly primed.  I usually prime my models black and leave it at that, but for a brief period, I did some models in grey with a zenithal white.  I have to admit, I did not like how the priming turned out because I felt that the grey had a gloss kind of texture to it while being flat in color, and the white was a satin finish.  So bear that in mind with these pictures, but I have to say that the paints did wonderfully!  In the time it would have taken me to finish the set of Witchling Stalkers I was able to knock them out, some Freikorp Specialists, the Purifying Flame, and a model from Heroforge for Pathfinder!  They did their job well and I was able to apply a single coat down and get a pretty good overall effect.  I did some minor blending with the paints on the Purifying Flame to get the flame effect and while yes it’s not a perfect transition it did get the job done in a matter of minutes.

Now I am not naïve enough to think that these paints will do everything and anything I want them to do, but damn if they didn’t perform up to par with what I had hoped they would do.  Most of the models shown, except for the Heroforge model, had some extra work done to them to finalize the appearance.  A couple of edge highlights here, some weathering pigment here, and some additional shade washes there made the models go from basic TTQ to maybe a slightly better TTQ (I’m not sure, you be the judge).  I think these paints will shine with the more organic textures than they might with armor plating, which appears to be the general consensus amongst the community, however, I’ve seen some seriously good with on armored models like Space Marines and Stormcast.  Cloth, fur, leather, skin, and so on will probably be the textures that don’t require any special attention, whereas armor might require some attention to things like excessive pooling.  Another thing of note is that they didn’t seem to be forgiving in that if you paint over where you intended to then you’ll need to either slap on some covering paint similar to your primer or touch it up with a layer paint similar to the Contrast.

I’m sure veterans and new painters alike will be able to take advantage of these paints, but I can’t help but to also think about the people in our community who don’t have the time to paint or just aren’t able to paint well.  I’ve got some friends who are colorblind or struggle with hands that shake to a degree that the prospect of basecoating>shading>highlighting>blending>etc with traditional acrylics can be somewhat daunting or challenging and in some cases off-putting.  What about the veteran with arthritis in their hands so that they can only paint for so long before it becomes excruciating?  So a paint that can help some people overcome those challenges and help those who struggle with the mechanics of fine detail painting achieve some level of TTQ that they can be proud of to bring to the table is definitely a good thing in my book.  I also think some tournament players who want to use the new or updated armies and want to use them solely for the game purpose but have to paint for the tournament will enjoy these paints as well and ideally will cut down the time to be ready for the next event.  Folks like me with a ton of models who just want them painted will probably also like these paints if it presents with an opportunity to clear the paint queue some.

Now in the span of 2 days, I am almost done with my Malifaux crew and I have to say it's been great to paint with.  Now one thing is for certain in that the undercoat does have a HUGE impact on the quality of the paint.  Like I said before these models had zenithal priming with some areas obviously not primed.  In those areas, I had to go back with acrylic layer paint and do some touch-ups and/or paint over the Contrast.  Regardless I think the overall effect has been positive and in 2 hours I knocked out 4 models that I might have taken a couple days to work on (a day is about 3 hours on average during the workweek).  So I stand by my original statement that these paints, for me, are a big time saver and will help me go through that model queue real quick.

On this last one, you can see near the bottom of the lab coat the primer spatter not covering the entirety of the coat.  Will it matter from 3 feet away? Nah.  However, it's something to take note.

That’s all today folks, I hope you are making progress in your projects and enjoying yourselves.  If you also picked up some of these paints feel free to share a link down below and share what you’ve been able to get done with them.  If you didn’t pick up any of the paints, feel free to share a link down below and share what you’ve been working on.  My next trial with these paints will be to see how many Crucible Guard models I can knock out before a Steamroller event on Saturday.  I’ll be back at the end of the month with my overall update on what I’ve been painting and how it ties in with NoVA.  Until then happy wargaming and happy hobbying!

Holy crap this dude is still alive?!

