Templecon 2012 Scenario Table - Rules [Updated]

While the table is finally finished, there is one last thing that needs to be done with it before it's ready for Templecon: playtesting!  Any good scenario should be tested to make sure that any rules questions are resolved in advance so that players can focus on having fun instead of arguing or asking questions.  Today I will be transporting the table to the LGS where it will undergo some vigorous testing and I will sift through some questions and thoughts on the table.  While I know it looks great, I want it to be fun too!  Therefore, I have created a beta for the rules here that you may sift through them for any questions/comments!  The most up-to-date rules can be found here.

Templecon 2012 Scenario Table - Finished!

 It's taken some time, but it's finally finished!  The scenario table is done!  All that is left to do is some final touch-ups and it will be ready for playtesting.  I will let the pictures speak for themselves, as the girlfriend and I are very pleased with how it looks.  See for yourself!

Templecon 2012 Scenario Table - Painting

I apologize for the lack of an update yesterday.  The work on the table has been constant and productive and I lost track time.  I do have some more pictures today of the table, and we should be finished in time for the Thursday deadline, at which point I will bring the table to the LGS so that people can play the scenario. For now, here are the photos of some of the painted pieces to hopefully get you as excited as I am!  I apologize for the pictures, as I don't have my usual software here to fix up the photos better.

Templecon 2012 Scenario Table - Structures!

I hope everyone had a merry Christmas, and I hope all of you Jewish folk enjoy the rest of Hannukah.  Personally, I had a great Christmas, as my girlfriend gave me a Vallejo 72-color paint set with case (!).  Meanwhile, at SPG we've been busy at work on the scenario table for Templecon 2012!  The graveyard (as of yet unnamed) has been progressing nicely and today I have some teaser pictures to share with you about our progress thus far.  The current deadline is Thursday this week, so that it can be transported to the LGS for playtesting, and it looks like we are following along according to schedule.  Take a look!

Follow-up: More than just a business

I noticed recently that there was an interesting announcement made my Privateer Press regarding the Boneswarm model.  If you're not aware of what I'm talking about, let me provide some important backstory.  First, the Boneswarm is an old metal model from the old Iron Kingdoms line (made for the RPG) that has recently been made into a playable light warbeast for the Blindwater Congregation in Hordes: Domination (see my spoiler on it here).  There was some drama about the transition of this old Iron Kingdoms model into the Minions line because there was a significant price increase (which I discussed towards the end of this article) from $10 to $19.  Privateer Press has prided itself as being a company that stays connected to their player base, and this was a surprising move for them, and there were some unhappy customers.

Cost of starting a new army

We've all seen them.  Price comparisons between Warmachine/Hordes and 40k.  However, since I am currently building a Trollbloods force, I am hyper-aware of how much a full force costs.  Granted, there are lots of sites out there that offer discounts or buyer-rewards programs, but at the end of the day, it's still quite expensive to start a new faction for any game system.  This has also become even more apparent for me as I pondered updating my Tyranid force to playable strength, thinking that Mawlocs might be a wise investment for dealing with tanks.  At any rate, today I wish to compare the cost of the 50 point Trollblood I will be starting, and a 1750 point Tyranid army - both of which I believe are the most expensive armies for their respective game systems.

Steamroller 2012 - Predictions

Having spent some time with the new Steamroller 2012 rules (in their final beta), I have developed some thoughts about what we will see in the tournament scene in 2012.  As usual, Templecon will be the major testbed for these new scenarios and rules, and will be expected to be the biggest Warmachine/Hordes tournament in the country, with Lock and Load being the only exception.  Additionally, I've heard rumors of Steamroller coming to the Penny Arcade Expo in Boston (PAX East) in the near future.  So what can we expect to see on the tables, and what do I predict we will see?

Templecon 2012 Scenario Table - Genesis

In the beginning there was nothing.  The foam was shapeless and void, lacking in any detail or meaning.

