A Blog of Fiction Writing

Hey guys I know its been forever since I've posted in this site. I'd love to do more with it and intend to keep the blog running simply because 1 day I hope to be playing warmachine a lot more than late. I've unfortunately have only had maybe 5 games a year and makes it very difficult to keep posting about something you're not doing. However if you're in the mood for something new I'm currently working on writing short fiction over at http://fledglingfiction.blogspot.com/. So if you'd like to show some support or laugh at my attempts feel free to come on over. Thanks -JW

Blog Changes!

Hey all,
I've been giving it some thought and I feel like perhaps I should attempt to resurrect this blog for real this time. I haven't posted simply because I haven't played cryx since my last post, and only managed to paint a few more models in my absence. However recently I've been painting more and have bought a shiny new used army that will add 30ish models to my collection so lots of painting shall hopefully be done! I've decided that the blog template was unappealing and needed to be changed as well as the boring header. Mind you this new header is less than impressive but I'm quite proud of myself especially for only using paint with a laptop mouse. (-_-)
Heres to new beginnings! (hopefully...)

To New Beginnings!

          Hey guys sorry I've been gone for quite some time. Needless to say summer crept up on me and I had quite a lot of things I had to do to wrap up the school year. I'm starting my summer job which is great to see all the guys again. I admit that this post isn't going to have much warmachine content but merely stating that I am still alive and that I intend to get back to posting soon especially since I have a few more models to show off!

         Also I've been giving it a lot of thought and I've decided that I need to work a lot more on my fundamentals in warmachine and so I am going to make myself play a specific number of battlebox games so I learn the intricacies of cryx as well as learning a lot of the important basics of the game itself. I'm currently leaning towards 30 battlebox games that way I have plenty experience with denny and I will most likely use her to once I get past the battlebox games and start building an army around her. It's a shame that privateer press makes such amazing fluff because its caused me to absolutely despise some characters (heres looking at you gaspy and denny....) So I pretty much hate playing the models just because of their character. But I've decided that I am truly missing out on the cryx experience if I refuse to play some of the best warcasters. On the otherhand I know my heart will be torn having to part ways with goreshade for a while... :( If anyone has any suggestions or comments to help me on my obligated reintroduction to warmachine it would be greatly appreciated! Thats all for now and as always sorry for the rambling tangent posts that I seem to always make!

          P.S. I decided to buy into the 10th anniversary sale and am finally going to start my legion army, I haven't decided if I am willing to build the box set yet due to the fact that I am going to be finding a gaming store soon and am desperately hoping I could  join into a slow grow league of some sort :)

Goreshade List Analysis

Hey guys just a simple update. My laptop has had its rights changes and I can no longer play on vassal so I haven't gotten any games in as of late. I have my personal laptop coming in tomorrow and will hopefully get a game in soon. I've been thinking about my goreshade list and have been paranoid that it isn't very competitive. I decided that it was in my best interest to create an in depth analysis of the list and see if I can find any obvious weaknesses. Overall I was pleased with all of my thoughts and decided to flourish this list into a detailed instruction manual to help me keep my mind on track and learn how to use my models more efficiently.  (WARNING: I have not made this as reader friendly as normal, be warned that the thought process is very sporadic.)

Goreshade list 35

+6   1 Goreshade

12pt 1 DJ

7pts 1 reaper

5pts 3 withershadow

3pts 6 mechs

2pts 2 Brute

2pts 1 surgeon

5pts 6 banes

4pts 1 BLT

1pts 1 tech 1 Scrap

5pts 6 banes (feat)

Goreshade- He can fight most anything especially with DW assist. He shines at using shadowmancer to advance up the field followed by mageblight to screw over a magic heavy army or spell slinging caster. Use shadowmancer explicitly if vs. a shooting army with little magic, mage blight for an opponent with a powerful feat/ or powerful spell list. Hex blast exists to eliminate upkeeps as well as targets of opportunity on infantry. Bleed exists as a method of healing and killing at the same time, such as killing UA/WA/Solos this is rarely needed but can be useful if thought through especially with the DJ charging, murdering the crap out of what he charges and then follows up with murdering the UA which he can get los to quite easily due to large base! Soul gate is used primarily as a defensive maneuver but in rare instances can be used to set up a crucial charge on the following turn.

