Never mind my list, is my white balanced?

I just wanted to highlight a great tutorial I have found on Nesbets Blog. It really shows how to get great photographs of your miniatures. The first part deals with a simple construction of a light box and the second part linked above deals with the camera settings themselves. It is explained rather simply so even I managed to understand it.

Noon at Orosk

"The Temple Guard had pulled back and formed up in a defensive line along the ridge overlooking the hovels that made up Orosk. A makeshift barricade had been erected from the fallen trunks of two trees, pulled into place by Crusaders. Small fires had been set up behind this in an attempt to keep the troops warm. The Harbinger suspected the Temple Guard had used some of Menoth's sacred fire but she forgave the insult. At this point staying warm was too important. The khadorans had also pulled back towards the centre of the village. With no wall surrounding the place it would be hard to defend, thought the Harbinger. A simple flanking move while engaging them lightly elsewhere should sweep them aside. The snow had picked up again and covered the tracks and remnants from the battle. Here and there some blood could still be seen, colouring the snow a disturbing pink. The Avatar had been salvaged but without the Mekaniks who were accompanying the baggage train nothing could be done to prepare it for battle. One of its legs was badly damaged as were the actuators in its shoulders. It would be days before it could be returned to action. The Idrian Scout had been sent to meet Reznik and to order him to speed up and come upon the village from the west. Her zealots had formed a screen in front of the lines ready to disrupt any response from the village. Now she just needed that damned Reznik to get here before the khadorans came at her again."

No one complained about the fiction last time so I decided to continue. It is always interesting to paint a picture of the battle afterwards. They easily lend themselves to a story and as part of the Annihilation campaign they are already linked together. The images are all thumbnails so please click on them to enlarge.

Reznik vs. Karchev

Deployment for this battle was interesting at least from a khadoran point of view. They won the roll to go first and deployed as I expected them to. I was ready for a rush down the centre but surveying the battlefield I then thought that the destroyers would form a firing position and try to take me apart from afar. I set up to ty to flank the khadorans trying to pull them into the centre and then to sweep around at least one side. This would have worked had Karchev come straight at me.Turn one gave me a suprise. The Drakhun began to swap flanks, a move I hadn't suspected. The 'jacks and Karchev moved where I suspected they would. The Widow Makers fell back again suprising me while the Men O' War ran to occupy the hill. It was a quick turn but the army was small so easily moved about the battlefield.For me the turn was also quick. I advanced up. I didn't want to begin in range of the Destroyers so I didn't advance as far as was possible. Next turn I intended to rush forward with everything to exert as much pressure as possible. The zealots moved up as far as possible on both flanks to get them in position to threaten next turn. The Temple Guard advanced and remained in shieldwall. I didn't think there was much point just yet in risking them. They could form a reserve for a later phase in the battle. The 'jacks all moved up and I cast Ignite on the Crusader and Iron Agression on the Guardian.

For the khadorans the turn was pretty short, you may notice a theme! They were definitely playing a cautious game, something I hadn't suspected though with two destroyers they could afford it! The Men O' War remained in position holding the hill and therefore the flank. The Widow Makers dug in behind the barricade. The Drakhun finished his redeployment and now threatened the centre. The Destroyers and Kharchev moved up to hold their barricades and ensure that the 'caster was in the killbox. nothing much else happened.My response was to rush forward and saturate the centre with targets. To an extent it worked but not really in my favour! I upkept the spells and gave out enough focus for everyone to run. The Zealots on the right came under Greater Destiny. They then ran forward. This would allow them to survive the Destroyers attentions. It also put them within bomb range for the next turn. On the otherflank I advanced the zealots throwing two forward to bring the Men O' War down from the hill. At least that way they wouldn't be benefitting from elevation. Int he centre the 'jacks moved up under the influence of the choir which would prevent them from being shot. I put Reznik behind the Vigilant to protect from blasts. The Temple Guard also advanced a little just to ensure that if they were needed they were available.

