Front Page

Content

Authors

Game Index

Forums

Site Tools

Submissions

About

KK
Kevin Klemme
March 09, 2020
35175 2
Hot
KK
Kevin Klemme
January 27, 2020
20840 0
Hot
KK
Kevin Klemme
August 12, 2019
7430 0
Hot
O
oliverkinne
December 19, 2023
3982 0
Hot
O
oliverkinne
December 14, 2023
3509 0
Hot

Mycelia Board Game Review

Board Game Reviews
O
oliverkinne
December 12, 2023
2080 0
O
oliverkinne
December 07, 2023
2587 0

River Wild Board Game Review

Board Game Reviews
O
oliverkinne
December 05, 2023
2258 0
O
oliverkinne
November 30, 2023
2501 0
J
Jackwraith
November 29, 2023
3022 0
Hot
O
oliverkinne
November 28, 2023
1973 0
S
Spitfireixa
October 24, 2023
3698 0
Hot
O
oliverkinne
October 17, 2023
2626 0
O
oliverkinne
October 10, 2023
2463 0
O
oliverkinne
October 09, 2023
2292 0
O
oliverkinne
October 06, 2023
2510 0

Outback Crossing Review

Board Game Reviews
×
Bugs: Recent Topics Paging, Uploading Images & Preview (11 Dec 2020)

Recent Topics paging, uploading images and preview bugs require a patch which has not yet been released.

× Buy your army to crush your enemies.

Let's Talk About Age of Sigmar

More
25 Oct 2016 17:19 #236917 by Michael Barnes
Ha ha, well,I can only blame those Winds of Magic...

I tend to go all in on things and then shake out what I like best. I've always done this. And I always come back to the best. Which is why stuff- good stuff- like Mantic gets sloughed off. It's not the best. GW stuff is the best. I've known that since 1986. Here I am again. But I've never really quit Warhammer...just strayed from the main miniatures games.

I'm enjoying the painting and modelling more than before...I do it almost every night. I'll put on Deep Space 9 or something and just go for an hour or two. And I sometimes have an hour before work. I like to paint quickly, I don't labor. I don't want to spend 3 hours on a basic SM- the fun of it wears out if I look back at 4-5 hours and I have one figure painted to show for it. At my skill level, I feel like I can do good tabletop quality in a reasonable amount of time with occasional experimentation and trying different things with some confidence.

My favorite parts are the first brush strokes and then the last 10 minutes or so when I'm just switching through paints and doing the last touch-ups. My least favorite parts are fucking BELTS and anything attached to them. Fuck a god damned belt. ESPECIALLY if it has a shoulder strap. I also hate these random little sacks that GW apparently has in their CAD asset library. It's like these little scrotums stuck on a fucking BELT or hanging from a banner.

Once you get into a rhythm, have the right brushes/paints, and learn some tricks I think the time goes down significantly. One thing I've come to realize is that these layering-heavy tutorials are deceptive...they lure you into spending more time and if you don't have the skill level of Duncan Rhodes or whoever then you wind up with results that you could have had easier. Case in point, these prosecutors. He bases in black ( GW standard) but basing in gray is easier for the colors and requires less coats. And his wings kind of looked crappy- he put Celestra Gray (not necessary if you prime gray) and then glazed Guilliman Blue with white scar along each spine. I tried it and it looked like crap. And it took forever. So I thinned some White Scar and just painted the wings in two coats with that magical L base brush. It looks decent, and better than his, IMO.

Where the tutorials are really valuable to me are in learning the sequences of color and which colors layer or drybrush for different effects. They also help in learning techniques like blending and glazing, which are easy to goof up without guidance.

I realized yesterday that watching these painting tutorials is like watching Bob Ross.
The following user(s) said Thank You: barrowdown, Vlad

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
25 Oct 2016 17:21 #236918 by Michael Barnes
Oh, I read the first AoS book. It is pretty much all fighting. Not terrible, but kind of goofy. Supposedly the others get better.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
25 Oct 2016 17:43 #236922 by barrowdown

Michael Barnes wrote: Oh, I read the first AoS book. It is pretty much all fighting. Not terrible, but kind of goofy. Supposedly the others get better.


Is that one War Storm? I have it on the shelf, but haven't started reading it.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
25 Oct 2016 17:50 #236923 by Michael Barnes
No, Gates of Azyr. It's actually a novella, pretty short. It's kind of funny because you can tell the writer was given a list of models in the base set so they all get introduced.

The let down is there is actually a thread there that the realm is kind of in a post apocalyptic state with survivors fleeing and on the run from marauding Khorne warbands but it doesn't really amount to much.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
25 Oct 2016 18:18 #236925 by barrowdown

Michael Barnes wrote: No, Gates of Azyr. It's actually a novella, pretty short. It's kind of funny because you can tell the writer was given a list of models in the base set so they all get introduced.