Common Spell combinations within a turn:

Mageblight + 2 focus to jacks

Shadow +1 focus to jack + Soulgate

Shadow +1 focus to jack + Hex blast

2 Hexblast + 1 focus to jack

Shadow +4 focus to jacks

Shadow + goreshade charging and using focus (If feating be sure not to shadowmance  for the -2 arm and just have a bane face the charge target instead!)

Feat: 6 Banes within 3in only the lips need to be in 3in

The best way to maximize the distance is goreshade charging an expendable model feating the models up another 3in followed by BLT cursing the target and watching the banes charge 10in this provides a 22in threat range

Uses for feat:

Goreshade charges something big puts a huge dent in it and then banes finish the job.

Goreshade is in the thick of things and needs to be surround to prevent tramples + keeping non reach models out of combat with Goreshade.

Goreshade slingshots the banes up into combat with a shooting unit to prevent shooting while the rest of the army advances.

Deathwalker:

She can be within 3 in of goreshade and cause him to heal 1 point

She can be used to block a charge lane if needed.

-2 Def/STR on all living models within 5in of DW

By using both skills she can threaten things within 8 in of goreshade

She benefits from shadowmancer and can be used as soul gate fodder if needed

Only downside of her is she must stay within 7in of goreshade! So max threat of breathtaker is about 13-14 in

Deathjack

Deathjack should be used to kill as many large targets as physically possible! He causes huge amounts of dmg and can really wreck face!

He can heal when gathering souls or turn them into focus. Typically its best to let other models gain souls for him or if he tramples and then wrecks a heavy with focus. He can have up to 5 focus! This means with 3 focus from goreshade he can cast a fully boosted Hexblast on a target or  even a fully boosted bleed and charge a heavy. This enables DJ to beat up his heavy as normal but also help the army by killing pesky solos and UA's

The DJ can charge out boldly then be soulgated away into safety ( Research if the DJ can cast while in combat may be a valid way to extend the range of a hexblast without having to  make the DJ waste time casting spells

Reaper

The reaper can be used in 2 ways. The Reaper can shoot his harpoon into a target and pull it into combat, he gets a free swing and then can spend focus on buying more attacks. Its important to realize he typically will need to boost on the harpoon to be reasonably reliable if it can be afforded giving him 3 focus makes a reasonable distance pull very hard to fail as on average dice he will hit def 14 and wound arm 21 which may then be followed by 2 helldiver hits. Typically then goreshade can soulgate him out of harm and leave the target crippled or  allow other models to charge and wreck it.

Withershadow Combine

Maelovus- Leader Cmd 9 allows the group to spread out huge distances. Mael grants stealth as well as dark industries to make more jacks. Mael should be throwing a darkfire around every round possible since he has no other abilities to actively use.

Admonia- She should keep reasonably close to important models and units so to remove any debuffs as well as stay close to the action as if she dies the only loss is the upkeep removal. She like mael should be casting dark fire every round possible unless an upkeep nearby needs to be removed.

Tremulus- Tremulus has the puppeteer spell that can be used to make sure something important definitely hits. This should be actively used when goreshade casts hex blast so that boosting isn't necessary. Once again tremulus should be trying to sling dark fire as often as possible or putting puppet on an important friendly model such as DJ, Reaper, BLT, Goreshade, Brute thrall,

Unit- They should be actively claiming souls so that they can be used for great effect in combat if needed ( 2 souls allows 2 attacks boosted due to charge and soul)

Mechanithralls- These guys are a cheap tarpit that can happily take bullets. These guys are capable of seriously threatening heavies, lights, and even infantry. When against a medium base typically charge and combo strike is the best option. If against a small base typically 2 swings will increase their chances of actually landing a hit. The mechs are hard to keep in cmd so its important to watch the leader closely. If the unit can not reach a target to charge it, they often do well to run multiple into combat and the rest wait to clean up the mess. The mechanithralls can work beautifully in attrition as when they die the necrosurgeon can always make more. Its important to leave a mech behind so not to be killed with the rest of the unit if things go poorly.

