Steampunk Saturday: The Behemoth

Wow, has it really been a week already? Welcome to another Steampunk Saturday, where I just quickly show off one of my beloved Warmachine models and talk some fast and easy tactics. This time around we are gonna have a look at the big boy, the master of disaster, Big B himself, THE BEHEMOTH!!!

One of my favorite warjacks in the game even though he was an absolute b**** to assemble and paint (old metal model) but he has a nice amount of weight to it which is something I really like on these big warmachines. In game he is a pretty costly character warjack (FA 1) clocking in at 13 points but is well worth the points if you ask me. He smashes almost everything (high ARM warjacks for example) in close combat with his armor piercing blast fists, has two bombards and in conjunction with his subcortex can fire them even when he's stuck in melee.

I usually like to keep a group of mechanics around just to give him that extra bit of survivability and you definitely want to keep him alive for a while, which is also why I like to keep him more in my backfield and use him for counter charges and keeping my side of the table clear.

Do you guys use Big B in your Khador army? What are your thoughts?

J.D.

Warhammer Wednesday: "Da Red Baron" Dakkajet

Well, I screwed up... I painted my Dakkajet over the last couple of days and finished it pretty quick as usual to get it onto the table. With my blood angel vehicles I always paint the clear canopy but with the orks I decided to leave it clear... Big mistake! I sprayed the entire model with matt coat when I was done and it fogged up the f***ing glass. I didn't know that would happen but I guess I'm never gonna do that again. Lesson learned! 

I took quite a bit of inspiration from Matt Hollands Dakkajet in the Kit Bash section of the 2012 Or(k)tober White Dwarf. I changed the red quite a bit since I didn't want the flyer to look like one of my blood angel vehicles and overall I'm quite happy with the results. I really enjoy the two white skulls on the wings which I did using my airbrush and a homemade stencil. Quick and easy. In the first game I played with it, it managed to take out quite a few imperial guardsmen but didn't change the overall outcome of the game which was an absolute slaughter of the towards the imperial defense lines rushing ork horde.

NEVER MATT COAT YOUR VEHICLE'S CLEAR CANOPY!!!

J.D.

Magic Monday: My favorite Magic Card

Just a quickie from me today, 'cause I just got back from one of my last exames this semester, am pretty beat and just want to relax. Nevertheless I wanted to talk to you about my favorite magic card of all time. I love to play tribal decks and in my opinion there is just non better (not necessarily competitive) than the goblin tribe. My favorite modern deck is mono red goblin tokens, but we will talk about that some other time. The card that makes it work though and is my absolute all time favorite is Krenko, Mob Boss.

If you can get a Goblin Chieftain, Hammer of Purphoros or a Fervor out the turn before and give him haste that way he is usually absolutely devastating.

Look forward to a building on a budget goblin deck next week, if I remember. :) In the meantime, what do you think about tribal decks in Magic? What's your favorite?

J.D.

Steampunk Saturday: The Juggernaut

The khadoran military employs many warjacks, a couple of them with older chassis and some pretty new ones. One of the oldest that stands out is the mighty Juggernaut it is only out aged by the Berserker but is still a staple in many of khadoran warcasters armies, as it is a real workhorse jack.

High armor, a very solid P+S weapon, a ginormous damage grid and an open fist for power attacks is just nice to have. Another big bonus is its price for just seven points you can get one on the table but since he is a standard motherland warjack however he has a couple of drawbacks. He is lacking in defense and speed like most of his brothers and he doesn't do well against big groups of infantry but with the right caster to support him he can really bring on the pain especially if you choose your targets wisely. Send him after other jacks, beasts or casters and you're good to go.

I got mine second hand and he was in pretty bad shape, at the time I thought it was not so bad so I just repainted him and from across the table he looks decent enough but in these close up pictures you can really see I should have just stripped, cleaned and reprimed him before slapping the paint on.

What do you think about the good old Juggernaut?

J.D.

Warhammer Wednesday: Blood Angel Vindicator

Great to have you back for another Warhammer Wednesday here on the MiniWarBlog. This time around I want to talk to you about one of my favorite Space Marine vehicles, the mighty Vindicator. Even though the current meta might not favor this absolutely amazing piece of siege machinery and hull points are a big problem for any vehicle in 6th edition I'm still a huge fan of it.