The let down is there is actually a thread there that the realm is kind of in a post apocalyptic state with survivors fleeing and on the run from marauding Khorne warbands but it doesn't really amount to much.


Oh, I've read that one. I was not too impressed with it. I've read other stuff by Wraight that I have enjoyed more, so I think you are definitely right on the amount of direction he was given.

Gav Thorpe had an interesting blog post about the writing process for the Black Library books ( LINK ) and the "guidance" that GW provides.

The survivor thread you mention was the only part I thought was interesting.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
26 Oct 2016 00:11 #236936 by Vlad
Replied by Vlad on topic Let's Talk About Age of Sigmar
As a starting miniature painter, I think that the strife for perfection is the biggest problem and cause of paralysis.
Once I realized that: A) virtually any hand-painted is better than an unpainted or pre-painted one; and B) No, I'm not a fucking artist and No, I should not quit my job because new career in GW ... the whole painting process became way more enjoyable, quick and rewarding.

On a separate note, I'm very excited for a new 40K edition. I just hope it's not simply a re-hash of AoS. I love the models and art direction of Silver Tower, but I don't feel any enthusiasm for the world itself (if there is any). I also hope that they don't do some kind of weird inter-dimensional cross-over between AoS and WH40K.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Michael Barnes

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
26 Oct 2016 00:38 #236937 by Michael Barnes
I am with you 100%. It's easy to look at the 'Eavy Metal stuff and get intimated. But those guys are paid to paint a bottom of the barrel Chaos Cultist to fucking Golden Demon standard. AND there is sometimes trickery involved in addition to mad skill. Bigger scale figures, photo retouching, endless supplies of free brushes and every paint in the range...

So yeah man, once you sort of overcome that desire to paint like what you see in White Dwarf and you realize that no, you did not actually fuck up a $30 figure because you didn't highlight it right and you missed one of those goddamn little bags tucked up under an armor plate, you start to just value what you can accomplish and to push it when you feel like or don't when you don't feel like it.

It's all for fun...just game junk...so enjoy it!
The following user(s) said Thank You: JEM, Vlad

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
26 Oct 2016 01:34 #236938 by Vlad
Replied by Vlad on topic Let's Talk About Age of Sigmar
Michael, I have to thank you for this attitude. That's what I felt after reading your Vedros series, which IMHO, is the best you've written since There Will Be Games opus :)

For me a big part of miniature appeal is seeing it through the eyes of a kid, and I think that's a major reason you yourself got back into the hobby. I see my son absolutely hyped by space marines, orcs, barbarian heroes and monsters, wanting to hear their stories and immediately making up stories of his own. For him, it's a visual and tactile gateway into a new world. And fuck those tiny baggies and shoulder straps, too.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
26 Oct 2016 01:46 #236939 by Sevej
The thing is, what finally killed 40k for me is the GW pictures. Not the quality of the painting, but the arrangement of it.

So you see a cool pictures of Orks against Space Marines, with cool backgrounds? The game is *nothing* like that. You'll see bunch of Space Marines huddled behind a tiny terrain piece to minimize LoS, or tanks facing each other from their own corners, trying to lining shots between a slither of gap between the corners of two buildings. Or those dudes making conga line just along the foot of the hill.

It's not about the quality of the terrain either, but their haphazard arrangement. Often terrain is just thrown upon the table in a balanced manner, but tells no story.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
26 Oct 2016 13:42 #236987 by Michael Barnes
The photos also do not depict guys standing around the board flipping through 300 pages of rules to resolve a disagreement. Or hour 5 of a 2000 point game.

What you are talking about regarding the haphazard terrain thing is resolved in AoS. The Battleplans have terrain layouts and tell specific stories. Granted, if you don't have Baleful Realmgates you either have to proxy or adjust accordingly, but they look pretty balanced from what I've seen.

Thanks for your kind words Vlad- the funny thing is, I actually got Vedros from GW which was like a miracle. And then they sent me two copies and some extra stuff. So I wanted to do something that HOPEFULLY someone over there would read. Don't know if they ever did, my contact never responded to me after those went up. Whatever.

I just got some terrain stuff in. Citadel Wood is awesome, it sucks that it appears that I got the last kit for under $50 in the world (I paid $25 shipped). It's much bigger than I thought it would be and put together it looks great. I have a painting guide cued up for it as soon as I get some more paints in. I also got these rocks and monoliths I bought from this guy on Etsy. These things were dirt cheap- like $5-6 a piece and they are BIG. They look fantastic. The seller is TerrainGoblinsForge, highly recommended.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
26 Oct 2016 14:23 #236994 by Columbob

Michael Barnes wrote: Or hour 5 of a 2000 point game.


