Reckoner work in progress 2

Well its been a week and I've found very little time to paint unfortunately, in the last post I'd completed the legs and I've fielded just them during my games!  I could balance the torso on the legs but they'll just scratch the paint work to bits - so thanks to my opponents for not minding playing against a pair of legs this past week or two - LOL!

Below is a snap of the torso work in progress:

Reckoner torso WIP

As seen I've got the purple and white fully done.  The gold is virtually done, barring a highlight or two.  The steel has just had a base coat and a black wash so it needs tidying up.

After the main torso is complete I'll get the insides of the arms done, then attach it to the legs to paint the rest.  At present I'm having to hold the thing by its two weapons in order to paint it and it will be easier once its attached to the legs.

I'm hoping I'll just need a couple more hours work to finish it, then on to the Covenant!

List performance

I've used eSevvy for gaming purposes recently in preparation for the upcoming tourny and getting comfortable with his play style again.

I played him at 50 points last week down at the club, using my 35pt list with a few extras.  I was against Cryx led by eSkarre, against Andrew Kenny.  eSkarre has stealth so my twin Reckoner long range assassination was off the cards, so it was a good opportunity to switch to grinding out a win or concentrate on a scenario win.  We had set up the board a bit like a mirror, so both players had a wall to defend their mosh pit and the forests were evenly dispersed.  Both casters were behind their own wall most of the game so it would come down to an assassination or attrition game.

Reflections from playing the game were that the Menoth do work well in an attrition battle, I used their potent denial benefits to maximum advantage, i.e. protecting my jacks with no spell or shooting hymns from the choir, enlivening them whilst in charge threat range and using the Covenant to shut down all spells in its CMD range.  I slowly nibbled at the Cryx force wearing it down until not much was left.  Andrew had the opportunity to have a shot at eSevvy with Malice due to my mistake but wiffed the dice rolls (unlucky mate if you're reading), but eventually the Menoth came out on top.

I played another game last Sunday against my good friend Ben in Scarborough, we played at 35 points and I noticed that my list felt better at 50 points, but hey I'm sure everybody would feel better with 15 more points LOL!  In short I changed the list slightly before we played as a result of the conversation about what extra I got for the 15 points and I dropped the Wracks and upgraded the Revenger jack to the Blessing of Vengeance character jack.  Although the Wracks are great for that extra focus, the Blessing can just add that bit of extra hitting power, plus I like the converted model.

So I've made the change and the Blessing has made the list in favour of the Wracks!

Reckoner work in progress

I've been lazy this week and not got much painting done, just felt a bit crap TBH.

However I've got a couple of updates on the Reckoner I need to paint for the tourny.  I usually paint models in sections to make it easier to get into all the nooks and crannies, the Reckoner was assembled with the legs separate to the body for this purpose.  Below are a couple of shots of the completed legs and base - I just need to repaint the base lip black and add the white lines, but will do that once the whole model has been assembled.

Reckoner legs (front)

 

 

Reckoner legs (rear)

I did pop off the back loin cloth before painting as this obscured too much of the inner legs for painting purposes and re-glued it after painting was finished.

I think the base has come out nicely, the Army Painter Swamp Tufts add a great amount of realism and work out relatively inexpensive per base they cover.  I think a pack is about £4 and it will do most of an army depending on how sparingly you use them!

eSevvy done!

I spent a good few hours painting eSevvy last night and am pleased to say that he is done now!  It was a nice model to paint as I said in a previous post, lots of flowing robes complemented by gold and armour plates.  I was pleased with the way his epic base came out and the rest come out similarly.  Enough waffle and onto the pics:

Next I'll probably to another Reckoner and save the Covenant until last to keep me motivated :-)

eSevvy continued

Well its been a few days since my last post and I haven't managed that much unfortunately, just been feeling a bit crap lately and not got much painting done. I have however managed a few hours tonight and eSevvy is coming along OK, hopefully he'll be done soon.

I bought some more Shining Gold from GW the other day, with a view to using it on the eSevvy model and it is absolutely crap, coverage is terrible and it doesn't look much good after multiple coats...  Not sure if I've just bought a naff pot or its GW cut backs on pigment or something.  I'm going to have a whirl with some other makes I think.

In the mean time this made me laugh:

List test run

I played a couple of games down at the club last night with this list, two different opponents, but both were Cygnar using Siege as a warcaster.  The first list was quite combat orientated with a Defender and the Black 13th as shooty back up and the other was more of a ranged force with two shooty jacks and Gun Mages.

In both games I used eSevvy's Awareness spell to allow the Reckoners to shoot past intervening models and through a cloud effect in the first game too.  Siege is probably one of the more difficult casters in Warmachine to assassinate as he has a natural armour of 17 and above average damage boxes.