Work on the scenario table for Templecon 2012 has begun!  My girflriend and I have begun work on what is being tentatively called the "Graverobbers" scenario table.  Most of all of the materials have finally been gathered and work began in earnest last evening with the purchase of the foam necessary to create the surface onto which the rest of the details will be placed.  I have some pictures to show you all of how the project is progressing but first let's list the materials used in this project so you can follow along:

Editorial: The Ten Things Every Game Needs

Recently I read two great articles by Mark Rosewater.  Mark Rosewater is the lead game designer for Magic: The Gathering, and naturally has some great insights into what makes a great game.  M:TG has been one of the most successful games out there and clearly reigns as king among card games, second only to poker.  Since the game has many years of success - and is lots of fun - I really took his articles on Ten Things Every Game Needs (Part 1 and Part 2) to heart and thought it applied also to miniatures games out there that I have played.  I figured I would share his ten points summarized here, with how I think they apply to Warmachine/Hordes.

Steamroller 2012 - First Impressions

Today I participated in a 35 point Steamroller tournament using the 2012 Steamroller rules.  The organizer asked me not to share the actual rules on here, but I'm sure you can search somewhere on the internet to find the final beta of the rules.  Today's tournament focused on the "flanking" scenarios using reinforcements, so I figured I would weigh in on my impressions of the new steamroller rules.  Oh, and if anyone is wondering, I did not do too well today.

List Building: Fiona the Black (50 points)

One of my other factions that I play is Mercenaries.  Specifically, I play the privateer mercenaries, and I started with Broadsides Bart.  There is one warcaster who has always piqued my interest and that is Fiona the Black.  She's a badass goth pirate chick that's not Skarre.  I love her artwork in the Mercenaries book and I love the idea of a manipulative denial warcaster, but I have struggled for a long time to figure out how does she win?  I have not played her yet because I have not felt confident in a list yet.  Her tier is kinda "meh" and I don't think it takes advantage of the many tools she has available, and the benefits from her tier list don't make up for that, in my opinion.  Last night I had a revelation, and I began building based upon my other list building articles, and I think I have a list that makes me feel a bit more confident.

Showcase: Stormguard

Okay, by now you're probably sick of all of the showcases, so the good news is that today's will be the last for a while... or at least until I finish painting what models are on my painting table.  Today I will showcase my two units of Stormguard!  What's great about taking pictures of my models is that I become hyper aware of what kind of damage they have taken in the time since I finished painting them.  Last night I made sure to go through and fix all of the little chips, dings, and minor paint spills.  I'm not the neatest painter, but I wanted them to look at least a bit better for you all.  Let's see how they turned out!

Homebrew: Nikolai, the Saint of Khador

I figured that you all might be starting to get of all of the showcases, so I figured I'd give you all a break before the last showcase.  So, in the true holiday spirit, I decided to once again make some homebrew rules for a character!  This time I present you with [what I think is] the Iron Kingdoms version of Jolly Ol' St. Nick!

Showcase: Cygnar Stormsmiths

Today I will continue the showcase of my Cygnar models by showing off the models that convinced me to play Cygnar in the first place: Stormsmiths!  Just like  most else Warmachine/Hordes related, I fell in love with the models first and then read their rules, only to find myself liking them more!  In particular what convinced me to start Cygnar was one model in particular: the Storm Tower!

Showcase: Cygnar Warjacks

I continue to show off my Cygnar today by showing you all what my painted Cygnar warjacks look like!  So far I only have a Stormclad and two Fireflies done, with Thunderhead basecoated and a bunch of other warjacks waiting for my attention.  Despite having only these few models completed, I have a large collection of Cygnar, and I haven't even played with half of them!  They are definitely my "collection" faction so far, while I play most of my games with Circle.  Anyway, let's take a look at them, shall we?