The game was almost finished this turn. The sneaky khadorans had a good response to my rush though it almost didn't work out for them. Kharchev cast Tow and then charged forward. This dragged the two destroyers along with him. They then activated and with two focus on each of them they were able to aim and shoot Reznik. This left him with two boxes only. I thought he would get some form of defensive bonus from being behind the Vigilant but no they could draw a direct line to him so it was just basic defense. As they both hit there was no benefit from my light warjack. However as Kharchev wasn't killed and he was out in front of his forces he was in trouble, big trouble! The Drakhun advanced to cover the two menite 'jacks and at least force me to have to deal with him. The Widowmakers advanced and the Marksman ran forward. On the left flank the Men O' War killed my two forward Zealots but brought themselves into threat range of the remaing seven.So here was by big chance! I had two heavy 'jacks ready to rumble and only a Drakhun in the way. I upkept Iron Agression but dropped Ignite. The Guardian got three focus and the Crusader got two. The Choir went first and boosted the attack and damage rolls of my warjacks by two. The Crusader moved up and threw the Drakhun. While I couldn't knock him down I could get him out of the way. I was doing the throws wrong before but having looked in the rulebook we figured out what to do. I rolled a two for my strength test meaning the Drakhun only needed a four. Thankfully he didn't get it. I tossed him back towards the zealots a nice five and a half inches. That did mean that with his reach he would still force a free strike. The damage was decent and I took a few pips off of him. Next up were the zealots. I wanted them to bomb him so that the free strike could be averted. They moved up and eventually forced a counter charge. The Drakhun didn't have a choice. Enough holy hand grenades were coming his way via the back arc that he was dead anyway and he might as well tie up the zealots to remain alive and give up the free strike on the charging Guardian. The Guardian charged for free thanks to Iron Agression and with three focus I was pretty confident. I hot with the charge and while rolling straight damage versus Kharchev I managed to get six. With four more attacks, one from the fist and three from the spear, I managed to leave him with eight boxes. Average rolls would have done exactly enough damage to kill him but it wasn't to be! I did crit with the last attack and I threw the warcaster back behind his lines. The roll to hit was a triple six, sadly that wasn't for damage. My Temple Guard then charged the Drakhun. I wasn't sure if I would have been in range but I was for three guys. The first damage roll I got came up a triple six. Damn but the dice gods were having a good laugh. This only did three pips as he was still astride his steed. When he was placed it was possible to put him so that he was out of reach of one of the others. This meant that I wasn't able to finish him off instead leaving him with a few pips! The zealots would be tied up still in the next round. On the neglected right flank my zealots for some reason lined up to pelt the khadorans with grenades. I wasn't paying attention or I would have realised how futile this was. As they were in shield wall I wasn't going to do much damage. I only realised once I threw the first grenade. Too late to go back! I managed to spread some lught damage across the Men O' War but nothing more. Reznik moved behind the Temple Guard to try and get some protection there.

I was now in a vulnerable position. The khadoran response was going to be painful. I wasn't sure but I may have had the Destroyers in melee otherwise their templates were going to take my army to pieces. They got two focus each. Kharchev upkept Tow. On the right the Men O' War engaged my Zealots taking out the majority of them. The the Widow Maker Marksman moved up to shoot Reznik. With only two boxes left it was an easy shot and Reznik went down. I was a little suprised but Owen didn't want to risk the victory as that would have cost him the campaign. He could have, and probably should have, smashed the rest of my army with two templates or tried to take out a 'jack. That would have hampered me a lot in the next battle as most of the remnants of my force were now on the table.

Annihilation Campaign Two:
Battle One: A chance encounter at Orosk

The Prime Challenge

I am finding it hard to stay focused at the moment. I am painting small pieces of a lot of units at a time and not really making any progress. This Temple Guard I painted yesterday evening to test the colour scheme and to make sure what I wanted fit with their brothers the Flame Guard Cleansers. I have had eight of these for a long time but I never progressed them beyond the undercoat. Suprisingly I managed to not lose any of the shields, something I thought would be inevitable having them transported between houses three times and between countries once.

I have played with these guys a few times. I mainly like them because of the look. They ground the army in fantasy despite the massive 'jacks wandering around. There really is something to be said for a lowly regiment of spearmen. They have generally preformed well for me either as cannon fodder or as a valuable strike force. They don't do so well against 'jacks but in most other cases they can do fine. Depending on the 'caster supporting them they can get some really nice buffs. Anything that adds to their defence is great. With set defence and a buff they can become quite difficult to hit especially for the less martially inclined troops. Shieldwall is also a useful ability but there are ways around this now and it has become useful only in certain situations. In the last game I used them Beast O' Nine took them to pieces, so much so that the remnants of the unit I used simply to block up opposing troops and charge lanes. However if I really want them to preform I have to paint them and that leads on to the main point of this post: The Prime Challenge!

I have been thinking about Warmachine a bit over the last few weeks, especially my Menoth forces. As mentioned here I have never collected most of the stuff from Prime even though what I play with mainly comes from that book. I have always stuck with Zealots, Exemplar Knights and Choir as my mainstays and I really didn't vary the force much after this. Maybe the 'caster would change or maybe some 'jacks would. So now I have decided to start the "Prime Challenge" whereby I would collect and paint the models I am missing from Prime. For me that means about twenty one miniatures. I need ten Temple Guard, ten Deliverers and a Paladin of the Wall. I have the Temple Guard, well eight of them at least, already so I just need to order the rest tonight or tomorrow. That then would leave me needing a timeframe for the challenge. Hopefully if I managed to get everything from the order on time, which I suspect I will, I can then paint them by the end of April. Thats eight weeks for twenty one guys which is a little generous but I know I have a number of weekends booked up with events and gaming so I won't get as much painting done as I would hope. So there is the challenge have everything from Prime collected, painted, photographed and presented here by April 31st.