Brute thralls- These guys beg for the chance to charge a jack. When charging a large model its often best to combo strike for an impressive 19. When against a medium or small base typically 2 swings will cause more damage as well as offer more chances to hit. These guys are good for preventing tramples. These guys are good at being bullet magnets for the bullet magnets. They should be covered by a few mechanithralls so not to be charged. This way only shooting can affect them or long term attrition which of course mcthralls excel in.

Necrosurgeon- This model is what makes mechanithralls so good at their jobs. The bullet magnets go from cheap useless fodder to a potentially long lasting and maybe even a larger unit by the time they finish combat. Its important to keep this model alive as long as physically possible. She can't be targeted by ranged attack as she can pick up a mech to take the bullet instead. She can be singled out by spells which can be frustrating but helps keep enemy casters wasting focus or precious magic abilities busy. When positioning her attempt to keep her shielded by Brute thralls so that LOS can't be obtained and causing the Brute thralls to be shot down before the precious surgeon. When creating new thralls typically it is best to do it before the unit activates so that they may join the attack as well. Although it often is more attritionly beneficial to activate the mechs. Kill the unit they charged then add the new  mechs to fill in any important gaps as well as help protect the fragile surgeon. This allows the surgeon to keep up with the unit but prevents her from collecting the new kills preventing the unit to grow larger then it was.

Stitch Thralls - Not much to say on these guys they can be great for blocking charge lanes. They allow the surgeon to walk create thralls while these guys stay closer to the fray and collect more corpses for her. These guys can be used as sac pawn but often aren't the best choice due to the fact they have higher def so its better to make the enemy try to hit them than give them easy hits! When the surgeon dies these guys get to run around like headless chickens causing all kinds of pointless havoc, blocking charges, covering a target from trample or just being great cheap soul gate fodder.

Bane thralls- Stealth! These guys are exceptional against shooting armies. These guys can't be shot unless within 5in which means they will have a target to charge when they survive. The banes have weaponmaster as well as deathshroud. These guys excel at slaughtering heavies, lights, and medium bases. Typically banes do not wish to be in combat against an infantry unit but by no means are wasted if they do so. If against a unit be sure to allow BLT to curse the unit so that they swing at a respectable mat 8 rather than 6. These guys do well at keeping up with BLT. There largest weakness is spd5 which means they are very slow in rough terrain and can be nearly stopped cold in terrain pieces. When heading through the woods its best to keep a close formation so that the unit can emerge at the same time rather than trickling out.

Bane Lord Tartarus- The Bane lord is an infantry eating machine! BLT can charge and curse a unit. Causing him to be mat 9 making it very easy to hit infantry models as well as thresher letting everything in his LOS be massacred. I am struggling with where BLT is supposed to go within the unit and often get him killed as I line up charges poorly and get him killed with very little payback. When BLT kills infantry models they can be turned into banes so long as there is a unit formation nearby and within 3in of him.

Necrotech- This model should typically follow the reaper as the DJ can repair itself. The necrotech is medium base and can be used to block trample lanes. This model can be used to help protect the reaper after a failed attempt to pull in a jack or beast. This model should always keep an eye out for wreck markers as when he finds a marker he makes d3 or d6 scrap thralls who can be a whole lot of fun and make back their points in a hurry.

Scrap Thrall- This little guy can be dangerous as he can kill off my own side! This guy isn't too fast but can be devastating when he charges in and places a 4in aoe pow 16 on the guy he hits! Not much to write home about as this guy is worth a whopping 1/3 a point. 