The thing that makes it great in my opinion is the lucifer pattern engine exclusively employed by the honorable Blood Angels. This makes the tank more expensive for the space vampires than basically for any other chapter but it also makes it fast. Its speed makes more then up for the short range of its gun. You can have this guy move 12'' and still shoot 24'' that is a 36'' threat range not counting your deployment zone. The vindicator has a front armor of 13 which makes it pretty durable and with the bad ass looking siege shield it doesn't even have to worry about dangerous terrain. Take a storm bolter just to have a chance of not losing your demolisher cannon on a weapon destroyed result. Even if the cannon gets destroyed tank shock the crap out of enemy troops, until the tank is wrecked or blown up you can get some use out of it.

Sure Predators and Stormravens are other very good choices to take as heavy support but especially in friendly non competitive games (which is the most fun to have in 40k in my opinion) you should never dismiss this fast gun platform.

J.D.

Magic Monday: Top 5 Born of the Gods Cards in Limited

Another Monday and another start in to a hopefully amazing week. I hope everyone had a great weekend. Today I would like to talk to you about the, in my opinion, top five cards of the Born of the Gods set for the limited format. Currently a draft will look like this: one pack of BotG, two packs of Theros. Since you get your first pick out of the BotG pack it is very important to know the biggest limited bombs in this set. My advice for any beginner, if you open up your first pack and see one of the following cards, grab it and hold on to it with your life! If you can manage to build a somewhat cohesive max. two color deck around them you should almost win every game you get them out on the table.

#5 Ephara, God of the Polis
 Well, she is a god which is always nice and it means she is a 6/5 indestructible creature if your devotion to white and blue is seven or higher. Her ability to get you additional card draw every turn (provided you played a creature the turn before) is awesome. Just make sure you get a decent bunch of white and blue creatures in your deck, get 'em out, turn them sideways and you should be fine.

 #4 Xenagos, God of Revels
 Same thing as Ephara, 6/5 indestructible as long as your devotion to green and red is at least seven. His ability to give one of your creatures +X/+X and haste at the beginning of your combat step were X is equal to the creatures power is insane. Load your deck up with some high power creatures and swing with them the turn they arrive for massive damage!

 #3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
 Not a god but one awesome cat. He is a 3/4 with vigilance for three... Do I have to say anymore? Oh, and by the way every time you attack or block with him, he poops out a 1/1 cat token with vigilance. I hope you're not allergic!

#2 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
 Have you ever faced a 9/9 Kraken token? One alone would be horrifying but with her emblem you get one at the beginning of every one of your end steps. Remember you can not ever ever ever get rid of an emblem once it is on the table. If you pick her, your only job is to keep her save and +1 her until she can drop that emblem.
 

#1 Phenax, God of Deception
Blue and black, my two favorite colors in magic. He is another god (4/7, indestructible as long as your devotion to blue and black is at least seven) so he should be pretty good right? Wrong! He is in my opinion the best limited card in this format. If there is a mill mechanic in limited it is broken, and so is this one. Get him a couple of high toughness creatures, don't attack just mill the shit out of your opponent. Games should be over pretty quick once he hits the table. Remember limited decks are only 40 cards and he alone mills for seven every turn once he is a creature...

Just my two cents about the current limited format, if you have comments or disagree with me that is absolutely fine, just leave everything you have to say down in the comment section below.

J.D.

Steampunk Saturday: The Kodiak

Welcome to another Steampunk Saturday! I hope you all had a great week and I'm glad to see some of you return to this little showcase. Today I would like to show you the painted version of my Kodiak. I stuck to the standart Khador colors for him. It was a fairly quick paintjob because I was itching to finally try him out and only had like two days to get him assembled and painted.

In the game this is easily one of my favorite 'jacks. With his heavy boiler he is so focus efficient and fast, pathfinder increases his maneuverability even further and he has an amazing special attack. If he gets bogged down by infantry he can just use his vent steam ability. On top of that he sports two open fists which opens up an array of power attacks. I personally am a big fan of the two handed throw!

