Iron Kingdoms Character Creation... Errata

A wise man once said "time makes fools of us all". But he was wrong - time only makes fools of those who assert "facts". And, whilst I never claimed to be a factual blog, time has still seen fit to place a Dunce Cap upon my brow like a crown upon a king.

If you haven't got it yet, what I'm saying is that I misread, misunderstood, or misremembered various facets of making a character in Iron Kingdoms. So, to correct my mistake, here's a handy guide to when I done goof'd.

ARM < DEF
Still true, but not quite so much... You see, I'd been basing that assumption on 3 characters: Tiny, Sergei, and Smiter. Smiter, at the time, was a hunk of scrap-metal, torn to pieces by zombies, so he didn't really give it much prestige. Tiny was yet to engage an enemy in melee, and Sergei had never finished a fight on more than half health...
... Thing is though, Sergei was made wrong. His player had been absent when we made ours, so he didn't realise that you could increase stats at character creation... so, his health, ARM and strength were all sub-par. Realistically, had he not suffered this kneecap, he'd have done significantly better.
The other thing is that armour works in groups. A squad of Iron Fangs/men-at-arms is an impressive force - likely topping ARM 18, leaving them immune to conventional firearms, and quite deadly when they reach melee. Also, Man-o-Wars. Suddenly ARM 20 is pretty attainable.
So, yeah... ARM can work. You just gotta be clever about it.

Magic is Support
This one, this is entirely on me. Being a Gunmage, I completely ignored virtually all the Archetype bonuses, barring 'Additional Study', which gives me an extra runeshot. As it transpires, there is a benefit that allows you to automatically boost the first spell each turn... which, frankly, let's you hit anything with DEF 15 or less.
Now, just so I'm clear here... Magic can entirely work offensively. Just, by the Twins, get this ability!

Boosting Rolls
So, not sure if I mentioned this at any point, but it transpires that we've been playing it wrong. It started when we read the Rapier's "powerful attack", and then misread the standard feat points, and... Well, you can't use feat points like Focus. You can boost non-combat rolls, and buy extra actions, but you can't just boost damage... so, yeah - if I've caused any confusion on this matter, I'm sorry.

Expansions
So, I've just acquired the Gods, Nations and Kings expansion, and this provides a range of new options... so, a quick round-up of non-factional careers.

-Faction-Warcasters: no real downside to any of them. They lose a couple spells each, but get back at least as many, typically based off the spells their Warmachine-equivalents get - so, a Cygnaran caster gets blur and arcane bolt as starter spells. And, of course, they all get Military Connections, so all in all, worth it.
-Faction-Gunmages: Worth it, 100%. There are no downsides - both get Connections to their order, a new runeshot, and piece of equipment. Cygnarans get a free suit of armour, whilst Llaelese trade their gun for a double-barrelled magelock. Unless you have a specific reason that you wanna be Ordic, there's literally no reason not to.
-Artillerist: very fun - the only way to get access to heavy artillery as a skill, and comes with a plethora of ancillary skills. And, of course, Trenchers have been given access to this class, so... anyone fancy an Ogrun with a cannon and dig-in?
-Horseman: the Highwayman's big brother, they're the classic Knight in shining armour. Sadly, don't have access to shield as a career skill, but on the other hand have a very good choice of skills and abilities, and Warcasters have retroactively been given access to it, so anyone who fancies making Kreoss 3, you're sorted. Might I advise taking the retractable Lance from No Quarter 51?

And, just to finish off,
Stormsmith: just do it. You never have to worry about adverse weather, you gain the ability to give focus to 'jacks, and you can shoot friggin lightning! Seriously, there is no good excuse not to make one. He'll, if everyone in the party is one, that's just even better. Only problem is that they don't synergise particularly well with any of the other careers...

So, that's my two cents on the matter. I'm sorry this was necessary, but on the other hand, I've enjoyed the chance to discuss the expansion... so, yeah - Volodanti out.

Commission... of Death!

So, shortish one this week - got a ton to do, and I've done a ton - spent 8 hours shadowing a manager for a job on wednesday, only to find out that it was wholly commission based, so frak that noise.

Anyway, what I'm gonna write about this week is my latest project - you see, remember that captain I made the other week? Well, it seems that my friend was so impressed by it, he'd asked me to paint some more things... and entire army to be specific. 30 marines, 14 scouts, 5 devastators and a command squad - all for me to paint. Going has been kinda slow - as I mentioned, I'm quite busy nowadays - but I managed to finish the first squad earlier this week, so I though I might as well share it with you:

So, here they are - Third Squad of the *embarrassed coughing* Company! I reckon they've come out quite well - obviously, they're not quite to my Warmachine standards, but that's mostly cos my mate wants them to tabletop standard, and I don't have several hours to waste on each model... on the upside, all the heraldry is all hand painted.