Okay so overall it seems that the whole list covers everything I need. I think my biggest weakness as of right now is my lack of knowledge against other armies, repeating opponents with same list, and the poor lack of knowledge in the fundamentals of warmachine. All in all I think I just need to play more games and find myself a gaming community that is warmachine friendly... Well thats all folks thanks for reading!

The Deathjack, How?

So I finally decided I can't avoid this stupidly long post and its about time I get around to teaching people how to make their very own Deathjack.I can not urge you enough to read the entire post before building your own as I made plentiful mistakes and I want you to learn from my suffering!
Well lets start off with the basics. 
1. Obtain a Deathjack box with full pieces!

These are all the pieces that come with the DJ be sure you have them all! (Forgot: Large base)

2. Alright so now we have all our pieces. Be sure you soak them in some soapy water and scrub them clean using a small brush such as a tooth brush (No pic. Did that before I planned this post!)

 3. The first thing I like to do when building minis is make a cool basing so that I know exactly how I have to pose my model. This is me showing a rough draft of the base. Material used was concrete scraps that I had from my eagle project. Remember always be on the lookout for modeling supplies for free! Next you will notice that I used gorilla glue.... DO NOT DO THIS! Perhaps since this was my first time I used this glue but it got really foamy and leaked all over the concrete and I was not pleased with the results in the slightest. 

4. So now you have found some random supplys and made yourself a nifty base. Next you will need to find a dynamic and stable pose that you think will work well with the base. I decided to show the DJ stepping up on a rock while pushing off his back legs. For the next step we might as well do the legs so we don't forget our nifty plan!

As you can see here I am pinning the legs for extra strength as well as more modeling flexibility

.

Note: Many modelers prefer to drill the side with a peg and then insert a small metal rod like I did except then they paint the tip and add the leg so they can mark where they must drill next. I personally just eyeball it and deal with my failings :).

 5. Well now that we have 1 leg done of course we must do the same to the other leg!

Thankfully this is a bad photo but this was my attempt to show how drilling too long can cause you to drill through a leg (-_-)

6. Now we must make sure all 4 pins (2 in legs 2 in pelvis.) are glued in and will stay nice and tight! Next as the picture shows we must glue the legs together as you can see not too dynamic but still something more original than the bland straight pose.

With the pines glued in place these legs will be a great support and will increase survival if this model is dropped.

Note: Another mistake I realized as I built this was the pegs on the pelvis were blocking the set up I wanted for the legs and so had to be filed down thinner until they can slide in and make for a strong but cool pose!

7. Now that we have our legs built we shall move onto the arms and torso! For the skulls on the shoulders I decided that the wells and the supporting frame was more than enough for the super glue to make a strong bond with little trouble and I chose not to pin this.

8.  Now that the shoulders are done we are onto the hardest part of the project! I decided that not only will I be so bold as to pin this model but I would magnetize him as well! Although there is no practical use for him having magnetic arms it gives him a nifty posibility and allows for easy transportation :)

7/16" x 1x16" are the magnets you should be using.... I was too cheap/dumb to buy the proper size so I had to clip some huge magnets down to proper size.

As you can tell if the magnets are clipped it doesn't need to be perfectly round just make sure its deep in there and that you use plenty of glue!

Blurry photo of me cutting a magnet with dikes.

Note: As stated I highly recommend the proper size magnets! If you do decide to take my route please use proper eyeware! Also if you have clumsy hands be sure to wear gloves! I used basic dikes. (known as wire cutters in other places.)  P.S. Do not test your magnets until you let the glue dry for 24hrs or else you might pull them straight off and cause you to do this again!

9. Next you will want to clip some more magnets to add on to the arms. I unfortunately do not know which size that you should purchase.. So best of luck there :( Sorry! I personally would try a couple of 5/16" x 1/8" on the arm. Although typically its easier to purchase 4 of the larger magnets and clip the ones on the arms until you find a suitable size.

