Getting Warmachine players into Riot Quest

So you play Riot Quest and love it and want to share that love with your Warmachine buddies?
Hopefully I can give you some tips to help you out with that diabolical objective!

Just a quick note that this article subject was picked by my supporters over on Patreon so a big thanks to them!

First off its quite likely that your Warmachine playing friend already owns some Riot Quest minis! Find out which ones they own and ask them to bring them along when you meet up.

Bring your Riot Quest stuff to tournaments and game nights, and should your game finish really early offer to play it with them! 

You could also get a game in over lunch if the tournament timings allow for it! 

And if your game night game finishes a bit early but not enough time for a second game of Warmachine, that is the prefect time for some Riot Quest!

Intro game being played at Wayland games in Essex during the last tournament held there.

Or you could always go with some old fashioned home games!

What heroes to use

I recommend doing a draft.
Collect together everything you and they have and sort them into classes.
Let them use the ones they already own and make sure you pick heroes of the same class to balance it slightly.
Them using their own minis helps build a connection with those heroes they already have making them perhaps more likely to value them.

Then let them pick which models they want based on how cool they look - try not to worry them with picking heroes by reading their rules as this will take a lot longer and add to the initial complexity of getting the game started, you want them rolling dice and wrecking face as soon as possible!

Action dice

Unless you bought two starter sets (I know I didn't) you don't really have enough dice to mark your activations with the action dice.
I suggest using some sort of token. You can use almost anything, but I find focus tokens or normal D6 dice work well.

You might find that you run out of loot tokens as well. If you do then again I suggest using another token to represent them once you run out of normal loot tokens

Riot Gear.

With a player who has never played before picking their own Riot Gear would take a long time and, again you want to get to rolling dice quickly. Gather up all the Riot Gear cards you own, shuffle them then deal the appropriate amount to each player (1 per hero).

Only briefly explain the rules

You don't have to explain every little rule there is. A brief explanation of how actions work and how attacks work is enough to get a game going.
You can add on more of the rules such as moving through obstacle spaces organically by making your own heroes do those things and explaining while you do it.

Don't push it!

If they are really against the game for whatever reason don't force them to play it! People don't tend to ever like things they are forced into, so best not even try. Just enjoy playing the game and perhaps they will see that fun and want to give it a try at some point, but maybe not!

Paint your models! 

They game looks a lot better with all the heroes painted up. If you can, add a base colour to show what class the hero is to make it easier for a new player to remember the extra rules and interactions the class has, such as opening chests for free or interacting with certain bounties.

Don't be a "try hard"!

When doing an intro of a game I personally think its important not to "throw" the game, as most players aren't stupid and might feel a little patronised. Give them a good game but do try to use the extra knowledge you have of the "most powerful" interactions between Heroes and their Riot Gear.

Its also a good idea to play heroes you wouldn't normally pick! Your unfamiliarity with them will reduce whatever "edge" you might have over a new player and give you a interesting time getting out of your comfort bubble of using the same heroes all the time! (For the longest time my crutch hero who I took all the time was Widget!)

A brief interview with one of the Warmachine players I've introduced to Riot Quest.

What did you think of the game before playing it?

I thought it would be more Warmachiney, like company of iron but with hexes for easier movement

What did you think of the game after playing it?

Much better than I thought it would be, because it wasn't Warmachiney. Not that I don't like Warmachine but you could easily get non Warmachine players to play it and they won't be overwhelmed. My partner could sit and learn it.

How easy did you find the rules?

The first game was fine, the second game was really easy. It literally takes one game to learn it and was easy to learn the rules as we played rather than sitting and reading the rules first.

Did you enjoy it?

I'll definitely play it again, I'm even gonna order Boomhowler2 very soon!

Could you see yourself picking the game up?

Yeah, how much was the boxed set? (about £40) Yeah I would. Lovely models as well.

Was there anything you didn't like?

Some of the really random stuff. Like when one of my heroes spawned all the way on its own and didn't get to do much.

(This player has since picked up a crew of their own!)

Riot Quest Wintertime Wasteland (the second season of Riot Quest) is currently on Kickstarter you can check it out here!

If you want to support my content consider taking a look at my Patreon which you can find here. I don't put any content behind a paywall but I do offer rewards to people who support me in ways like getting to vote on what content I work on in the future or outright just picking the next subject of an article.

See you all next time!

Sir Dreyfus Painted

Here is Sir Dreyfus the last Storm knight! He is a Riot quest Guard class hero and a Cygnar Storm Knight solo in Warmachine.
I bought into the Riot Quest starter box just to get him, and figured I would give the game a try and if I didn't like it just sell the rest of the box on to someone else.

Well as it turns out Riot Quest is a lot of fun so that's a bonus! 

I had a tricky choice recently of how I wanted to paint the base rims of my Riot Quest minis. I wanted them to have the colours of the hero class they are to make it eeasier for me during games of Riot Quest but I also didn't want them to stand out too much when used in my Warmachine and Hordes armies. I got some advice from other members of the Riot Quest community in the Facebook group (which you can find here) and a few people suggested I keep the front arcs to match my Warmachine and the rear (which is normally left black on my models) the colour of the heroes class.
I like how this looks now, and will be doing the same to the rest of my models.

Here he is with Professor Pendrake for scale. Dreyfus is tall but not freakishly so... except those thin spindly ankles!!! 

And here he is with some other Storm Knight models. I think he fits in well enough to not stand out too much in my Storm Knight army, the blue rear arc colour doesn't ruin things too much.