Still need to be based, but I don't have any modelling sand (ironic given that I live within 100 feet of the beach) and the one who is actually done is just me repainting the pre-existing base... yeah, this is an eclectic collection - old Black Templars, ebay'd Blood Angels, a new kit and even a couple I sold to him. But, well, it's nice to have them back, even temporarily.

Either way, hope you enjoy the pictures, and I'll have more coming as I progress. Volodanti out.

Iron Kingdoms - it's James all over again

So, welcome back to the world of Immoren... wow, two weeks in a row that I can write about this - we're getting worryingly organised...

Anyway, so the session started like most others - we all turned up, our GM put Adventure Time on in the background to distract us at crucial moments, and then we recapped what happened last time.

... And then Sergei died.

Well, he kinda had to - none of us had any skill in medicine, and even using Feat points every time would only prolong him for 12 hours... when we were 4 days away from any help. Besides, his player was kinda sick of him... no, that's a lie - he loved playing Sergei, he just hated getting into combat. And given that Sergei was a hot-blooded Iron Fang, combat was all he could do. So, he decided to allow Sergei a graceful death, and then Elyas stopped Tiny stealing his skull.

From this point on, there will be Spoilers from the Immortality Questline in the No Quarter Magazines. Actually, last time there were spoilers too, but I didn't know at the time.

The point is - you are warned.

So, what followed after was a rather morose journey back to Southshield, met up with Cara, and discovered that the city was almost completely abandoned. So abandoned, in fact, that the good Captain Finnean (yes, I got her name wrong last time) had gone missing. Instead, we ended up talking to one of her Lieutenants about how we'd a) completed the mission b) returned the bodies of several dead soldiers and c) where in Urcaen was the Captain?

So, it turns out she'd been kidnapped. They think. To be honest, what with the whole Impending War-thing, they were more concerned with making sure the city wasn't razed than in finding her, however much better she was at commanding an army.

Obvious plot-hook is obvious, and we offered to help out. The officer thanked us profusely and then led us to her room; which was in quite a state. All we could tell for sure was that there was a struggle, and that she'd lost. That being said, we felt it best to further investigate.
So, what'd we find? Well, firstly half a Servitor like the ones from the Laboratory - obviously one of her kidnappers that she'd bested. And, furthermore, we found a series of correspondences from her father; unopened by the Captain, but we felt it somewhat necessary to investigate. So, we skimmed through them and found several facts that most seemed more than relevant. Chiefly:
1. The Professor had lost his wife some years back, and didn't think he could stand losing his daughter.
2. He'd found a cult that promised to make sure that they could be together forever.
3. He was now in contact with Vladislav... i.e. The Khadoran baddie from way back.

So, yeah... this was, well, more than interesting. Cara admitted at this point to recognising the name - though, she refused to say how, other than that she'd killed him. In fact, she even remembered where he'd been holed up when he was influencing the Necromancer. We decided to head there quite quickly, to see if there was anything else we could find.

At Vladislav's home, we eventually found a loose floorboard, and beneath it a series of letters between himself and the Professor. It transpires they'd been working together for quite some time, and that he'd occasionally visited Vladislav's main base... in Volkovar... in Khador.
This, at the same time that a large Iosan army was advancing on the city we'd practically adopted.

Well... it appeared to be time to have a good, long think about our plans. Best grab a pint first.
So, we returned to the old inn from all those months ago, and poured over a map of Western Immoren... As we the players did the same. After a while, we realised that we had three real options:
1. Begin guerrilla action against an army of elves.
2. Take a ship up to Khador.
2. Take a barge upriver to Steelwater Flats, then a train to Point Bourne. Walk to Five Fingers and then get a train to the border.

The issue with plan A was the whole 'Iosan Army' element. Plan B involved sailing past Cryx, and plan C meant a trip to Korsk... so, none were perfect.

... but, we had a Ship, and as the saying goes "when all you have is a hammer... you're probably Jeremy Clarkson."

And so began an uneventful voyage north. Well, I say that - we met a few sirens and a sea monster, but otherwise nothing big... Oh, and Tiny nearly died, but still.

... so, anyway, once we reached Khador we eventually managed to find out which round to take (Tiny emerged significantly poorer), and proceeded east until we met a lovely old inn keeper... running from a band of robbers. Well, screams runeshot and holy flames sorted them out, and WE made a new friend - Andrei, the topless pistoleer. The inn keeper even offered us free food and a bed for his rescue. Really, we were quite chuffed with ourselves.

