Quest for Fully Painted: Panda Part 1

Recently I posted that I had won best painted army at a large local tournament. I'm a little ashamed to say that I did not have a fully painted force. There were only 2 fully painted armies out of 35 contestants so the judges decided to open this up to armies that were mostly painted. I won and got a Collosals release event poster signed by the Privateer Press Staff. Now to convince the wife it deserves to hang on the wall!

Now to the purpose of this post, since I was not fully painted and have usually had 1-2 things not painted while playing in tournaments, I've decided to lay down a goal to have at least 1 of my Warmachine/Hordes tournament armies fully painted, to include any Mercenaries or Minions I would take with them.



While I could get away with finishing up my Highborn Covenant army with Ashlynn D'Elyse which is probably 85% finished, I don't see myself playing them in a tourny any time soon. Same for the Trollbloods whom I've been slowly building up. So that leaves me with getting some Protectorate of Menoth to get painted!

As always it's best to plan your work and work your plan. This is some of the most useful advice I have seen given about hobbies whether it's painting miniatures or racing cars. If you don't have a clue as to what your end state is and your plan to get there you more than likely will not finish. So my goal is to get a force at a tournament fully painted. What steps do I need to take to make this happen? Well I need to decide what a fully painted force at a tournament means! Most of our local Steamrollers are 50 Point, 2 lists, with Reinforcements so that's my goal. So that means I need to know whats going into my lists. I know I'll be using 2 Warcasters most often and those are Vindictus and the Harbinger of Menoth. So now I pick what goes with them. To the lists!

Vice Scrutator Vindictus
-Hierophant
-Reckoner
-Reckoner
-Reckoner
Knights Exemplar Errants X 10
-Officer and Standard
Knights Exemplar Errants X 10
-Officer and Standard
Holy Zealots X 10
-Monolith Bearer
Exemplar Errant Senechal
Choir of Menoth X 4

Reinforcements
?

Harbinger of Menoth
-Hierophant
-Reckoner
-Reckoner
Knights Exemplar Errants X 10
-Officer and Standard
Vassal Mechanik
Vessel of Judgement
Vassal of Menoth
Vassal of Menoth
High Paladin Dartan Vilmon
Nicia, Tear of Vengeance
Knights Exemplar X 6
Choir of Menoth X 4

Reinforcements
Knights Exemplar Errants X 10
Exemplar Errant Senechal

As you can see there is some overlap in the lists which is good, this will keep me from painting 100 points plus casters but their is enough difference with the casters and selection that it won't feel like I'm playing the same list all the time. Also, and this is the big problem I currently have, I have no idea what to take for reinforcements with Vindictus. I'm using his tier list and the limitations are hurting me in what I have to take. I'll be putting thought into this but if any of you readers have a suggestion I'm more than willing to listen to it.

So now I have my lists I can concentrate on just these models to paint for the next little while. I actually have about 90% of both these lists currently painted but it's a mishmash of styles and ability. I will be going back and painting them all to the same paint scheme and style so I've added even more to what I need to do!On the bright side, the schemes are similar enough that those that are painted in my old scheme won't need to be stripped down to metal to be redone, so I shouldn't need to take a ton of extra time for this.

At the end of every post in this series I will be posting the lists again and they will be written with a line through what needs to be done.

Also I'm challenging all my cohorts here on the Geek Garage to try the same thing. It doesn't have to be a 2 Army challenge, heck, it doesn't even need to be Warmachine or Hordes. If someone wants to put the challenge down for a Dark Age Army, Malifaux Crew, Necromunda Gang, it's all good, I just want to get my friends motivated to get some more fully painted forces out on those tables.

Vice Scrutator Vindictus

-Hierophant

-Reckoner

-Reckoner

-Reckoner

Knights Exemplar Errants X 10

-Officer and Standard

Knights Exemplar Errants X 10

-Officer and Standard

Holy Zealots X 10

-Monolith Bearer

Exemplar Errant Senechal

Choir of Menoth X 4

Reinforcements

?