If you want to support my content consider taking a look at my Patreon which you can find here. I don't put any content behind a paywall but I do offer rewards to people who support me in ways like getting to vote on what content I work on in the future or outright just picking the next subject of an article.

See you all next time!

Product Review: Hullgrinder Fabric Playmat

Today we take a look at the hullgrinder map for Riot Quest!

I was extremely excited to try this map out and find out how it plays differently from the starting arena of the Thunderhead fortress.

The map is really well printing with bright vivid colours and interesting details.

I could have taken way more pictures to show you all of the fun things included on this map but I want you to experience it for yourselves somewhat.
I know I spent some time gazing over it drinking in the detail and fun inclusions like the patch of crabs as an obstacle space.

Made of the same material as the Thunderhead fortress map it has a mesh style rubber backing which really helps it grip onto glossy flat surfaces and is super flexible.

Have you tried out the Hullgrinder map yet? What did you think of it?

I've really been enjoying it and how it changes up the dynamic of the game.
The three gangplanks between the two ships certainly become hard fought over areas, and models with movement abilities which allow them to move through or over enemy models really go up in value on this map.
On a similar level gear which places models on the table such as the ones from the Gear expansion can be great for blocking enemy movement from one ship to the other unless they remove them first.

If you want to pick this up for yourself you can find them here at The Outpost (a UK webstore I'm affiliated with)

If you want to support my content consider taking a look at my Patreon which you can find here. I don't put any content behind a paywall but I do offer rewards to people who support me in ways like getting to vote on what content I work on in the future or outright just picking the next subject of an article.

See you all next time!

Model Review: Doctor Stygius

Today we take a look at Doctor Stygius who is a Specialist class hero in Riot Quest and a Warcaster attachment solo in Warmachine who works for Mercenaries and Cryx. 

It comes in 4 metal parts.

The main body swoops forward, it does have a nice flat surface on the bottom to attach it securely to the base which is nice.

It also has a hood over its head like the warcaster versions have, which makes me think that its quite a powerful member of its species.

A row of syringes line its chest which will be fun to paint up with various chemicals in them for the medical experiments it likely preforms!

These two parts make up the four tool appendages which attach to the side of its head cowling. I think it was a smart move to have them modelled in pairs, as it would be a lot less secure if each arm was separate (which is often how older models would be).

All these different tools will be interesting to paint in different ways, especially the Injector arm. I'm going to try and paint the liquid receptacle as if it's made of glass with a coloured liquid inside.

These are its arms and a part of its backpack

I think it might have taken drama class at school because it's doing some pretty epic jazzy pointing fingers!

And here it is fully assembled! There were slight mould lines on this mini but nothing too bad. I was thinking that I might need to pin the mechanical arms but tried attaching them without pinning to see how it went and they haven't come off yet! So it seems they don't need to be pinned if you don't want to.

And here it is with Professor Pendrake for scale. It really is a big mini, a bit too big for a 30mm base in my opinion I would like to have seen it either scaled down a bit or put on a 40mm base. Its considerably bigger than other 30mm based Cephalyx.

I would recommend putting it as far to the back of its base as you can to help improve its stability due to its front overhang.

This mini is purely for Riot Quest for me as I don't collect Cephalyx for my Mercs or play Cryx but I am interested to see how he plays in Riot Quest.

If you want to pick them up for yourself you can find them here at The Outpost (a UK webstore I'm affiliated with)

If you want to support my content consider taking a look at my Patreon which you can find here. I don't put any content behind a paywall but I do offer rewards to people who support me in ways like getting to vote on what content I work on in the future or outright just picking the next subject of an article.

See you all next time!

Reaper Miniatures Ghost Painted

I painted up this Ghost by Reaper miniatures to use in the Iron Kingdoms RPG. I managed to finish it in a single painting session which is quite rare for me!

I painted it while GMing the IKRPG for my party during a particularly role play heavy session. (I think it might have even been a session without any combat at all!)

I like the way that the ghost is travelling through the grave stone

Here is the scale shot with Professor Pendrake. Its a pretty good size for a ghost, shade or wraith so I expect I will use it as needed to fit the situation.

The reaper minis code number and name are: 77007 Ghost

If you want one for yourself you can pick one up here (This is Mighty Lancer Games the best stockist of Reaper minis in the UK) if you live overseas you might find other web stores or Reaper's own site easier to shop from though.

If you want to support my content consider taking a look at my Patreon which you can find here. I don't put any content behind a paywall but I do offer rewards to people who support me in ways like getting to vote on what content I work on in the future or outright just picking the next subject of an article.

See you all next time!

King Vinter Raelthorne IV Painted

So I've finally finished painting Vinter! I've owned him for years but never got round to finishing him.
What got me to push through and get him done was taking part in Rikers Irons Alternative history caster competition. This is the second year he's run this competition, last year I entered Menite Vald.

Here he is next to Pendrake (as per tradition).

One of the things which put me off painting him for so long was that originally I had planned to paint the metal trim on his armour gold. Changing this to P3 Orgoth Bronze (My new favourite paint) really helped me progress in painting him.

I'm looking forward to using him in an Oblivion campaign using his alt history rules (with some community mods as his PP rules are a bit trash...)

If you want to support my content consider taking a look at my Patreon which you can find here. I don't put any content behind a paywall but I do offer rewards to people who support me in ways like getting to vote on what content I work on in the future or outright just picking the next subject of an article.

See you all next time!