Hello there fellow wargamers and hobbyists and welcome to a long over-due post up here at Wargamer Ramblings!  Good Lord it's been so long, last year even!  So what's has been going on down here in our local community?  Why haven't I posted since December of 2016? What have you been doing?!

Well let me be real with you all.  My motivation to blog waned a lot mid-December and onwards because of my current work schedule.  I had a lot of time to catch up on a lot of modeling and painting sure, but I just didn't feel the spark if you will.  For those who don't know I work in emergency mental health and it's been a pretty heavy set of months since I started back on shift work.  It's been a hard ride and so to keep myself going I've had to scale back on getting stuff done like blogging and painting sadly.

Now that's not to say that it has stopped me from enjoying the hobby completely.  On the contrary there has been some serious motivation going to get a couple new armies started and I've been doing my fair share of reading up on new releases.  The local community has been doing some Blood Bowl as of late and historically it's not a game I'm interested in but some of the game reports have gotten piqued.  I've been keeping up with Dark Age releases and I've been watching the growing rise of Games Workshop coming back into the light of the community.  It's been an interesting turn of events these past months.

I managed to get some hardcore painting in shortly before "going dark".  As I said my scheduled changed pretty hard and so during some of the weeks where I had motivation I was able to get almost all of the Alchemists and Morticians painted.  Except for vKatalyst and vGraves they are all painted up, including my starter Butchers and Fishermen.  It was pretty cathartic to paint and I slipped off from getting it done regularly.  That's probably why I've been feeling more stressed lately to be honest, but that's another story for another time.

Also I have a confession to make (it feels like a confession because of how I've felt about the company for a long time) but I have spent money on GW products! *le gasp~* That's right, my heart has been softening and I've been eyeing up some of what GW has been making.  I've started sipping on the Kool Aid if you will.  I've been impressed with what I've seen and while I can't say that I fully trust them like I did as a wee lad, I've been able to be ok with what I've purchased.  Traitor's Legion is pretty legit, though the CSM base codex still needs a new edition, and the new White Dwarfs that have been coming out are actually worth reading.  Additionally I've been eyeing up on starting a 30k Legion force and aligning myself to the Thousand Sons.  Finally...I bought an Age of Sigmar army.  That has been a pretty big change of heart considering how I've had some strong negative feelings on this game.  I went with the Ironjawz to be exact, and my plan is for them to be undead Ironjawz raised in the aftermath of some fight in the vampire realms.  So I've managed to do some conversion work on them, but I've not been able to apply any paint just yet.

So there we have it.  Still alive, still kicking, just not typing as much as I used to.  Hopefully that will change but if you don't hear from me in awhile it's that dang work schedule again!  Until then game well, and may your dice roll well my friends.

Infinity Sectorial: ALEPH and wrap-up

Good day fellow gamers and here today we have the wrap-up with the last (at this time) Sectorial for Infinity and that is the Steel Phalanx with ALEPH.  Sadly the Tohaa do not have a Sectorial so I have no need to review them (also as my game with Scott shows I know nothing about them anyways).  So let's talk ALEPH.

Right now they only have 1 Sectorial and that is the Steel Phalanx.  ALEPH being the SkyNet that it is, created a bunch of warriors stemming from Greek mythology and then made an army of them.  They are expensive, the elite, have a lot of special rules, great tech, and can give a good hurting.  A lot of options available to them are pricey and so forces tend to be a bit smaller than others, however the output can equal or surpass if played correctly.

ALEPH's pride and joy, the (in)famous Achilles

So let's take a peek at options hm?  Most of the list is made up of a lot of named character options.  I'm pretty sure I counted...17-18 characters?  All of them modeled and named after a hero in the mythos.  Another thing to note is that the Steel Phalanx Sectorial does not have ANY Core fireteam options.  What they have instead are Enomotarchos fireteams which are like Core-light.  They can be up to 4 members and get the burst bonus but also the team in the reactive phase have Sixth Sense L2.  Not too shabby!  You can take multiple Enomotarchos team options which the vast majority are a named character + 3 Myrmidons.  You can take a Thorakitai and Dactyls in an Enomotarchos team, but most of your options are revolving around Myrmidons.