Haven't played in a decade, but 2000 pts (i.e. regular) games usually went for about 2 hrs. Our long games were 12K pts cheesy battle royale (6k vs 6k) where we'd team up and try to exploit any synergies between 2 army books pitted against 2 more. Those could last for 5-6 hours. Deployment by itself was an hour or so.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
26 Oct 2016 15:07 #236999 by barrowdown
The games I have played in my league (two whole games at 1,500 points) both took around 2 hours. I'm not sure what point value the other table has been playing at (my guess is at least 2k), but their games have certainly been longer than mine.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
26 Oct 2016 15:33 #237000 by metalface13

Sevej wrote: The thing is, what finally killed 40k for me is the GW pictures. Not the quality of the painting, but the arrangement of it.

So you see a cool pictures of Orks against Space Marines, with cool backgrounds? The game is *nothing* like that. You'll see bunch of Space Marines huddled behind a tiny terrain piece to minimize LoS, or tanks facing each other from their own corners, trying to lining shots between a slither of gap between the corners of two buildings. Or those dudes making conga line just along the foot of the hill.

It's not about the quality of the terrain either, but their haphazard arrangement. Often terrain is just thrown upon the table in a balanced manner, but tells no story.


That's why I recommend playing something like Mordheim, Necromunda or even the fan-made Inquisimunda, where there is more terrain on the table and tells more of a story in itself. People make fantastic terrain for these games that feel almost like a living, breathing setting. Or play something more narrative driven and old-school like Rogue Trader or Warhammer 3rd edition. I understand AoS can have a more narrative focus too.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
27 Oct 2016 17:54 #237068 by Michael Barnes
AOS has narrative play scenarios that are specific to storylines.

I've got my Judicators, Paladins and another box of Liberators here. Built the Judicators today, I went with the bows because I think it makes more sense for them to have a 24' range shot given that the rest of the army is fairly slow and the crossbows, as bad ass as they are, will likely get just one good shot in before they get charged. I gave the prime the upgraded shockbow. These figures are really cool, they look great with the bows.

The Paladins I'm building as the "crowd control" Decimators, so they have the big halbreds. They get a bunch of extra attacks based on the number of models they are facing. So they are kind of made to wade into a pile of Bloodreavers, Skaven, or whatever and just sweep 'em up. Two of these are getting Starsoul Maces per the special weapon rule, which gives an nasty automatic D3 mortal wounds to a unit in range. Why would you ever decline to take those.

I'm having weapon selection angst with the Liberators. I like the idea of having three units (15 models) of hammer and shield dudes. But I'm also wanting a little variety. So I have the somewhat aesthetic/negligible choice of taking a warblade instead of the warhammer (3+ hit 4+ wound versus 4+ hit and 3+ wound). And then there is the choice between pairing the weapons (so two hammers or a warblade and a parrying blade) or a shield, which imparts a reroll of any 1s on a saving throw. I'm leaning toward the warblade/parrying blade because it makes them slightly more of an offensive unit with a touch more versatility than another "shield wall" gang. I'm probably just going that route because I like the look of them and it differentiates the group. The Prime will get the Greatblade which adds -1 rend and does two wounds.

Every Stormcast from the box set is now painted except for the Lord on the Dracoth. Waiting on some green stuff to come in to paint that because there's a terrible gap on its neck.

So coming in the mail I've still got 10 Blood Warriors, 5 Wrathmongers/Skullreapers (another decision dilemma) and 3 Mighty Bloodcrushers (cavalry dudes). I'm hoping to start painting the Khorne stuff next week.

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

More
27 Oct 2016 18:05 - 27 Oct 2016 18:28 #237071 by barrowdown

Michael Barnes wrote: I'm having weapon selection angst with the Liberators. I like the idea of having three units (15 models) of hammer and shield dudes. But I'm also wanting a little variety. So I have the somewhat aesthetic/negligible choice of taking a warblade instead of the warhammer (3+ hit 4+ wound versus 4+ hit and 3+ wound). And then there is the choice between pairing the weapons (so two hammers or a warblade and a parrying blade) or a shield, which imparts a reroll of any 1s on a saving throw. I'm leaning toward the warblade/parrying blade because it makes them slightly more of an offensive unit with a touch more versatility than another "shield wall" gang. I'm probably just going that route because I like the look of them and it differentiates the group. The Prime will get the Greatblade which adds -1 rend and does two wounds.


The shield with anything is so much better looking than the two weapon look. I think their posing looks awkward with two weapons, like they are confused about what they are holding.

Michael Barnes wrote: Every Stormcast from the box set is now painted except for the Lord on the Dracoth. Waiting on some green stuff to come in to paint that because there's a terrible gap on its neck.


That model is bizarrely terrible for a starter box inclusion. It's relatively difficult to assemble and it is very easy to leave noticeable gaps during assembly.

And pics? Did you go with the basic look or did you come up with your own legion (stormhost? I don't remember what they are called)?
Last edit: 27 Oct 2016 18:28 by barrowdown. Reason: Formatting

Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

Moderators: Gary Sax
Time to create page: 0.220 seconds