... until we woke up in Slave collars, which kinda put a downer on the whole issue.

Well, that my loyal readers is how it ended. Thank you very much for reading, and I'll see you next week. Volodanti out.

Remember This Guy?

That's a Mechanicum Skull on his
stomach... in case you wondered

So, does anyone remember a few weeks ago, when I posted about the Ezerial (the Deathwatch Marine), I also included a preview of a model I was doing as part of a sorta-commission for a friend? Well, he's back today, and fully painted.

So, the fluff? Well, quite limited - he's from an Iron Hands successor called the Sacred Band. Obviously, for anyone who's played Total War, you'll recognise that they are inspired by Carthage - well, Phoenicians in general - and I have mostly ignored it for this model.

It took surprisingly long to paint that
shield up to standard.

Well, bit untrue - I've just focussed more on the 'Iron Hands' bit than the 'Phoenician'.

The Chapter Badge is based off a combination of the Tanit and Imperial Eagle, with a Cog for a head. The symbol on the shield was one of my own design (well, I say that - it's probably based off something, but I didn't consciously base it on anything), whilst the stripes were pretty much to take up space... due to me making the symbol smaller than planned. Still, I like it; adds a bit of pattern to an otherwise somewhat plain model.

Company Number... turns out
Phoenicians used the same numbers as us

And, finally, the '4' on his other shoulder... that is genuinely how Phoenicians drew the number. I had already invented several pieces of heraldry for someone else's army, so I decided to pull back at the end and just give him a simple company marking. It works though, I think - shows him as more bothered about his company than himself personally.

All in all, happy with the model - and so too is my friend. The colours are simple, but that just makes the red stand out more, which I like. My favourite kinda scheme - simple and restrained, so that the details only shine the brighter.

Hope you've enjoyed this bonus post, I'll see you again Saturday. Volodanti out.

Iron Kingdoms - Why Trollkin and Tech don't mix.

So, back to the lands of Immoren for an action packed adventure with the world's grumpiest nice-guy; Elyas  Borne.

So, as you'll recall from the last session, we went out Elf-hunting... well, rather we went out to find a missing patrol, and ended up killing Iosans. Well, at the time we all thought it just a little diversion from Khador and their undead allies... but, as it turns out, there may well be more to it than that.

So, this session kicks off a week later for our characters. At some point in the intervening time Tiny has returned to us with a story of his amazing strength, bravery and drinking. So too, surprisingly, has Lunexa the Hunter; who you may recall from way back, is an Iosan Mage Hunter... i.e. the guys we're fighting.

This is not off to a good start.

So, we're at the barn - Sergei regaling us with a story of the time he wrestled a bear - when we get a knock at the door... it's a messenger from Captain Filligan (incidentally, we finally remembered what 'the General's' name is), asking our assistance immediately. He was trying to hide just how literal the 'immediately' was, but it was obvious this was important. We had a quick whip around to grab our gear, and set off - leaving Cara and David to finish fixing up the Talon.

A day or so later, we arrive at the city of Southshield to find it virtually deserted. A few refugees are on their way out, and when questioned they only mutter vague warnings about 'the Elves'... I rather imagine Lunexa was very glad for his hood at this moment.

After a while, we make it through into the Captain's office, where she fills us in on the bad news - her scouts have detected a large army of Iosans on their way. Southshield, it seems, has only a small garrison - enough to turn back a Cryxian raiding party, but undermanned since the war moved north. It's certainly not enough to push back a determined attack from the land; hence why the citizens are being evacuated.
Which, sadly, brings us to the meet of the issue - why we are here... it seems that we may be able to stop the elves by bringing them the body of Professor Filligan... her father. How it would stop them, she didn't say, and frankly none of us were in the mood to ask. After telling us where his laboratory is and handing us a letter to give to the guards, we set off for a job that none of us particularly fancied.

So followed four mostly uneventful days of travelling... mostly because we rolled well on the encounter table, but shut up. Anyway, at the end of this, we found ourselves approaching the laboratory - or, a large pile of rocks anyway. Outside stood six Cygnarans in the uniform of militia. They drew their weapons at our approach, but when we lowered our weapons and handed them the note they allowed us entrance - without a word spoken. Rather rude when you think about it.

So, here we are - at the location of the laboratory but with nothing but an area of broken boulders to differentiate it from the rest of the fields. A bit of searching later, and we found an archaic iron grate amongst the rocks, which despite two holes in it none of us could budge. A bit of thinking and investigating later, one of us noticed some rust on one of the bolts holding it in place... it took a long while, but eventually we managed to break it open, and quickly descended into the laboratory.