Sorry about the picture but I wanted to show the travesty that is gorilla glue as well as one arm magnetized with a cut up magnet.

10. Next up I decided that the hands needed to be finished. This means clipping the claw pieces off the sprue as well as the second half of the hand. As I was determined to pin all my pieces as much as physically possible I drilled all the hands.

As you can tell I like to test the hole by putting the rod into it and making sure it can stand unsupported.

11. Now I'm sure you all think I did the right thing and drilled the spikes and pinned them to the hand right? WRONG! I got far too lazy and decided that they would be able to glue on and stay on just fine. LIES!

The momentarily finished product until fate teaches me I must pin the whole world! MUHAHAHAH!!

12.Next up we go back to the torso and attempt to finish up the body before the head goes on! I decided I didn't want to pin the cage and the soul and surprisingly still haven't (Although I did have to redo them later...) Hopefully I won't ever have to pin these things :p

If you choose to pin these be careful on the round bottom of the souls as the drill can slip and can cause serious harm!

13. Next up the DJ will need his fearsome head to inspire terror or abomination technically! I stupidly wanted to magnetize the head, gave up and decided to just try and glue it on as best I can.... That is until most of the DJ fell apart....

"I may be a quadriplegic but I shall feast on your soul!"

14. Next up we're gonna start putting on his carapace and so we need to glue the spike frame to the larger back piece which will soon be going behind the deathjacks head.

15. Next up we must put on his carapace so that he isn't as vulnerable as he seems!  Once again in all my wisdom I decided this didn't need a pin... Once again WRONG!

You may notice the soul and rib pieces already missing.... grumble grumble grumble.....

 16. So now back to the hand so we can let the carapace dry! We need to glue the lower part of the gauntlet so that the arms can be glued right into the hands with no trouble at all. I didn't pin this as it had a good structure and doesn't seem like a likely point to come apart.

17. Next up I decided that the glue on my magnets was dried enough and decided to glue the ball joints of the arms onto the shoulder. Again make sure to keep posing in mind. I decided I wanted the DJ's right claw in a high slash and the left arm to be in a low slash. The ball joints do not need the pins as there are plentiful contact points for the super glue to take hold!

18.Next up I decided to add the smoke stacks on and as the reoccurring theme I decided that pinning was too much effort and I skipped right past it with some gluing and a whole lot optimisim. Once again do not fall for the DJ's trap! BE SURE TO PIN EVERYTHING POSSIBLE!

19. Now I got a little too focused on building and started to forget to take photos. First I glued the hands onto the arms, once again no need for pins and a lot of superglue can do the job just fine. Next up we need to put the torso onto the pelvis. There is a huge joint on the torso and so I decided gluing should work just fine as well... this time I wasn't right and later the DJ will fall apart >.<

20. Now that your DJ is so close to completion you can begin working on putting your DJ onto the basing. I had to save the basing for last as the remains of the gorilla glue had not yet finished drying. Although its difficult to see from the poor photos (sorry my non pinned DJ just exploded in my hands and I was attempting not to rage quit. I decided to keep the DJ sturdy on the base by drilling the bottom of the legs and pinning it into the concrete. Be warned if you used the concrete I am fairly sure it ruined my drill bit but thats okay as I have hundreds of spares!

If you look to the right you can see a soul cage staring at me in clear resolution laughing as I had chose not to pin it....

The brown blob in the grey and silver blob is the copper rod supporting the legs to the base. (This will be covered by the feet so don't worry about making it to deep, or you could put small rocks around it to hide it.)

21. Next up we glue the feet onto the legs so that it can cover up the pins. I chose to bend some of the toes with plies to make it seem like the DJ is trying to get traction on the rocks rather than blocky feet stumbling over rocks! I highly recommend taking the time to make your jack look as natural as possible rather than blocky and uncomfortable!

"Your death is soon!!!!!!"