2 of the special characters you take: Scylla and Drakios

Due to the large amount of named characters I won't be going over them individually (good Lord that would be a blog series unto itself), but I will talk about ones I am really interested in using.  Looking at Myrmidons first however as they are the backbone for the army in my opinion, and since they are prevalent in most of the fireteams.  Myrmidons have a pretty solid stat-line, ODD, Kinematika L1, and Martial Arts L3.  Their cheapest profile clocks in at 16 points with a chain rifle, nanopulsar, and smoke grenades.  The only specialist available is an assault hacker.  So that's what we are working with, let's look at a couple team options I like.

A new addition to ALEPH and a beast in his own right!

First off, Ajax.  Mudda effin Ajax!  This is Gregor Clegane of Infinity. 39 points gives me: Natural Born Warrior, Berserk, NWI, Kinematika, ARM 5, BTS 6, CC 22, dual combi-rifles, nanopulsar, and an EXP CCW.  Get this guy into combat and whoo boy.  He will wreck.  Getting him there will be the challenge so in a fireteam of Myrmidons the smoke grenades are going be of great use.  I'd have to watch out for those MSV counters as well as anything with Intuitive attack.  If I can get him up to something then it will be hurting, be it a TAG or infantry model it will get hurt.

HUL...AJAX SMASH!

Machaon the Myrmidon Doctor-Officer.  If I wanted to round out my Myrmidon team with another specialist this would be a good option.  For .5 SWC and 39 points we get some of the same bonuses that Myrmidons do with the added benefit of being a Doctor with Eclipse grenades.  In this team I would be most focused on getting a different Myrmidon profile to benefit from the burst bonus, like a spitfire for example.  Otherwise this combo might not be a bad one to have going up the field to secure some objectives and provide solid mid-field firepower.

Pretty sweet looking paint job for the good ol' doc

I could keep going and going as there are 18 named characters but I will stop for now as I think these two examples give you a good idea on how the Steel Phalanx run their game.  Pricey but kitted out, this Sectorial can provide a lot of hardships for your opponent while having some hard counters to be aware about.

Well that wraps up this brief little series on the different Sectorials and which ones I would have chosen for each faction.  Coming up I've been thinking about working on some 40k projects or I might resume my Warmahordes painting and gaming.  I hope to get some more bat-reps coming in but lately there have been no gaming to be had!  In the meantime feel free to leave a comment below about anything I may have missed or didn't consider.  Until then everyone take care and happy gaming!

Infinity Sectorial: Nomads

Good day to you my fellow wargamers and welcome to my second to last post about the different Infinity Sectorials available in Human Sphere N3!  Unlike my last post which can be summarized as a bunch of America jokes for the USAriadna Rangers (since my knowledge on them is about the equivalent of a potato), I actually have played some games as the Nomads and so this one should be a bit more informative.

So the Nomad force is a quirky grab-bag representing the unique aspect of the lore.  Instead of having a traditional culture steeped in a home world you have 3 massive spaceships going between the different worlds collecting the outcasts, the odd ones, and the unique.  Currently there are only 2 Sectorials out representing two of those ships.  First up we have the Corregidor Jurisdictional Command which originally hails from, if memory serves, a South American and Australian prison ship turned into the security/mercenary/hard muscle inclined part of the fleet.  Second we have the Bakunin Jurisdictional Command which is made up of the bulk of outcasts and quirky individuals hanging out on the ships.

The Nomads in their true form

With that in mind I am sure I would favor the Corregidor Sectorial for sure, it has two of my favorite units in the faction: the Mobile Brigada and the Geckos.  Love 'em.  It has a good selection of units and troops to take from ranging from the Alguaciles to having the Jaguars.  In terms of fireteams we can take a few Core selections from the following: Alguaciles, Wildcats, Mobile Brigada, and Jaguars (with Senor Massacre).  We can take some Haris teams as well including the Wildcats and Jaguars (with Senor Massacre again).  Finally we can take a Duo team of Geckos.