Inside was a short corridor with three doors - one on either side, and the third ahead of us. None of them had a handle, but each had a small orb beside it that glowed from inside; the light growing stronger as we approached...

... I think it important at this point to explain that none of us are idiots, okay? If, in real life, we saw a glow thing next to a locked door, we'd know it was the button to open it. Our characters, who live in a Steampunk fantasy land, probably do not...
... Plus, Our GM does so enjoy his traps..

After a bit of discussion - mostly consisting of 'Oh dear Morrow, no, what are you doing?' - Tiny decided the best course of action was to smash one. With his sword. He more than succeeded - which locked the door on our left, and electrocuted him for good measure.

Eventually though, one of us grew curious enough, and Sergei touched the orb to our right, opening the door. Inside, we found a storage room - crates filled with various supplied; from food to reagents to scrap. And, a search check later, Elyas found a strange case. after a bit of puzzling, he figured out how to open it, and discovered a trio of tubes - filled with a bluish glow, and topped off with cog-like caps. What, precisely, they were for we had no clue, but we felt it best to keep a hold of them - perhaps Cara would be able to figure out their purpose.

By this time, Tiny had finished smashing his way through the door he'd locked... and uncovered several dead Cygnarans. Stripped of their armour and uniforms, only the badges left on their civvies remained to identify them. Elyas vaguely recognised the insignia on them - it was some kind of special forces within the Cygnaran Army... but, it had been some time since he'd left and even then he'd been mostly relegated to backwater garrisons. Whoever they were, they at least deserved to be taken back for a proper burial.

So, this left us with the one door left - at the head of the corridor. As a group we approached, and upon touching the orb we entered into the main laboratory.

Or, workshop I should say. It consisted of several benches covered in an assortment of high-tech parts, and a large machine on a dias at the far end. I say machine - it appeared to be two near-identical machines separated by around a foot of wires.
So, obviously, we went to searching, and investigating and the like...and quickly uncovered each machine had a door opening into it. One of them was locked - the one on the right, as you entered the room - and through a large frosted window we could make out a humanoid figure within. Try as we might, we could find no way to open it.
The door to the other side though, was already ajar, and Sergei chose instead to investigate this. Inside, he found an elderly man, hooked up to the machine with a variety of tubes and wires. Long dead, but he fit the description - we'd found Filligan.

About this time, we started to notice a faint buzz. We ignored it at first - machines tend to make noises after all - but eventually, it piqued Elyas' interests... by which I mean he passed a perception test. In the dimly lit cables above, he spotted several small orbs hovering about it the rooftops. As he saw them, they decided to make use of the last of their surprise and launch an attack.

Lunexa responded first - letting fly a bolt from her crossbow... which failed to reach the target. apparently, the room was larger than we had originally thought. This was followed by Elyas, who managed to scrap one with a pair of Runeshot. The servitors advanced upon us then - launching a flurry of shots which just barely missed Elyas.
Sergei and Tiny were up next - Tiny managed to kill off a foe with his Fellcall, whilst Sergei moved to set up a charge.

In the next turn, Lunexa moved forward to intercept the pair moving towards herself and the Khadoran, Elyas managed to put a little damage onto a servitor, and Tiny and Sergei traded a little damage for a dead Servitor each. By the Third round, we stood beside several downed machines.

Obviously, we were a tad puzzled by the floating balls, but truthfully we were more interested by the locked door. Eventually, low on patience, Sergei smashed the window, and
flung the figure bodily from the chamber.
It was, well... a female body, made of highly polished steel. Clockwork mechanisms were prominent in places, and hidden elsewhere, but it that failed to lessen our confusion. The only thing we could work out was that it was powered off, and that turning it on - somehow - might shed some light on the matter. Elyas, quite reasonably and rather foolishly, suggested removing the arms first, in case it too was hostile.

Tiny took this idea to heart, and decided that the best solution to the "excess arms issue" was the edge of his blade.

As soon as the sound of tearing metal filled the room, we heard a scream of rage and terror. A massive figure fell from the ceiling, and knocked the four of us down. By the time Sergei brought Elyas to, it was gone, though we could hear its flight down the corridor.

We quickly gave chase... or, three of us did - Lunexa was still stunned from the impact. It was already outside before we reached the corridor, but we we faster than it... Well, Elyas was anyway.