Harbinger of Menoth

-Hierophant

-Reckoner

-Reckoner

Knights Exemplar Errants X 10

-Officer and Standard

Vassal Mechanik

Vessel of Judgement

Vassal of Menoth

Vassal of Menoth

High Paladin Dartan Vilmon

Nicia, Tear of Vengeance

Knights Exemplar X 6

Choir of Menoth X 4

Reinforcements

Knights Exemplar Errants X 10

Exemplar Errant Senechal

Intermountain Cup Prep!

The second Intermountain Cup is a upon us! What is the Intermountain Cup? It's just the biggest Warmachine/Hordes tournament in the Utah/Idaho meta! The inaugural Cup gathered 28 individuals from the represent themselves and their stores in gaming and glory! Essentially there is a tournament winner like most tournaments but also individuals play for their stores and the store who ends up with the most points at the end gets to keep the roving trophy at their store!

The tournament is held every six months and after doing alright in the last event I was sadly not going to be able to play do to my commitment to the National Guard, when lo to my surprise 2 days ago I was informed that my drill date had changed! Now I get to go but I haven't been preparing for this at all!  This is going to be minimum 5 rounds with 3 lists that must be played equally with standard steamroller charachter restrictions. Now this is going to be tough!

I pretty much only play the Protectorate of Menoth for competitions so that is at least a place to start. I have things narrowed down to 5 warcasters. Unfortunately I can only bring 3 so lets narrow down the possibilities!

First up is a warcaster who is locked in since I've been playing him up a storm and just got finished representing him to the utmost on the Chain Attack podcast, Vice Scrutator Vindictus! Check it out here: http://www.chain-attack.com/2012/09/episode-64-vindictus-vs-carver/

This is the easiest since I've been playing him he most. I'm actually switching things up from what I would normally play with him by going with his Theme Force and playing at Level 4! Lots of good bonuses from the tiers and no dead weight. I do need to figure out what his reinforcements are going to be since I can't take what I have been to stay in tier.

Second choice is the Harbinger of Menoth, also because I've been playing her quite a bit latley. Pretty much guaranteed I'll be bringing her so I'll just add her as my second list. Lots of focus and great spells means she pretty much makes everything better. Its really hard to go wrong with her.

I've taken her to a local small point tournament and played very tight and well with her so I feel confident in just expanding that list and taking a few more of the trimmings that will make her even better.

The next caster that I have the most experience with is Feora, Proctector of the Flame.  This Warcaster is hot with firepower and plays very strong!  I've admittedly stolen a great list from one the best Protectorate players on the Con Scene Phatasian and I love the list, small model count but hits like a ton of bricks. This list hits hard when it needs to and can also deal well with high defense models and infantry spam.

I'm not sure I really want to play her this time around though, just think I should change this up. Not sure as I don't know how rusty I'll be. While I was playing her quite a bit I've gotten lax with her and not played any tough games in quite some time.

Next up would be Grand Scrutator Severius, an oldy but goody. I used to play him as my secondary caster in all tournaments no matter what I used as my primary list since I knew he could handle most things people could throw at him. Lots of focus and even better spells than the Harbinger means he can dish out a big heaping of pain and does it well with range, melee and magic. Pretty good right?

Now I have taken him to a tournament up in Idaho recently and played a mean game with him but I usually get a little cocky with him and end up getting assassinated. Not good, plus I think lots of people will be counting on seeing him. That might make things a little harder.

Lastly and I know people will consider me crazy for this one, but I'm really pushing to use the High Reclaimer! I know people who are into this game are probably thinking I'm off my rocker right now but I've been reading up on some strategies with him from PP forum great Paradox and Gaston in the PoM forums and have modeled a list after theirs as well. I probably haven't played him anywhere near what I've played the others, but the 2 games I played with the planned list utterly slammed my opponents. His dark horse status and lack of play time from most others just leave people scratching their heads when I but him out.

Now the cons to all the greatness I just talked about are pretty bad. Small focus pool leaves a lot to be desired. He overcomes this with soul collection but that only goes so far. Also, a few factions just hose him, mostly Legion but to a lesser extent Cryx and Skorne with their soul collection and pretty much anything that can see through clouds or ignore line of sight. I still have this strong desire to play him though.

Well the Intermountain Cup is tomorrow and I need to figure out my lists and strategies so I'll leave you in suspense tonight and wait till afterwards to tell you fine folks what I'm played and how I did!