Making terrain on a budget: Trenches

I finished up my trench terrain pieces.

I had cut out the bits of mdf board (which is from the bottom of an old set of draws). I had cut out the templates towards the end of mk2 as they where a tier list benefit for one of the old mk2 Cygnar theme lists.

They where quite simple to make I just glued on bits of coffee stirrers and then glued on sand, it was then ready to paint.

I wanted to try some built up sides to make the terrain more 3D but still be playable.

I used polyfiller and slowly built it up in layers so that it would dry thoroughly.

I added wooden boards and sand bags to build up the trench walls.  

The barrels from Renedra come in two halves, I used one half of one to add some detail to the trench

The idea is that if the slopped sides of the trench ever start to impede play they can be removed easily.

I decided to paint the joining parts black, I wasn't 100% sure on this but it looks ok.

So what do you think of my trench? I have only made the side bits for one of the four trenches. In a normal game I doubt the board would have more than one trench often enough to make it worthwhile to make side bits for all of them. Unless PP decide to make a theme list with trenches the others will be only used in thematic style games.

You can find the barrels and sandbags here at Renedra's site

Brun and Lug Painted

I got hold of Brun & Lug as part of buying a bunch of mercs they just cried out to be painted the models look so cool

Brun was quite easy to paint up but has some really nice details that really make the model.

You can't really see his eyes that well as his hat rides so low on his head, but I gave him the same glowing blue eyes I give all magic users.

The bear skin he wears as a cloak really took well to the wash I used, I'm really happy with the end result.

Lug was a blast to paint, I wanted to keep him fairly simple looking. I didn't want his armour to look too flashy

Overall I'm really happy with how they turned out.

It is a little odd to me to realise but this is the first time I have ever painted a Warlock or Warbeast! Over 1000 points of painted PP models and these are my first ones...

What do you think of my Brun and Lug? They are now in a list in my pairing for a while at least.

Theory Thursday: Captain Edward Dominic Darius

Now mk3 has been out for a while I wanted to restart my Theory posts so I asked on the Cygnar Facebook group what I should write about and they chose Darius

Stats & Weapons

Speed 5: Slow for a cygnar caster but fast enough to keep up with heavy jacks

Mat 6: Not the best but there are ways around this

Rat 5: Low rat for a Cygnar caster but this is offset by his gun having aoe 4

Def 13: The lowest def in the faction 

Arm 18: Highest arm in the faction
22 Health boxes!!!
Focus 6: Standard focus stat...

Spells

Arcantrik bolt: Pretty standard attack spell that makes warjacks stationary if it damages them.

I always like to bring an arc node with Darius to make better use of his Jackhammer spell, so it can be useful to cast on a Warjack using Arcane secrets from Sylys for an additional die on the attack and damage roll (drop the lowest die). This should mean you don't have to boost to hit, and that a boosted damage roll will likely do damage to most Warjacks in the game.

Fortify: Gives a warjack in his battle group +2 arm and can't be knocked down, pushed or moved with a slam and friendly models b2b gain these benefits too (except the +2 arm)
This allows his battlegroup to avoid all the drag effects like Legions Hell mouth unit, Wormwoods Hellmouth spell and Merc's Galleon ranged attack.

Full Throttle: Warjacks in his battlegroup can run, charge, or make slam or trample power attacks for free and gain boosted melee attack rolls.
Not a spell to use every turn but it can be very handy

Jackhammer: Warjack in his battlegroup immediately makes a melee attack
This spell has so many applications its amazing. From clearing out a Jack thats engaged so it can charge something else, to extending threat by having a Jack run and then make attacks using Jackhammer.

Refuge: FF model that hits with an attack gets to move at the end of its activation

Great to either back up or move up further after a model attacks. It can be used in combination with Jackhammer to good effect, for example a Stormclad with Refuge charges something moving 8" hits it then Refuge allows it to move another 5". This lets the Stormclad attack something 15" away from where it started including its 2" melee range.

Feat

Fully repair FF warjacks b2b with darius and his half jacks. To get good use out of this feat you need to keep a halfjack or two alive. Best way is to premeasure and put one 12" back from a Warjack you expect to want to repair.
The feat is completely shut down by grievous wounds (which stops damage from being removed from a model) its important to know what in the other players army has this ability and either keep your heavies out of its threat or kill it first. Alten Ashley is enemy number one...