Love this TAG, from an unknown blogspot (will add link once I find it)

For specialists I would not be lacking with this Sectorial as there are plenty of options across the board, especially for hacking, and in each Core team I can take a couple specialists.  The Mobile Brigada might be a bit lacking in terms of variety but they can take a hacker which can help out against other hackers.  Wildcats wouldn't be a bad option either.  An assault hacker with an engineer put in the group with some light flamethrowers and D-charges could lay down some serious hurt.  I'd consider the Alguaciles but in truth I think I would prefer my Core team to be a bit more beefy since I only get 1.

Not a bad model or fireteam

Even outside a fireteam the Corregidor have plenty of specialist options for ITS missions.  Seriously it's like a bonanza of choices.  The Alguaciles have 3 options, Mobile Brigada have 1, Wildcats 2, Tomcats have 4 profiles, and so on!  In a non-ITS mission I would have no qualms about taking some of the more ridiculous choices.  5 Mobile Brigada with a Missile Launcher, with a Daktaris patching them back up?  Why yes please!  Even the Jaguars are a consideration considering the massive amount of smoke grenades they can toss out, though any MSV is going to cut right through that plan.

One of the new models, the Bandit.  Nice!

There is definitely a mercenary/'loco' soldier vibe I get from Corregidor and I think the models are pretty solid too.  With that in mind I think sticking with them as a Sectorial will be more my thing when it comes to Nomads.  Unless they do a Tunguska one then I might be tempted to stray to a different ship (I do like the Grenzers).  Anyways that about settles it for Nomads, so until next time lads and lasses take care and happy gaming!

Infinity Sectorial: Combined Army

Good day to you my fellow wargamer and welcome to another set of ramblings!  I'm your host today as we continue our recent Sectorial overview and selection based on arbitrary qualifications!  In today's episode I wanted to go over the Combined Army's selections and what my gut feelings are.  As always keep in mind the disclaimer from previous posts about my knowledge related to this game.

So the Combined have 3 different Sectorial options available to players.  You have the Shasvastii Expeditionary Force which primarily compose of the various Shasvastii options.  Then you have the Morat Aggression Force which surprise surprise, is made up of the various Morat options.  New to Human Sphere N3 however is the Onyx Contact Force which composes of a hodge podge mix of the different alien species that are found in the CA.  Each of the Sectorial forces share certain unit options so you can take at least 1 Drone and Doc Worm across the board.

He has a MD in Dirtology

I'll be honest here, I'm a bit torn between the Morat Aggression and the Onyx Contact Forces.  A general rule of thumb I've been developing over the past few years as I've gotten older is to go with whatever models I think look great.  So if I were to base it off of models I like then...I still have a hard time deciding between the two.  The Morat models in recent updates have become the epitome of badass military outfitting that I gravitate to in other games.  With each new release Corvus brings out for the CA the more I am impressed with their look.  I mean have you seen the Rodoks?!  Ohmahgoodness those things with Super-Jump!

Good lawdy so badass

For the Onyx Contact force they are not lacking in awesome looking models either.  The Unidron Batroids remind me a lot of the alien species you fight off in Crysis 2 and they combine the organic alien component with the mechanical robot.  Corvus also recently releasing pictures of the Xeodron Batroids, the newest light TAG for the CA, does not help my decision making process.  Also have you seen the stats for those Umbra models?  The Samaritan has Protheion lv 4 and can be taken in a Core team with 4 Rodoks, oh and it also has Super Jump too!

It's like fielding the Reaper

While I may end up being able to field either Sectorial, I think I want to start off with the Morat Aggression Force.  I believe that between the two this one might be easier on the new guy mechanic wise than the Onyx.  The Morat fireteam options are no joke either.  Unlike my previous selection of PanO's Military Orders, there are plenty of opportunities for Haris and Duo teams to fill out my forces.  For example if I need some Engineers up in the field I can take a Haris team of the Kurgats.  Say I need a little extra punch up in the field, why I can take a Duo or Haris of the Suryats.