22. (This step is more for me rather than you smart viewers!) Now I need to repair everything that has exploded apart... This means clipping the bottoms of the smoke stacks and drilling pins into them and applying them to the back. Reapplying the head and pinning it so that it won't fall off and so I can obtain the direction I wanted rather than the one I compromised for with super glue! Then I had to resuperglue the soul and rib pieces back onto the torso. Next up the hands needed the spikes drilled and reattached. This was the most frightening part as the drill continued to slip and I nearly stabbed my hand several times! Please learn from my mistakes and be very very careful! Well as this whole day occurred due to the fact that I desperately needed a stress day... I kinda had a panic attack and needed to get away from the project as my mind slowly crashed. After my break, the deathjack giggled maniacally and snapped off its pelvis as well as having the carapace snap off! I then promptly pinned the pelvis to the torso and pinned the carapace to the torso... unfortunately I drilled through the carapace and will need to cover up the hole. Phew busy step huh?!

23. There you have it! YOUR FREE!!!!!! Well sorta.. as free as papa Toruk lets us undead folk be... None the less you should now have a fully complete and pretty awesome looking Deathjack that not only is nearly indestructible due to all your pinning but also several epic poses due to the nifty magnetic arms.

^ This right here is a jack made of pure win! ^

Note: I had some trouble with the arm movement and discovered that If you bend the lower corners of the carapace inward it gives the arms more movement as well as looking pretty darn cool if I may say so myself!


Things you should have learned from me:
PIN! - Be sure you pin everything you possibly can or it will come back to haunt you later!
Drilling! - Be sure to be very careful while you drill for your own safety as well as preventing silly mistakes like drilling too far!
Gorilla Glue! - Be sure you know how to use it before adding it to models as otherwise you can make a huge mess you do not wish to clean in the long run!
Have fun! - Its important that you enjoy this project or otherwise all the time it takes will be miserable and you will hate the finished product. (Although I am overjoyed by how awesome he came out!)
SAFETY!!!!!- Please be safe the last thing I want to here is you slipped with the drill and got sent to the hospital. Please if you do not feel comfortable working with any of these tools please please please be careful or ask for help by someone more experienced than yourself!

Thanks for putting up with all this text! Please let me know what you think of this post! If I get some pretty good feedback I'll be sure to keep these posts up.... If not than these will likely die out as it took a lot of effort to write this up as well as take the photos. Until next time!

Withershadow Combine + Deathwalker!

Hey everyone so today I decided to take a much needed stress day and focused on a lot of warmachine stoof. All that I managed to do today was build my magnetized deathjack and take pictures so that I can write my very first how to article. *Coming Soon: The Deathjack, How?* Be sure to tune in if you have one to build and want to learn from the dozens of stupid mistakes I made for you all! I'm rather proud of how he came out! But the reason you can here is obviously the title. These models I've had painted forever but was way too lazy to ever take pictures.

Citizen Snips

Libby the Librarian

Puppeteer

Legion is OP!

Haha Luckily I am going to start a legion army! But thats a story for another day on a new blog that is yet to be made MUHAHAHAH. Anyways played a real nice guy today named Malfunction on vassal. Played 2 games. One might ask why I played 2 games when I normally play 1. Well simple dear views Legion murdered me in the beginning of second turn. Guess who forgot what eyeless sight does and decided to hide behind forest and stealth (me) <---- THIS GUY! Goreshade died literally half way through his turn. Second game was his trial of Bethayne.  This game hurt like hell in the beginning having lost BLT, 5 banes, and a reaper all within the 2nd turn due to feat. Well after some shenannigans between the two of us I managed to get my feat off on Belphagore and smashed up Belp. Unfortunately he lived.... Needless to say I've lost twice today and it hurt real real bad. Once again sorry I haven't done a decent battle report in quite some time :( A lot of personal issues are coming up and I'm within inches of having a panic attack so just trying to take it a day at a time. Hopefully within 2 weeks when most of the problems will be done and over it can hopefully get this blog back on track. For those of you who have been kind enough to stay with me I appreciate it :)