Half jacks

Darius starts the game with 3 halfjacks they have mediocre stats and no weapons but thats not their game plan!
During a normal turn they can either repair a single damage point, turn into a mine marker or run to position for the next turn.
A great use for the mines (which can be detonated in your maintenance phase for aoe 4" pow 14 blast damage) is to put them near flags or in zones.
Being speed 6 they are fast enough to run up and be in range to turn into a mine near a central flag on the second turn. Although they don't contest as a mine they can be a great deterrent just be aware of models that are immune to blast damage...

They are also great for running to contest flags and zones!
Don't forget Darius can make a new one each turn if he has less than three in play, I keep the ones that aren't near his spent focus pile I keep on his card to remind me to use them.

Battlegroup

Darius tends to like Jacks that can survive long enough to be repaired. 

Centurions are great as is a Stormwall

Gallants Purgation ability (additional die on attack & damage rolls if the target has an upkeep on them) is great in combination with Jackhammer.

Sentinel the cheap little shield guard jack is ideal for catching gun shots that would ruin someone elses day. Be it Eiryss's disruption shot, Alten Ashleys grievous wounds or Gormans Rust or Black oil.
Stormclads are great for the 2" melee range combined with eleap on the blade meaning Jackhammer can be used to great effect to clear infantry that ran to engage.

Arc node! Darius loves to have an arc node to be able to cast Jackhammer without being very close to the front lines. Without a doubt take Thorn with Darius. Just do it. I have yet to try Hurricane (I'm not so keen on proxies) but it might see play with Darius in the future.

Support

A Journeyman warcaster is a great addition to his army to make it much more likely a Warjack will survive to be fixed with the feat. I like the Jr to run the lists Sentinel now they have to bring a Jack along.

For Warcaster attachment I personally prefer Sylys for both the free upkeep (Fortify normally), the arcane secrets buff for Arcntrik bolt and Spiritual conduit to increase the range of Jackhammers that arne't cast through an arc node. (Thorn can't be everywhere!) 

If you aren't using Gallant then Ragman should be tagging along he works so well with the 2" melee range heavies that Darius likes so much. Major Gibbs can increase the range in which Ragman can apply his abilities, I have yet to use him so I'm not sure if he is strictly worth it in a slower moving army Darius normally plays.

Strangewayes is a good addition, both in helping fuel warjacks or doing spot repairs that don't warrant using Darius's feat. Magic weapons is nice to have too.

Lanyssa both increases your warjacks threat range by 2" and lets them charge for free. Just having her around puts the other player in a tough spot if you are running Centurions as they can't charge you but struggle to stay out of your threat.

Gunmage Captain Adept he does a lot for Darius's army, whether its killing solos like Eiryss and Alten Ashley or using his Flare shot type to make it easier for the armies warjacks to hit their targets both in their activations or with Jackhammer

Jackhammer assassination

This will catch a few people off guard due to the many ways it can be applied. You can have the jack you wish to use charge, run or trample into position spend all its focus on attacks then have Thorn get within 6" of the Warjack and have Darius Jackhammer away!
It can be worth casting Full throttle if the Caster you are trying to kill has high defence the boosted attack rolls part of the spell applies to these out of activation attacks.

Here is an example for you from a recent game

This is a Asphyxious1 list that uses elements of its army to make a cloud wall.

My Centurions can't charge his heavies (Malice, DeathJack and Snapjaw) but he can't charge me either.

After a turn or so of dancing around each others threat ranges he puts Malice on the flag on the left allowing me to charge in a Centurion (for free using Lanyssa) it pays for Polarity field to keep it safe from DeathJack.

Cryx get sick of my shit and move forward out but still using the clouds to stop my right hand Centurion from charging or walking in to attack. (The left Centurion is Shadow bound and Blinded to make it cost far to much to use it in any meaningful way)

I measure it out and can get Ragman in a spot behind the Centurion if it runs into the cloud. Thorn can move up behind and allow Darius to Jackhammer.

After I put it altogether with the help of my opponent to make sure it is all legit the Centurion needs 7's to hit under Starcrossed so Darius casts Full throttle (I'm now rolling 4 dice drop the highest one) at pow 20 it only takes a couple of swings to give Gaspy another dirt nap.

I hope you found this informative, if you have any corrections on any mistakes I made or suggestions for things I missed drop a comment below.

Darius Converted and Painted

Captain Edward Dominic Darius is done!

I really didn't like the stumpy look the of the model so I set about converting him.

Taking inspiration from Lack0fbettername's version I found on the PP forums (his thread can be found here) I cut out the lower parts of the legs with the intention to extend them

I picked a few different thickness of plastic tubing and some brass rods.