Even my Core options are not just limited to Rodoks or the line infantry.  I could take a Core of Daturazi Witch Soliders and with their smoke grenades and decent PH I stand a good chance of being able to keep them alive long enough to actually reach the enemy.  Another Core option but one I am not too inclined to take is the Oznat with some of the Hungries.  Sure they might end up hitting hard but I'd rather use my precious Core option for something with more "oomph" or has specialist options.  I am a little sad that one of my favorite Morat models, the Sogarats, didn't even get a Duo team option!  Then again those behemoths are nasty in general so I figured it's a fair trade.

ARM 6, 2 wounds, and an Automedkit? With a feuerbach? Oh my!

Overall I think it lives up to its name in that it's an aggressive Sectorial and does not play well with being defensive.  It can do well to secure those good positions first before the other person can and then rain death upon the enemies of the EI.  That about wraps up my thoughts on this Sectorial, next time we'll talk about another force and see what ramblings I can come up with.  Until then take care gamers!

Infinity Sectorial: Yu-Jing

Good morning fellow wargamers, I hope it is a beautiful day for you all!  Ready for another ramblings about some Infinity Sectorical crap? Why I hope you are because I am!  Let's get started shall we?

Today I want to focus on a faction I don't have a lot of experience with. That faction is the Yu-Jing, the great super power of the East.  In a vanilla list the Yu Jing have a wide range of options (don't they all?). A majority of them being slanted towards heavy infantry in order to bring law and the will of their leaders.  When we look at the different Sectorials we have two options to choose from: the Imperial Service, and the Japanese Sectorial Army (JSA).

Updated JSA Domaru Butai.  Nice!

Personally after looking over the JSA options I was more inclined to choose the Imperial Service and once I noticed I can take Su-Jian transformers I was sold.  I give credit to the JSA for the Domoru Butai and their recent sculpts, but out of the two options I am going to hit up that Imperial Service.  Besides have you seen the new started box?  Well if you haven't yet then here's a helping hand and check them out yourself.

Bruh.

So let's talk about what I like about this Sectorial.  The vibe I'm getting from them is that they are not playing around at all, no chill game.  This Sectorial is all about Yu-Jings Imperial agents and the secret police force so the vibe is that they are brutal, uncompromising, and clandestine.  They have no qualms about using prisoners to achieve their goals, evidenced by the Wu-Ming and Kuang-Shi, and could care less about the means as long as the outcome is what was desired.  It's a pretty hard core theme going on and I like it.

Kuang-Shi 40k edition!

In terms of fireteam options the Imperial Service have plenty of Core, a few Haris, and some Duo selections.  For the Core options there are, as any Sectorial force goes, better options that I would consider taking over others.  For example I would not take my 1 Core team and fill it with Kuang-Shi neither would I fill it with Imperial Crane Agents.  I feel that those would either be a complete waste of points or be such a point sink it wouldn't be worth it.  I do have some thoughts of possible Core options though.  I've noticed that I can even take 2 of the transformer bots as a Duo team if I wanted to (granted that's a hefty price tag)!  So with the Imperial Service, you got options for sure.

How could I NOT love this model?

One option for a Core team I do like are 4 Bao Troops with a Imperial Pheasant rank agent armed with a Red Fury.  I feel like this team would be a nice mid field unit to get trenched in and let the Pheasant throw out BS 15 B5 Damage 13 with shock ammo.  Nasty!  Another choice I've considered is the 4 Wu-Ming and a Zhanying with Nimbus grenades.  The Wu-Ming, being the heavy infantry of prisoners, can take a couple heavier weapon options such as the HMG and benefit from the fireteam bonus.  Meanwhile the Zhanying can help mitigate incoming fire in the opponent's active turn with the benefits of Nimbus grenades.  Not a bad option either if you ask me.

