“I’m not a soldier, Major. The day we took hostages, we became mercenaries. And mercenaries get paid. I want my *BLEEPING* money! “ – Captain Darrow

When it comes to Warcasters, there is none more Gung Ho Action Hero than Drake Macbain(!!!), whos very name serves as a battlecry for Mercenary players.

Drake doesn’t have time to bleed either…

Background: A consummate mercenary, Drake MacBain is the gun for hire. He doesn’t do it for the fame, he doesn’t do it for the recognition, he does it because he’s getting paid. He sticks to the letter in his contracts with his employers, and because of his reputation for getting the job done, he can command a good price for his services.

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Templecon 2012 was a rocky road for me. Going into the con I felt good about my game but I did not think that I would qualify for the masters final. The year before I went in believing it would be easy but I learned that the opposite was true. This year I had just started my new faction (Skorne) and didn’t really feel like I had as good a grasp of the game as many of the top players. I planned to play in the Team Tournament and Hardcore either way but I was trying to go in with an attitude of “enjoy yourself, if you win or lose”. I believed that this convention would be more of a learning experience. At big cons you get to see so many new variations on things you have never seen before. Hell, I know it was a learning experience (more on that later).

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For the last two years I’ve played Protectorate lists almost exclusively. A couple of Trollblood games here, a couple of Retribution games there, and of course, a few dabbles with the Drop Bears. Templecon 2012 has come and gone, and with it, my Gaming year has cycled. Yeah, much like businesses have Fiscal Years for tax purposes, I have a Gaming Year that clicks over early February each year, with Templecon being a grand crescendo to close it out. So yeah, G2012 = The 2012 Gaming Year.

As much as it may get me wracked, it’s time to give my Menites a break.

Don’t misunderstand, they may well come out to play now and then later in the year, I’m not washing my hands completely of them for the year, but it’s time to dedicate some attention to my other factions… starting with this fellow.

Oops, he’s all in bits… just a sec…

Bam! Aspis!

Alright, I confess I didn’t do much of anything with the pose, but it’s the first Retribution model I’ve painted in a looooong time… cut me some slack

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I’m away from home this weekend and have relatively limited computer access. So, quick article.

But on the other hand: very pretty article.

Project 1: Legion Beasties

My Legion force is now more than merely a well-meaning idea: as of this morning, I have a fully-painted negative two point army.

Vayl’s adorable babies: she wants to show you them.

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Hello my dear Losties!!

I have a confession to make. I like looking at army lists. Yup. Doesn’t matter if I play the faction or not, I find list construction to be rather fascinating. I think that this comes from the fact that I’m not a terribly tactical individual, so I feel that a lot of lists have far more thought put in to them beyond “Ooo, I just painted this, I want to play with it,” or “I like Steelheads…

That being said, today I wanted to share six lists with yo

See, we just started up our Gnarls League at the store last Thursday, and I decided to take pictures of the armies folks were playing and asked them to give me one of the league lists they played tonight.

With out further ado, I give you a peek into the twisted minds of the Thornwood Irregulars.

Player One: Chase

Chase is our new guy. Very new. We just met him that night. Luckily he’s a local, AND is going to become a regular. Sweet. Chase plays the Swans.

Captain Kara Sloan (*6pts)
* Charger (4pts)
* Stormclad (10pts)
* Squire (2pts)
Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
* Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer (2pts)
* * Cyclone (9pts)
Captain Arlan Strangewayes (2pts)
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator (1pts)
Storm Strider (9pts)
Stormblade Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
* Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard (3pts)
* 3 Stormblade Infantry Storm Gunner (3pts)

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“My psychiatrist told me I was crazy and I said I want a second opinion. He said okay, you’re ugly too.” - Rodney Dangerfield

Like many of my gaming brethren, I suffer from an advanced form of ADD known as ADOSS: “Attention Deficit OH SOMETHING SHINEY!!!” This malady has plagued me for near the entirety of my gaming life, from new 40K armies, to which character to play in D&D, to “Hey, Horde looks neat, despite the lack of ability to stand up straight…”

It’s no different with Privateer Press games. In fact, it’s WORSE, because Privateer Press has succeeded in making games where multiple aspects of it apeal to me. Just about every army has something in it that catches my eye, and I (unfortunately) don’t have the resources to make each and every one of these come true.