I used a pipe cutter to keep the cuts straight and even, you can pick these up really cheap. I got mine for about £1 on ebay

I drilled holes into the feet and upper leg which I used to keep the plastic tubes lined up as I wanted them with paper clip going into the drilled holes.

I then took the widest tube I had and cut it in half down its length and put it round the front to look like an armour plate.

Then I added the brass rods to connect to the back of the feet, I added a small section plastic pipe to the top of the brass rod to make it look more like a piston.

The original crane looks awful it had to go... I replaced it with the crane looking part from a 40k ork truck's wrecking ball. I pinned the original cranes grabbing claw to the chain. 

Darius is armed with the same hammer the Ironclad Warjack has, yet his is wimpy and small in comparison. Easy swap here, I just used the hammer I had in my bits box from years ago when I turned a battlebox Ironclad into Gallant.

I also extended the barrel of his cannon, I did this using the top of a smoke stack from an old metal Centurion. I hated the weird looking star shape barrel it had before.

(That old metal centurion has given parts to so many of my conversions!) 

With him converted I set about painting him!

I put the mine markers on 25mm bases, they are just markers so they don't have to be on a base but this will make them easier to keep safe.

Half jacks are so cute! Crazy little guys can't help getting shot off the board though!

I kept Darius's paint scheme utilitarian to match how I imagine him as a character. Not interested in flashy paint jobs for his armour, he just wants it to work well. 

I painted his wrench red for two reasons, first to add some colour and second to make it look like the one in Bioshock.

"Would you kindly repair all the Warjacks..."

He was quite quick to paint up and I'm really happy with the conversion and am finding him a blast to play!

What do you think of my conversion and paint job?

Evening Rumble tournament

 My local PG ran an evening rumble tournament which was 35 points single list.

Not knowing what I would be up against I decided to use Sloan

Sloan
Hunter
Hunter
Defender
Gunmage Captain Adept
Strangewayes
Maxwell Finn
Trenchers (min)

Round 1 I am up against Denny1. He sprays through the cloud wall to kill the GMCA (to remove shadow fire) and bricks up Denny behind her jacks.

But its not enough and Sloan and 2 hunters get los to her and they shoot her down.

Round 2 and its the Coven, who choose to go second and force me to stay back. They run up and feat denying me doing anything meaningful. The next turn the raiders are jamming up my whole army and I end up losing on scenario.

Round 3 I get another go against the coven again though the list is slightly different. This time I manage to stall out better and shoot down the coven a few turns in.

I ended up second overall, everyone thoroughly enjoyed the format as a great change of pace.

We are looking at running it every month or so but with an added rule that the winner can't use the caster they won with at the next tournament.

If you haven't played rumble before I recommend you give it a try its a really fast paced way to play.

The smaller area of play leads to the armies engaging on the bottom of turn 1, top of 2 if player 1 holds back so fast paced armies are suited well to the format. 

I look forward to seeing how the next one turns out, though I will likely try a different Caster and list.

Stryker3 and the last of my Storm knights Painted

Stryker3 is done and I figured while I was painting him I might as well paint up the rest of my Storm knights.

My buddy picked up a great deal on a second hand Cygnar army and sold me the Storm Lances on the cheap. Now they are FA2 I am looking forward to running both units with either Stryker2 or 3

Stryker3 took a lot of work to get done. I didn't want him jumping over the stone wall the model comes with so I built a trench which fits in better with my armies aesthetics. 

I gave his a head swap so he fits in with the rest of my Storm knights and matches my Stryker2.

He comes with a huge flag which he holds in his left hand, but the pole of it is kinda thin and would likely bend also it would make it a real pain to transport him. So I gave him a shield from a Storm blade captain and green stuffed a handle for it. 

I decided to convert my own Acosta (He's a Merc solo but worth painting with this lot)

I made him using the spare bits from the incomplete unit of Stormblades I have. I used a bald head I had in my bits box and sculpted some facial hair for him so he looks right.

My second Stormblade Captain, this one was much quicker to paint than the first one I painted a while back. (I often find deciding what colours to paint things actually takes up a lot of my painting time).

His shield is actually on Stryker3, I made this one out of green stuff using the instant molds I got a long time ago. I did think it was going to look a lot worse but which I was ok with as I will be using him quite rarely, but it turn out to not look that bad.

What do you guys think of the last of my Storm knights? Will you be running double Storm Lances?

Let me know in the comments!