The first game Siege was camping three focus so ARM 20 was a tough nut to crack, and I left Siege on about 5-6 health, but on fire.  I therefore fully expected eSevvy to die horribly as he wasn't camping any focus himself and Siege had his feat left as well as most of his army to deal with me...  Luckily for my opponent the fire expired, but luckily for me Siege was about 1/2" away from getting eSevvy in feat range, though I did get down to about 5-6 boxes myself!

The second game was not particularly favouring me in the scenario or attrition so the caster kill option was again on the cards, again Awareness allowed the LOS I needed to shoot Siege with my Reckoner duo, I again set Siege on fire, but as he wasn't camping any focus I caused enough damage to kill him exactly.

In reflection I do feel that perhaps I led a charmed life with eSevvy and the games could have easily been two losses, especially as I didn't end up on the receiving end of a fully boosted shot whilst my armour was breached!

I'll keep on trying this list as it seems pretty decent and I'll enjoy painting the remaining bits, more to follow on that as I get it done!

Epic Sevvy

So I've got three models to paint for the tourny, I started epic Sevvy first as he's one I've fancied painting for a while now.  I assembled him and undercoated him several months ago, however for painting purposes I decided to snap him off the epic base, I applied only a small amount of glue at the time so he would easily come apart again.  If you look at the painted figure here you can see that the priests would be difficult to paint properly with Sevvy attached.

Above you can see that I've just about painted the base fully, I decided to pin Sevvy into his feet after painting the base as I realised that I'd probably use a very small amount of glue once both parts were painted and the joint would be a weak and no doubt break.  This way I'd have confidence in the strength of the models joint to the base.

I am planning on painting the bottom of Sevvys cloak first with a view to attaching him to the base early to I can hold the base whilst I paint him as opposed to part of his body and risking smudging un-cured paint.  I'm quite pleased with how its coming together so far so hopefully in a few days he'll be looking as dapper as his prime counter part.

York Vs Hull team tournament

With the upcoming tournament at York I decided to use this as a deadline to get some painting done.  This event will be held on 3rd September 2011 at York and is a team event where ten players from each club will play three rounds of 35 points (single list) to determine a winner.

I decided that I would use my Menoth as I'm quite keen on this faction at the minute.  I have decided to use epic Severius as my caster as I haven't used him since I first started with Menoth a while back; but I soon found a fondness to his prime version which has stuck for the past few months.  I have decided on a list which uses the majority of my painted models leaving me with just  a modest amount to paint in the month run up to the event.

The list:
eSevvy
*Reckoner
*Reckoner
*Revenger
Choir of Menoth (leader & 3 grunts)
Daughters of the Flame (leader & 5 grunts)
Exemplar Errants (leader & 5 grunts)
Exemplar Errant UA
Covenant of Menoth

Vassal of Menoth
The Wracks

So why choose this list?
Well the first choice is obviously the caster, eSevvy is a stunning miniature and I'm looking forward to painting him and having used him at first I know how he works and am looking forward to getting a few games in with him again.  He has a solid spell list, a good feat and some good passive abilities.  He has got more assassination potential than his prime counter part and this will suit a faster play style that I need for this event.

My rationale behind this list is that it is quite well balanced, I have some ranged shooting with the pair of Reckoners and the Errants as well as an arc node for spell slinging.  The Reckoners are pretty decent in melee too, though having used the Avatar lately I'll miss his unbelievable hitting power I'm sure.  The Errants are similar to the Reckoners in that they can shoot as well as hit hard in melee and nearly always find themselves in my lists - they're a good solid unit and worth every point in my opinion.

The Daughters of the Flame can be a bit hit and miss and they're in there because I've got them painted and they will benefit from eSevvys Sacred Ward spell (+2 DEF and spell immunity).  They'll just end up running up and locking opponents gun lines and be annoying I guess!

The Covenant will be a bit hit and miss again, though making the Errants crossbows cause continuous fire is useful as well as immunity to knockdown/stationary and shutting down enemy spell casting in its CMD range will be situationally helpful.  The Vassal and Choir are almost a mandatory choice for any Menoth list so nothing too exciting there!  The Wracks are good to help Sevvy cast spells/upkeep, although 8 focus per turn is huge he can burn through it in no time and running three jacks will consume it quickly.  I could have used the point to upgrade the standard Revenger to the Blessing of Vengence, which would have been nice too but I'm keen to keep different elements to each list I use and the Blessing appears in my pSevvy lists.

So that's it for my list choices, I'll need to paint one Reckoner, the Covenant and epic Severius, shouldn't be too difficult to achieve in one month..... we'll see!