Warcasters, Warlocks and Feats; Oh My: Tombstone Format

I've been thinking about making my own Warmahordes format for a long time, even though I very much so enjoy the game the way it is intended to be played. After playing the tabletop skirmish game MERCS, which features a very small model count (five); I came up with a little something new. I first asked myself what I liked about MERCS the most, which was time. You can crack a game out in roughly 30 minutes giving even someone who is strapped for time (or on a lunch break) ample time to get a game in. I also love games with small model counts.

I am a huge fan of the Highlander format especially when trying to get someone past that initial "I can only handle a battle box stage" and I have read about but have yet to try out Thunderdome. So, I thought how could I do almost a MERCS style format using Warmahordes' rules? Then BOOM, it all came together. I finished my bowl of Cheerios and the Tombstone format was born!

The Earp Brothers

Tombstone Format

Lists:
-Choose a Warcaster or Warlock: Your total points to create you list are equal to 5 + WJ/WB points
-You may only select Faction solos; Partisans still come into play. No Warjacks/Warbeasts, unless they are companion models.
-Warcasters/Warlocks that come with Jacks/Beasts/Companions may use them in that their bonus points are reflective of having them.
-Lesser Warlocks that come with Beasts may use them in that their point costs are reflective of having them.

Gameplay:
-Warcasters and Warlocks alike use the rules for Warcasters. Warlocks generate Focus equal to their Fury stat every turn.
-Warbeasts act like Warjacks; they no longer use the Fury mechanic, can be allocated Focus up to their Fury stat and spend it like a Warjack. They no longer Frenzy and lose any unspent focus during the Maintenance phase. Any rule that would necessitate a Warbeast to be forced cost 1 Focus instead but the Warbeast must still be in CTRL range of its Warlock to do so. Animi may be cast; pay their cost in Focus rather than Fury.
-Models that may create other models (i.e. eAlexia, eThagrosh) may still do so.

-Use the Scenario: Grab 'n' Smash

Scenario: Grab 'n' Smash

-Place a single flag in the center of the table.
-Players all deploy up to 10" off of their respective board edge.

Special Rules
While B2B with the flag, a warrior model may forfeit either its movement or action to pick the flag up. When picked up, remove the flag from play; the model that picked it up is now the Flag Carrier. Flag Carries may not run, charge, make a slam, make a light cavalry move or be placed during their activation and lose the effects of Stealth and Incorporeal while carrying the flag. If the Flag Carrier becomes dismounted(dragoon models), stationary or knocked down, they drop the flag; place the flag back on the table B2B with the model that dropped it using the Least Disturbance rules (pg 64, Prime mkII). If the Flag Carrier is destroyed, replace its model with the flag like you would a wreck marker on a boxed warjack.

Victory Conditions
The first player to have a friendly Flag Carrier in their deployment zone immediately wins the game.

If you are wondering why I named the format Tombstone: it reminded a close friend and collaborator of mine of a western. You have a posse of the best and ready to deal out some justice; it is reminiscent of the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday. Thus, Tombstone.


Now this is the Beta; I need to play test it and get conclusive data to determine if I need to tweak things a bit or not. If you read this, try it out and have feedback for me; I would be more than grateful for it. The more I get; the more I can polish this thing. I am very interested in hearing your list ideas, so don't hesitate to share! Please, don't knock it before you try it. I want to hear why it didn't work out for you, not why you think it won't work. Help meh, help meh, please!!!

Thanks!

Preemptive FAQ

List Construction:
What types models can be in my list?
A single warcaster/warlock and Faction solos only. You don't build a battlegroup in this format.

So I spend WJ/WB points on Solos and not Warjacks/Warbeasts?
Yes!!!

Warcasters/Warlocks:
Can Warcasters/Warlocks use their feats?

Yes

Can Warlocks who come with Warbeasts still cast their Warbeast's Animus as a spell?

Yes

Are caster kills still a viable way to win?
Yes

Can pGoreshade still use his feat to summon a minimum unit of Banes?