As I mentioned last week, he works exceptionally well with pButcher but really you can play this awesome piece of khadoran machinery with pretty much any caster you want. If I had to find a downside to him, it would be the lack of a ranged weapon but shooting is not what this beast is designed to do. When choosing a warjack you always have to ask: What role do I want this guy to fulfill? The Kodiak is gonna pummel the enemy into the ground, THAT is his job!

Well that's all for now. Hope to see you next week for another steampunk saturday!

J.D.

Warhammer Wednesday: Blood Angel Sanguinary Guard

For this first installment of Warhammer Wednesday I wanted to show off one of my all time favorite Blood Angel units. The Sanguinary Guard. Now, I don't use them as often as I would like in 6th edition but I still love the fluff and how these models look. With their ancient gold armor and their majestic wings inspired by their grand Primarch Sanguinius they take into battle... and lately in my case get shot down the turn they arrive by massive Tau interceptor fire.

 

I painted this squad about one to one and a half years ago, so they are pretty old, but I still really like them. As you can see I played around with my airbrush quite a bit on their power weapons which is now a staple in my Blood Angel force for all power and force weapons. The shoulder pads were also airbrushed to get a nice red gradient. I believe these models and my Dante were the first models I tried the Vallejo liquid metallic paints on. Since then I moved on to P3s Molten Bronze followed by Rhulic Gold which gives a very nice gold effect in my opinion.

If you deepstrike them, get them down in cover out of line of sight. Don't worry if they don't do anything the turn they arrive, keep 'em hidden. They are such a mobile unit that you just have to be close but not in their face once they come in and if you manage to shoot something down or get a charge in the turn after they will wreck face! Put Dante in the unit if you have the points for no scatter and you can just place them were you want them but beware they are kind of a bullet magnet, since no one seems to like such a powerful unit near their deployment zone.

Do you still see Sanguinary Guard if you play against Blood Angels or do you still use them in your games in 6th edition?

J. D.

Magic Monday: Limited (BotG/Th/Th) Deck Tech G/R Monsters

What a fine day to start into a new week. A new week of hobby related goodness. Could there be anything better? Probably not but let me try it anyway with the new, fresh, hot off the press Magic Monday! Today I will be showcasing my latest Magic: The Gathering draft (BotG/Th/Th) deck from Friday the 14th of March 2014. I took second place in the swiss style tournament and got to take home a couple of price boosters. Yay! :)

In my first pack, I didn't really get anything good so I decided to draft the Pheres-Band Tromper and quickly started down the road of a G/R monstersish kinda deck. I picked some fattys, got some premium limited burn in Fated Conflagration and was very lucky to get passed a couple of very important cards for my deck like Hammer of Purphoros and Mistcutter Hydra. I didn't get a single Voyaging Satyr or any other ramping creature which kinda sucked but it worked out quite well in the end anyways.

Below is the decklist I used. Note that I didn't play a single spell twice and that's mainly because I just didn't. :) I'm not the biggest Magic nerd out there and since it did work out, all is well on the plane of Theros.

8 Mountains
11 Forests

1 Sedge Scorpion
1 Nyxborn Rollicker

1 Akroan Crusader

1 Ordeal of Nylea
1 Mistcutter Hydra
1 Leafcrown Dryad
1 Rise to the Challenge
1 Deathbellow Raider

1 Shredding Winds
1 Hammer of Purphoros
1 Bolt of Keranos

1 Pheres-Band Tromper
1 Staunch-Hearted Warrior
1 Fanatic of Mogis
1 Lightning Volley
1 Fated Conflagration

1 Nessian Asp
1 Nessian Demolok
1 Pharagax Giant
1 Rage of Purphoros

1 Nemesis of Mortals

The MVP of the afternoon was definitely the Mistcutter Hydra. With its haste, pro blue and can't be countered rules it is already amazing but I got it out as a 5/5 and in another game as a 6/6 which ended both games pretty quickly. The Hydra was closely followed by the Hammer of Purphoros and Fated Conflagration. The Lightning Volley did jack shit, so I should have boarded it out but I just couldn't be bothered. A couple of my opponents were really surprised by the Shredding winds in the mainboard but let me tell you it had its uses!