I know a few people in a similar position to me. They have played for a while but they have never managed to collect that much. Mainly what was bought was what was available or appealed the most on the shelf. While this is fine and works in general there is nothing like having a completed army. Collecting it via the order released by the books is easy and doesn't place too much pressure on the wallet. So is there anyone who would like to join me in the challenge out there?

Battlefront vs. Maelstrom - Conclusion

I have watched this debate over the last few days and I am amazed at the propoganda and misunderstandings from a lot of the community. I would like to state that I support Maelstrom Games in general though they are no angels either. You can get all the pertinent information here. Maelstrom are selling the products at a much larger discount than the other retailers. While this is good for the consumer in the short term or on an individual basis it is bad for Battlefront on the long term and bad for players of Flames of War. Why you might ask. Well simply from the fact of what this will cause in the market.

For players of Flames of War getting cheap product is great. However as this comes from only one source what happens to the other sources. Well they will be forced to either follow suit, which they are not allowed to, or stop selling an unprofitable product. This in turn removes the stock in large levels at least from brick and mortar stores. This results in less viral marketing and in turn lower numbers of new players entering the hobby. Roll that forward for a few years and Flames of War will be stuck within whats called a death spiral where they are no longer able to grow effectively and as such may result in the end of the company. This is a good possibility due to a single online stockist offering a massive discount. It has long term consequences that should be noticed.

Why are Maelstrom doing this, they claim in the interests of the customers but come on we should not be so naieve. We know they are a business and yes they are gamers. However at a certain point money takes over and the bottom line becomes ever increasingly important. Maelstrom needs to squeeze out its compeitors and one way of doing this is underselling. If you compare it to a Ryanair model of cheap flights they are simply doing the same. They are balancing volume of sales versus a lower profit margin and they are doing it really well. This isn't in the long term intrests of any of us. As it will result in games stores closing. Simple as that Maelstrom offers too good a deal to pass up. I am like you greedy and I don't want to spend more euros on an expensive hobby than I need to.

Battlefront has to respond to this. They are not acting in the best interests of the customers either let it be said. They are moving to protect their market share and market placement. They have to as they don't control IP on the game. They can be replaced by another supplier in terms of minatures easily and then they are going to be in trouble, fast! They have to stop sales at a massive discount from a single trader. That could easily be done by removing what would appear to be a cosy arrangement with the retailers to not sell below 10% as a discount. Allowing everyone online at least to do that would spread the damage and benefit the customers somewhat. It isn't great from the point of view of high street retailers but it is a start.

A good site to see what I am talking about is Canister and Grape the customers are looking at this simply from a cheap miniatures point of view and not as a long term cause and effect. Believe me I want cheaper miniatures, however I also want local games stores!

Disco Inferno

I have finally managed to sit and paint this weekend. Even better I got to couple this with a few games. Recently one of my local Games Stores, Atlantis Games, were selling off some reduced Warmachine stock. Mainly MKI stuff that was missing the new cards. They were in most cases almost 50% off so I made sure to stock up. One of the purchases was some Flamguard Cleansers. The test model you see here came out fine and so I will do the rest like this. I haven't used them in a game. I was thinking I should have taken them in the Annihilation Campaign as at lesat then I would have a good feel for them. I guess I can always give them a run out over one of the coming weekends. I took them out to paint as I wanted to have them done in anticipation of the new Unit Attachement they will soon be getting, in March I beleive. It would be nice to have them done once the UA is out so I can just run them together from the start.

I am planning to begin a painting challenge soon maybe even this week if I can get to the shop. I have noticed that while I have been playing for a long time I have not collected all of the miniatures from Prime yet. I think it would be a good challenge to buy the last few things and paint them up just for a sense of completion. It would involve about twenty five models so it is a big undertaking. Maybe you will see plans here soon...

I got two games in over the weekend. One via VASSAL with a friend, Gareth, from Ireland. I will post a report up later in the week from this one. The other was with the Miniwar Hamburg club. Last time I was there I got my first game against Cygnar. This time I got a taste of my own medicine as I had to face off against Menoth. It was a good game but I had an advantage in numbers and that then resulted in better positioning. It was also my opponents third game and while he played really well he made pone mistake and that cost him the game. He used Reznik and he charged an undamaged Crusader. He didn't do enough to wreck the 'jack and in return a damage roll of double six smashed the 'caster.