As of right now, yes. I still need play testing to see if certain rules break the format. These can always be adjusted after seeing how things go.

[Insert Warlock/Warcaster Name] has only a Jack or Beast-centric spell list and/or feat. Doesn't that mean they will be terrible in this format?

Calaban doesn't have access to any kind of useful Arc Node that won't most likely get him killed but I still play him in normal format. Pick a different Caster/Lock if you really feel this way.

If I choose a Cygnar Warcaster can I use Mercenary models in my list?

Despite the fact that Mercenary models practically are Cygnar models, No, you must select solos only from the same Faction as the caster or ones that have the partisan rule for your chosen Faction.

If I choose a Mercenary or Minion warcaster/warlock, do I have to choose a charter or pact?
Yes, I will not tolerate the mixing of Bacon and Scales!

If I could somehow manage it; could I use a theme force?

Yes, for now. If you do, please give feedback!

Flag Carriers:
Can Flag Carriers still attack or make an actions on their activation?
Yes

Can a model forfeit its action to pick up the flag and then make a full advance?
Yes

If my dragoon is dismounted, he/she drops the flag?
Yes, your dragoon will drop the flag and need to once again forfeit movement or action to pick it up once more if you want to do so.

Can a Flag Carrier voluntarily drop the flag?
No, this may change depending on how play testing goes.

Other Questions:
How much terrain should I use?
As much as you want but personally I would use two forests and two walls total to try it out. Set it up so each player has a forest and a wall on their side of the flag. The game was designed to not take forever; too much terrain could bog it down. Here is an example I threw together in Vassal:

If I wanted to play a timed game because I have friends who take forever on their turns; how much time should be used?
As of right now, 15 minutes per player. This might change after play testing.

Will you be updating this format beyond this?
Yes, like I said this is basically the Beta of this format. The more feedback I get the better I can sculpt the guidelines.

Will you come out with new scenarios for this format?
I will give a tentative Yes. If the format is generally enjoyed by people, I will definitely try to cook up new scenarios for it.

Please Don't Feed The Animals: Trollbloods

When I took pictures of my Blindwater models, I also used the opportunity to shoot some of my trollbloods. I figured I would make you hold out till today to see them, not that you were waiting anyway. Here you go.

Please Don't Feed The Animals: Blindwater (Redo)

After my horrible failing the first time around, I have constructed a new light box. I saw how Meg Maples had done her's with a frosted garbage can and decided to try the same technique with slight variation. I know Meg wrote a tutorial but I'm going to run through how I did mine for the sake of science... and baby rabbits. It all started in the Rubbermaid section of a Walmart.

I bought this container for about $5 including tax. I liked the white lid and that fact that it came with a cover.

I then drew a squarish shape on one side with a Sharpie marker using a straight edge.

I proceeded to blow the whole squarish parts to shit by cutting this thing with a Sawzall. In hind sight, I should have used a utility knife to score the lines and then work the plastic back and forth for a controlled snap, but I'm a fucking savage, baby; that shit's no fun! I need POWAH!!!!!!

Next part comes from Home Depot. I bought two little lights which were roughly $12 a piece and two different types of lamps. The larger lamps are the 120 watt equivalent Daylight flood bulbs and the smaller are 50w equivalent. I bought them both because I wasn't sure if the 120 watters were over kill or not. I wasn't sure which to try first...

I applied the proverbial sledgehammer and slapped those 120 watt monstrosities in there. Bam! So, here are the results. I'm not 100% pleased but I will talk about that at the end. On to the photo dump.

I feel the photo quality is A LOT better however I still feel they can improve. The light box worked great, its my camera that is terrible. You won't be surprised to hear that I took these pictures with my iPhone... I will flog myself... My next mission for this project is to procure a decent camera.

Almost forgot!

The light box "folds in on itself!"