Showcase: General Adept Nemo

So since I've been showing you what I've been painting lately, I figured that I would showcase today what little Cygnar models I actually have painted.  "You play a faction besides Circle!?" you may ask.  I know it might come to a great surprise to you, but I do in fact play other factions besides Circle.  One of my earlier alternatives to Circle was Cygnar, particularly eNemo and his tier list.  With Cygnar being the second book out after Mk II was official, some of the tier lists are a bit "meh" but eNemo's really stuck out for me for one reason: Stormsmiths!  I loved the idea of these guys and early-on I designed a Tier 4 list that I was going to build.  The only problem was that the model for Fireflies wasn't released for some time, so it took me some time to build up the steam (heh) to assemble the force.  Well here's what I have painted so far now:

My Cygnar force!  So far I have painted:
eNemo, 2 Fireflies, Stormclad, 2 min units of Stormguard,
3 Stormsmiths, and the Storm Tower

I will showcase more of these models in the next couple of days, but today I want to show you my work on the man himself, General Adept Nemo!

Showcase: Gnarlhorn and Pureblood

To continue with my painting streak, I finally decided to finish my Gnarlhorn and Pureblood Warpwolf.  Much like my Druids, I had started and essentially finished these two warbeasts over the summer while I was in Savannah, but I had never gotten around to basing them because my basing stuff was packed away for so long.  These are two warbeasts that I absolutely love and they find their way into many of my lists, so I figured that it was about time that I touch them up, finish basing them, and seal them.  I did complete painting these two guys prior to finishing the Gorax, so you'll notice that the musculature is not as highlighted as I wanted.  Still, I think they look pretty good, even if their skin looks a little too flat.

New Poll: Favorite Faction?

 

The previous poll expired at the end of November, so let's see what your favorite gaming articles are!

What kind of gaming articles do you like to read?

Editorial	3 (18%)
List-building	10 (62%)
Painting	8 (50%)
Hobby	7 (43%)
Army Showcase	8 (50%)
Rumors	3 (18%)
Rant	2 (12%)

Showcase: Druids of Orboros

 My druids have been sitting in my case, half painted, for about 5 months.  This last summer I was bascially a hobo for a month while I was between my last boarding school and my new one.  I spent part of that time with my buddy in Savannah, GA and we spent some time painting towards the end of my trip.  One unit that I've been meaning to paint for some time are my Druids, especially since I use them practically every game.  Anyway, for some time they were just sitting with a Badab Black wash over them with some white highlights on their capes, and I figured it was time to finish the job.  You will also notice my purple vortex templates, which I made using my cheap and easy template technique.

Showcase: Gorax and More!

So I have a treat for everyone today!  I've been painting between playing Skyrim and work and finally have a model to show for it!  It feels like I've been painting more than I actually have, because much of my painting time has been focused on touching up my constructs.  They have seen repeated use in games for over a year so they needed some love to fix up those chips that they have seen over time.  While I will present to you a completed model, I will start by showing you the touched-up constructs.

New toys!

Guess what arrived today???

Scenario Table!

So I've been keeping this news pretty close to the chest for a while to make sure that it was actually going to turn into a reality first: my girlfriend and I will be making a scenario table for Templecon!  If you don't know what I'm talking about, let me explain.  At Templecon, in addition to all of the tournaments that are going on, there will be a collection of various independently-crafted tables.  Each table will have a unique scenario for it, and you can earn bonus Iron Arena points if you play on different scenario tables.  An example of one of these scenario tables is called Low Tide and it was made by a local PG Lonelymonk.  Here are some pictures of me playing on it:

Road to Templecon 2012: List Building

So if you have not had the opportunity to read my two articles on List Building, you should check them out in the Learning Center (the links towards the top left of my blog).  In those articles I discuss what kinds of things you should be considering when designing a good list.  While having fun is first and foremost, the best way to have fun is to make sure that you aren't screwed by a particular playstyle of something that you "totally forgot about."  It happens to the best of us, and bad match-ups will always be a part of the game, but this is why multiple-list tournaments are so popular.

Today I will be discussing a couple lists that I have been considering bringing to Templecon 2012 this year, to play in the team tournament (also mentioned in my last Road to Templecon article here).  I have four lists on the chopping block, and I'm only allowed to bring two.  I already have a good idea of which ones I want to bring, but I won't tell you, so that I can keep the surprise ;-)