We emerged into the field to find the guards from earlier, blocking our path to the attacker. It was some form of three-legged warjack, though it lacked the smoke stacks that they all share. In one arm, it carried the semi-damaged female figure. Our attention was diverted from it however, as the guards began to strip their clothes and armour, revealing bodies of metal like the woman from the Laboratory. Elyas tried once more to diffuse the situation - seven on three is not much his idea of a good fight - but the 'Jack just screeched "they hurt the vessel!", and battle commenced.

It was... something of a poor fight, truth be told. Tiny yelled down anyone who approached him, and Elyas sprinted through the enemy to give Chase to the fleeing Warjack - it turns out, Parry is a use for Feat points. Sergei though... Sergei faired poorly. At the time, we had thought him seriously injured, but it transpires his player had filled in his HP wrong... Sergei was on the verge of death. And, despite being much faster, Elyas realised pursuing an apparently autonomous 'Jack on his own was a bad plan.

... aaand that's where we called it. Once more sorry for the delay, and thanks for reading. But of luck, I might have the next session up on Saturday, and I'll get you a short update Wednesday. Until then, hope you enjoyed. Volodanti out.

A Slight Delay

First off, apologies about the time - I thought I'd already posted this, but I'd only saved it. My mistake, hope you'll forgive me.

So, bad news friends... there'll be no post today. I know, I'm sorry, but I am not up for it. I attended my best friends' wedding yesterday, so you find me now sore, dehydrated, and tired. In essence, not much in the mood to finish this week's post.

I know I should have finished it in advance, but it's been a busy week (for reasons I'll explain later), and I just haven't had the chance.

Anyway, I'll have it sorted for tomorrow, and with a bit of luck I'll get a short post up on Wednesday.

Thanks for your patience, Volodanti out.

Year One Retrospective

So, it transpires that Sunday is a very important day for me. It marks one year since a much less well travelled me marched into Travelling Man and picked up the Cygnar starter box set.
Aye, one year since I began gaming in the lands or Immoren, and it's been a good one. Tons of fun, a massive growth in my skills as a painter, and a surprising number of victories as compared to myself in virtually every other game. It came at a good time too - when Games Workshop began the process of utterly alienating most of it's older/poorer clientèle, to the point that no-one in either of my gaming groups has even considered buying the new rulebook. But, this isn't a post for insulting Games Workshop - especially when you consider what my last - and likely next - posts are, but celebrating Privateer Press' creation.

So, yeah, I really do enjoy Warmachine... Rather a redundant thing to say - given that I've been doing it for a year - but I do. It's still struggling to top Warhammer, but I can't be sure how much of that is due to the 8 years backlog it has built up... plus, it's a lot easier to write fluff about Warhammer, which is something that you'll probably have noticed that I enjoy.

But for all of that... there's just not the same degree of strategy in the Grim Dark future. Sure, they're trying to introduce more of a Combined-Arms approach to it in the recent editions, but the scale makes this negligible. Sure, you can make outflank a teleport homer in order to deep strike your terminators behind enemy lines, but ultimately the most complicated tactics you can really get is in deployment. After that, on the whole, it's a matter of getting your biggest beat-stick into optimum range and spamming the attack key.

I'd like to point out here, that I understand there are more complicated tactics possible... it's just that generally these lose out to the latest 'broken-unit-spam'.

To be honest, really all you need to know about tactics in warhammer is that a Warlord trait called something along the lines 'Master Tactician' is generally inferior to one that gives you Feel No Pain.

By comparison, in Warmachine, there are dozens of buffs, de-buffs and status effects you can apply to a large proportion of your army. This is almost entirely due to the scale - a low number of models means it's easy to keep track of these, and means a single buff can cover a significant proportion of your army.

It's why characters like Haley or Irusk are favoured; they're pretty poor in combat, but can dominate the field through their spells, feats or passive abilities. Sure, The Butcher can kill a 'jack without breaking a sweat, but if there's nothing in punching range is pretty much scuppered. Irusk, by comparison, makes everything in 12" so much better, but will struggle with anything bigger than a Lancer. The thing that I love is both of these are equally viable - just smashing someone in the face, or getting your mates to do it. And when you add in Kraye turning a Colossal into a horsey...

It's just the interplay between units that I like so much - the fact that units can help each other in ways other than 'extra attacks means more kill'. Something held in combat? Slam it out the way. Something blocking line of sight? Knockdown. Charge lane blocked? Push it. A unit on it's own is almost useless when compared to them as a part of the whole...

... And, to be honest, given that I'm playing Iron Kingdoms now, the whole 'no homebrew fluff' argument is dropping away...

But, anyway, Year One Retrospective, I need to come to a final decision for Warmachine, and I think I have it:

A great game, big or small, and I urge you to get a starter set.

Anyway, that's me done for this week, so thank you for reading. Volodanti out.