Now for what I am not too happy about and that is my distinct lack of doctor options.  As stated before the Imperial Service is brutal and that is extended to its own troops.  From what I can tell the only doctor isn't even a Yu Jing native but a ALEPH operative, the Sophotect.  It's not a bad option considering WIP 15, it's a doctor and engineer, and has NWI.  Take a couple of Yudbots and it's a good option.  It is unfortunately the only option I see in the Sectorial which makes the Sophotect an auto-include in most tournament lists as I imagine.

Overall the Sectorial has a nice selection of models that were recently updated and look phenomenal and the overall playstyle appears to favor being aggressive and unforgiving.  As before I am no expert in this game so take what I say as opinionated pieces, though if you have any questions/tips/advice feel free to leave some!  Until then happy gaming fellow gamers!

P.S.: Have you seen the new Wu-Ming models?! CB why you make me buy in to more factions?!

Warhammer 30k? Is it something worth getting into?

Good afternoon wargamer friends and welcome back to another set of musings.  Today I wanted to open up my thoughts to you all about my subconscious desire to start a 30k Legion force.  I'd like to hear your thoughts about the matter but here's what has been going on.

Since GW made it relatively easy (and cheap by their standards) to start a 30k force with the Betrayal at Calth game, you see a lot more people are willing to start looking at 30k with more serious intent.  I've seen many a established Youtube channel post up about their forces they are starting (Guerilla Miniature Games, MiniWargaming, etc).  Combined with the Horus Heresy novels and the full support of Forge World there are many ways to get a solid 30k force on the table now.

What you get for 150USD painted up as Word Bearers

I mean let's be real for about 150USD in the BAC game you get 30 Tactical Marines, 5 Terminators, 1 Praetor, 1 Chaplain, and 1 Contemptor Dread.  Wow.  I've not seen a deal like that since...well...I can't remember to be honest.  Considering that a 10 man Tactical Squad is 40USD and you get 3 of them, why you've already made up the comparative cost.  Not to mention that Terminators are 50, the 2 character equivalents are about another 40, and the Contemptor Dread is I think 70~ estimate you are saving about 130USD.  Once again, wow.

No wonder people are starting 30k armies these days, the start-in cost compared with the 'traditional' method of the entire model set coming from FW it is ridiculously easy (and a hell of a lot more cheap).  One could easily get 2 box sets and scour eBay for a third Contemptor Dread and you have a great starting force.  If you didn't want 60 Tactical Marines then I am sure you can get a set of the upgrade/conversion kits from FW to get your chosen unit.  Will you be able to get away with buying nothing from FW?  Depends on the level of dedication and work you want to put into the models, but if you're like me then you will eventually get some FW stuff.

Horus himself.  If there's ever a reason to want to get into 30k: Primarchs.

I want to talk about some of the rules for a second as well.  I've not mentioned it on the blog, but I tend to really like FW rules.  I like them not because I think they are more balanced (though I tend to think they are better than base GW rules) but I like them because they tend to a) make more sense and b) are full of flavor.  I have read over the different Legion rules for a few days now and I've been enjoying it.  The rules appear to reflect the different nature of the Legions which just resonate.  Not only that but to help differentiate between the MEQ vs MEQ that is pretty much 30k, but each legion get their own special units and Rites of War (sort of like a formation in 7th ed. from my understanding).  Nice!

Is this the start of GW having some good ideas?  Maybe?

So is it worth getting into?  I can't really say one way or the other.  On one hand I can see the appeal and believe me the temptation is quite real.  On the other hand I think it will depend on the community to give it to longevity it needs to be a solid investment (though you could always take them for a 40k army I believe).  With the board game that came out I think it's safe to say that people will be taking a more serious look into it than the wistful daydreaming it has been when it was solely FW.  I know for me if I can find a way to make it affordable then who knows...maybe Iron Warriors...Space Wolves...Alpha Legion...one of them might end up being a new army. 

Happy gaming out there you all.