Salute The Goodies..

So Salutes was a week ago now and the dust has settled and after a hectic week I am able to show you what I managed to get at this years Salute.

Hobby And Time..

Its been a few months... As things usually go things crop up and you don't get any time to dedicate to your hobby. For the past few months it has been work, DIY  and the festive activities that has stopped me playing and painting any minis.

The time off the hobby though has made me question do I really need all these games?

i know there will always be that voice in all wargamers saying yes...get that new awesome game or model but will it ever get used?

So cleaning out my hobby room I decided enough is enough lets get realistic on what I will be able to play with my local meta and am I really going to have the time to learn and play these games.

So up went load of my board games and models on Ebay and off the went.

I have decided to keep my main game as Warmachine/hordes but will also get into a bit of fantasy, blood bowl and get a few games of batman here and there*. 

(*subjet to change ;) )

I think having one main game is easier to mange rule wise as I have bad memory so cutting down will I hope allow me to keep a better focus.

This weekend however I did manage to get some models made and ready for the table top, unpainted but ready.

I have a new recruits for my Khador army of a Morter Crew and a Field Gun Crew to add some more fire power to my winter guard.

Also at the back we have the FennBlade Ua and Drummer ready to march to war with my Trollbloods..

So starting to dip my toe back in and now with more room and focus on fewer games l hope I can get more minis painted and played with on the tabletop.

I got game!

Finally on Saturday I had my first games of Warmachine MK3 and wow Khador can have sooooo many jacks.

The ability to power up you jacks at the start of your tern really helps Khador and not starve a war casters of vital focus.

Prof I played a game!

Getting packed in the middle.

After playing a couple of games I can see terrain is a big thing now and pathfinder is going to be very handy. Also Kodiaks they are awesome now the ability to vent steam when ever and clear lines is great.

Game 2

I do have to get used to being more aggressive in play and not afraid to take a load of jacks in a list as infantry seems to be more of a distraction. One unit that has been upgraded is the Man o Wars which are great when added with the UA no knockdown yes please.


So for my next game I am preparing my Troolbloods starting off with the battle box and then adding my new unit of Fenn Blades which were a pleasure to build and my heavy which I received for my birthday this year...magnets ahoy!

The Trolls getting ready!

I am looking forward to my next games which I hope to be this weekend..its like they say about buses not had a game in along time now a couple in a few weeks!

War machine and hordes battle boxes PT2

Now is the fun stuff the minis.

I first started with the trolls and the new war lock. The plastic on these were a nice colour and felt pretty well made.

The mold lines were not bad on this model but it did take a bit of cleaning up here and there. All the joints and sockets fit nice and snugly. I used suer glue but it seem to not work as fast as the plastic they used for the Grolar.

The troll lights come in one big bag.

                            

                            

These minis did have a few lines and flash on them that came off easily enough and these fitted together really nicely as all arm and hand joints slotted in easily. The ball and chain were glued and green stuffed as it was a small hole for it to fit in and the bodies of the trolls just slide into place but agin needed glue and green stuff toehold together as the glue did not seem to touch the sides.

The faces were falloff expression but all had told lines going down the centre of them which was not easy to deal with.

Over all these guys look great and I am happy I chose this as my first hordes army. I can't wait to have a game with them.

Next up was the Khador box. on first inspection the red colour plastic looked a little cheap to me something about it just did not seem as nice compared to the trolls.

I started on the new caster. This was a little trick to stick the ball joint into the socket on the left hand side as glue alone would not stick very well for some reason. The pose of the caster is dynamic but not to sure whats going on with his right arm though.

                                     

The jacks were next again had lines but also had some deep cut of marks from the molding process which may not be easy to hide or sort out. Also there is a horrid point right near the peek by the jacks head which is awkward to remove and leave a smooth rounded surface.

                          

So both battle boxes are made and ready to go. The trolls seemed to come out a lot better locking then the khador box due to the plastic colour and some of the odd lines and flash left behind from the moulding process which is not easy to clean well for me anyway.

Again for the price you can't go wrong for these boxes but I wonder if certain things about them will change over time.

Warmachine and Hordes Battlebox MK3

Finally my new battle boxes arrived in the post after a long wait and a missed delivery there in my hands!

The boxes look great and are a nice weight and come with lots of goodies.

I cracked open the boxes and dived right in.

 

Both boxes come with a mini rule book which now include rules at the back for both games as well as a nice faction booklet with information on tactics and what to get next as well as a painting guide. You also get a handy ruler if you don't have one.

Also in the box you get a 2 X 2 game mat which has a slightly laminated feel and has two sides one blank for you starter games and the other side with numbers and letters. Then second side is used with the basic training guide to help you with different aspects of the game like moving and shooting.

 

Now for the good stuff the minis. The boxes come with 4 dice and some black Privateer Press tokens which you could only get from Iron Arena play. Being black in colour there is going to be issues using a marker for the spell tokens. Also you get in the box the MK3 stat cards and a cardboard hill and not forgetting a brand new caster and warlock for each faction.

 

One thing I think could have been added to this box was a guide to help put these minis together especially for beginners as the jacks and trolls where all in one bag it could be little confusing for a beginner.

I was very happy with the content of these boxes but I felt a bit let down when it came to my Khador faction deck. 

                                     

As you can see these were not cut properly and text has been cut off.

From reading different post on forums etc the faction deck issue has not just happened to me with reports of some cards were missing or some not having any text at on them. I have also heard some reports of missing parts and holes in some of the plastic minis but by the looks of things here I think I am ok.

It looks to me as though there was a bad batch with some of the boxes due to high demand for them. I hope that PP can sort theses issues out as I would like to get a new faction deck.

Overall though the boxes are great value as you can find them now for under £30 and is a great way to get everything you need to start the game and thats why so many people want them!

Well now i'm off to put the minis together.