Please Don't Feed the Animals: Blindwater

I got some time to play with taking better pictures. I stress the word "better" and for you to realize I didn't say anything along the lines of great or even good pictures. I decided to use some of my Blindwater models (that some of you may recognize from the last couple years of Templecon) as the Guinea pigs. My color scheme is based off of Rust Dragons from Dungeons & Dragons.

When I received Rask his legs were a little bent and when I straightened them, his right leg snapped at the ankle. This was depressing but I made lemonade out of shit and gave him this sweet Captain Morgan-esque pose. His coloring and the coloring of my other bog trogs is actually that of common carp.

My Swamp Horror is actually still in the scheme except for one color, which is the orange if you didn't notice.

It may be hard to notice, but on the Swamp Horror and Spitter's bases I did a water effect. Its actually only gloss varnish. I left the spots I wanted to have water dark and blended in some of the gray I used on the rest of the base to paint in a "shore." I just put a couple of coats of gloss over this until I was convinced it might be water.

The Blackhide Wrastler is one of my favorite models in the game. Unfortunately, it is by far one of the hardest models to photograph and maintain its coolness factor. People always say "Jazz Hands," but I always think it looks more like he is tripping. Anyways...

These are actually two different snappers; I own four. I find myself taking three as my battlegroup to jam in three posses wherever I can. Hopefully things change a little more come Exigence.

After seeing how these came out I realize my errors. Using daylight bulbs is pretty important it seems. I used two quartz lights here and the end result is too yellow. My endless paper should look white but it in no way does. I'll retake but I hope you at least enjoy these. It looks like its back to the drawing board for now.

In a Grim Alternate Universe, There is Only Steam: Ghosts N' Stuff

I'm back! I got some time after catching up on some house stuff to do some painting. I've been working on some Cryx models for a friend and was given free reign as far as theme goes. I saw an article on ghost Cryx in No Quarter magazine and decided it might be cool to do. I tweaked the NQ scheme a bit because I wanted to go more Scooby-Doo Ghost Pirate/ Obi Wan Kenobi ghost with this army. The ghosts needed to look legit, so I'm going with a graveyard theme on the bases. Let's start with those:

This is a base for a Deathripper bonejack. I decided to use some Warhammer Fantasy tombstones and various Warhammer 40k Chaos space marine bits to push the graveyard theme. Ironically, my interest in both of those games are also in a graveyard somewhere. I always do a dry fit when sculpting the bases and use green putty to make the ground uneven for more "realism," albeit 12' tall metal men controlled by warrior wizards are far from that ideal.

Same old base, now with sand! I am a huge proponent of Gorilla Super Glue and making shit last forever. I put a couple of drops of the Gorilla Super Glue on the base, spread it so its thin and covering all the space I want then I sprinkle sand on. The glue dries super hard and affixes to the plastic and green stuff like a champ.

This Slayer has been pinned to this base. One of the most terrifying experiences with this project has been drilling and pinning the helljacks and bonejacks to their respective bases. They have WEAK ankles and I can't stress that enough. His base actually features a tombstone I sculpted!

In hind sight, this picture is pretty terrible and I apologize for it. Prior to this picture, the models were attached to their bases and primed in black with Vallejo Air Black Surface Primer. For this step and the next I used an airbrush as well. The first color was Vallejo Air Olive Green, which I tried to hit most of the body with leaving the underbody and the feet only lightly sprayed. I want these areas to retain a lot of darkness.

After the initial spraying of Olive Green, I mixed Vallejo Air US Interior Yellow with the Olive Green in a 3 drops Yellow:5 drops Green ratio. I used this to do some highlighting. 

In the picture above, you'll notice I put the mediums I used in the background like a nice guy. The model on the left is the previous step, the model on the right has been completely washed in watered-down P3 Green Ink. This gave the airbrush Green a move glowy quality that I really liked.

After my ink dried, I continued highlighting with P3 Iosan Green. The model on the left is from the last step; the one on the right has the new layer of highlights. 