To anyone who is new to Magic: The Gathering or has never tried it and just would like to, I can highly recommend going to your local gaming store and participating in the Friday Night Magic. It's a lot of fun and always remember that's what it's all about!

Anyway I'll see you next week for another Magic Monday!

J.D.

Steampunk Saturday: The Butcher of Khardov

Now, let's start things off right with a nice little bit of Warmachine. About three years ago I started out collecting a small Khador army and an even smaller Cygnar force. I very recently sold the blue guys and began to focus on supporting the khadoran war efforts in the Iron Kingdoms. Now my army is still pretty small since I mostly play 40k, but occaisonally I do really enjoy a nice little game with it. The thing about Warmachine I love the most is probably that just by switching out your warcaster you change the way your entire army works.

The first thing I bought was the battle box (two player starter set wasn't out yet), so I started playing pSorcha. She's all right in my opinion but, it wasn't really what I was looking for in play style. Too fragile, too flimsy and just not angry enough. I did some assassination shenanigans with her since there are, as most of you familiar with the game probably know, a couple of nice combos you can do with her feat and spells but that was about it. Soon after, I got Karchev who looked a lot more like the giant metal beast I wanted to throw down onto the table top. He did alright, paired up with my Behemoth (who I really love btw!) and was a real pleasure to play but he wasn't all that durable the way I threw him into the fire, basically like any another warjack in my arsenal. So my quest to find the ultimate khadoran warcaster continued but not for long because the next one I bought was... THE BUTCHER (pButcher that is) and that was most likely the best warmachine purchase I ever made. He is such a beast. I just love his feat turn were you can just obliterate the enemy forces. I played him the most out of the three that I had up to that point and loved every minute of it.

I usually run him with my Behemoth and a Kodiak in his battle group. The Kodiak is fairly focus efficient so I can pump up the big dude quite nicely. Butchers spells are great for supporting jacks (Fury/Full Throttle) and infantry alike (Iron flesh on my Winterguard with UA and Joe... HELL YEAH!!!) and if shit hits the fan he can dish out some serious pain himself with his MAT 9, P+S 16 Axe Lola and weaponmaster. Really good options for him are also Manhunters/Yuri and of course a trusty old Wardog.

Here is my painted version in all his glory swinging his beloved axe Lola (btw. I can highly recommend the ebook: The Butcher of Khardov it is pretty short but nevertheless a very good read and gives a little bit more backstory about this guy).

"Some say his manners and methods are crude

and shortsighted, but I ask you, would you deny

that he is the personification of vitory at any cost?

Has he ever failed us?"

- Queen Ayn Vanar XI

I also very recently picked up Harkevich and Black Ivan but hadn't had a chance to try them out yet, so I can't really say much about them (other than they look pretty bad ass!). Anyway this is just a little snippet of how I found my way through the thick bushes of the Thornwood forest into the heart of the motherland and to my favorite warcaster. To be continued...

Who is your favorite Khador warcaster and why? Please tell me down below in the comments. 

J.D.

Starting over again!

Wow…

It really has been a while. Almost two years ago I stopped posting on this blog but luckily I never really put down the paint brush which means I have a ton of new painted miniatures and I thought: “Hey, why don’t you start posting again?” And so here I am.

Here is a short overview of what’s coming in the near future:

- Weekly miniature/terrain showcases (Warhammer 40k, Warmachine, Infinity, …)
- Terrain tutorials
- Painting tutorials
- Tactica (Yes, I’m a pretty shitty player but I can still give my two cents about these oh so lovely games)
- Random stuff (Rants, News, Blogs I really like, …)
- Magic: The Gathering content (got back into it… and now I cant stop!)
   - Card/deck of the week
   - My current decks
- Lots and lots (a metric shit-ton!) of spelling mistakes!!! ;)

Now, I think that sounds pretty damn good and on top of that I will slowly give the entire blog a giant overhaul. I want it to be simple but still somewhat stylish. We’ll see how that goes.

Can’t wait to get into all of this again.

I’ll see you on the other side! :)