Aiakos!?!?!?! Where did you come from? In this step, I do even more highlighting with P3 Necrotite Green. You might be able to notice that I left his feet very close to black; I'm hoping that this will give him a more ghostly feeling. I try to keep my brighter colors higher but don't be afraid to highlight a cool detail, ghosts don't play by the rules of light.

The final step incorporates doing one more highlight in white. I just used some random craft store paint to do this part. If you don't make the white overwhelmingly bright, you are good to go. After looking at some of these pictures, I should probably make a photo box for better quality shots. Ah well, until next time.

Turn the Page: "Kaiju Winter" by Jake Bible

I'm back from vacation and am feeling the sadness of returning but I am happy to give you another most likely non-thorough book review. My next selection is "Kaiju Winter" by Jake Bible.

When I was first glancing at this title in the Amazon store on my Kindle, I immediately thought "Lame;" I was wrong. I loved Godzilla and all his pals as a kid and remember running up the block to the local video rental joint to get some sweet Kaiju movies on VHS. Even with my inner kid saying "Kaiju = Awesome," I was still skeptical on how well this book would keep my interest. I decided to throw caution to the wind and purchase this book. In the end, I couldn't be happier with it.

Kaiju Winter revolves around characters who are all basically interconnected in backstory, however, are currently separated in the book. It is a third person, omniscient perspective that "location hops" throughout the book. By "location hop" I mean one segment might feature Dick and what is going on around him and then in the next segment, the action revolves around Jane and her surroundings. This dynamic really gives the book a blockbuster Kaiju movie feel and keeps the book flowing. I had a hard time putting this one down; even on vacation.

I am feeling very positive about this book and I really don't think I have anything minutely bad to say about it. It was damn well worth the $4(don't quote me on the price) for the digital version and I am anxiously waiting for the next book in the series that is supposed to be named "Kaiju Storm." So, give it a shot unless giant monster apocalypse is really not your thing.

Turn the Page: "NPCs" by Drew Hayes

I'm actually on vacation right now and one of my favorite things to do pre-trip is to load up the Kindle with an amount of books I could never finish in a week. Here's to being prepared!

One of the books that I chose this time around is called "NPCs" by Drew Hayes. I was a touch skeptical when I read the teaser text on the Amazon entry for it. From what I gathered it would only really appeal to the mecha-geek sub-faction of Geeks, but I was wrong (or I'm a mecha-geek).

The book's humor is excellent if you have ever played through even at least one pen and paper RPG campaign and didn't text or play games on your phone throughout it (don't do this if you do; everyone else at the table thinks you're an asshole for it). I really liked the characters as well; they all did have a stereotypical archetype to them(completely on purpose) and they grow from there. I've read other novels of late that had teaser text that claimed the books were "the new thing of" or "a new look of" the Fantasy genre. Bullshit, says I!!! This is a new twist!

It is an easy read and enjoyable throughout. To be honest, it reads almost like a transcript of an RPG group's campaign in a literal sense. It will also make RPG players think a lot harder about how they roleplay in their campaigns, in my opinion. The adventurers in the book, who are controlled by players, come across as jerks and their behavior is on the whole disdained.

This brings me to my finally comment on the book before I shoo you off to read it. Generally, I abhor the mixing of universes. When someone from our world goes to another universe or alternate universe, I am instantly turned off because the content can become quickly tainted with cheesy catch phrases and a character who would in reality most likely die at the first sign of any real danger their smart phone couldn't get them out of. The worst is when the character from our time uses our slang around the denizens of the foreign universe only to confuse them and has to awkwardly explain the meaning of what they just said. Or, at a turning point of usually a giant battle, a surly medieval warrior who has distrusted the "outsider" breaks out with "yeehaw," "cool," or some other slang to show his now acceptance of the otherworlder. Dousche-chills galore, Batman! Not going to lie here; this book has a decent amount of that, save the last bit about the turning point of a battle. I feel it didn't bother me since the whole cross-universe thing was presented totally different here.

At any rate, it was a great book and I would highly suggest it. Check it out.