But I can dream.

So welcome to ScatterBrainz, where I dump my ‘wild hair’ ideas into the internet, to share my insanity, and perhaps spark some creative ideas in the minds of my readers.

Even Nicholas Cage can’t dampen my love for Ghost Rider…

I like the undead. But more specifically, skeletons. I’m not a huge zombie buff, vampires are ‘meh’, and all the other collection of undead really don’t do much for me…but give me a skeleton, and I’m good to go. Through out my gaming history, I’ve always felt the pull of the skeletal undead: Legion of the Damned, Necrons, Tomb Guard…if it’s a skeleton, then it’s got my eye.

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Lost Hemisphere seems to attract all sorts… this time, co-host of the Elite Cadre podcast Kurt Hanson has dragged himself out of his womble hole and submitted a tourney report for your reading pleasure. 

The Iron King
Iron Haven Games, Exeter, UK

The Iron King is Iron Haven’s premier annual Warmachine/Hordes tournament. Held in Exeter, Devon in the far flung south west of England, they are a little out on a limb, but continue to attract a select group of top gamers, as well as a great showing of local talent. It also marked the opening of Iron Haven’s new & very shiny gaming venue.

The tournament is a single list, 35 point Steam Roller event, with a twist. Round 4 is 25 point Mangled Metal/Tooth & Claw with the same Warcaster/Warlock. Tournament scoring was based on wins and then Control Points scored, strength of schedule was not used. Scenarios were predetermined, but kept secret to avoid advantageous list building.

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This is Why We Have Nice Things

Back in the day the only games that were worth playing were made by big development teams. You had to have the staff, manpower and muscle to publish and market something so it was very much a big boys club. The formation of mega studios like EA and ActiBlizz didn’t help that much in the past few years but Steam and other development methods and tools have made it easier than ever to be an independent game developer. Working for a studio that could easily be considered small (I think there are still less than 20) has given me a unique viewpoint on this big studio-small studio dynamic (although I must confess, at just over a month I don’t have much experience in the Game Design industry) especially given that the client for the project I’m working on can be considered one of those “big” studios and that has only reinforced the soft spot I hold for independent development efforts that push the boundaries in one way or another. I’m willing to wait for a game like Fez despite the fact that it’s seemingly been coming out forever just because I like rooting for the little guys doing interesting things.

GIMMIE GIMMIE GIMMIE

That’s why DOTA2 is one of my most anticipated games. I logged hours and hours of my life in the original game which for the most part was developed by a very small team of amateur volunteers. The main man behind DOTA Allstars (not the original creator) eventually joined Valve to produce the game with substantially more resources and I wish Icefrog all the best in turning the bane of my existence into a much more polished game. DOTA would never really grow beyond the confines of Blizzard’s world-crafter while it was still trapped in Warcraft 3 and as League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth (as well as a tonne of other clones) prove that there is definitely a market for a game like DOTA2 but I still wish they’d hurry up and release the damn thing already. I have much trepidation to see the most successful community based game taken in by a major publisher and released as an “official” sequel but I guess you could say Valve has a decent history in gaming but then again, we’ve been waiting for Episode 3 for how long?

That was more rambly than I planned it to be but it’s crunch time at work now (yaaayyy, 10-12 hour days …) so I’m a bit frazzled.

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It’s the first convention of the year for the Lost Hemisphere crew – Templecon! Much to everyone’s surprise, Rhode Island is still there, pillaging was kept to a minimum, and no Dunkin’ Donuts were harmed in the making of this episode. Northblade, Gdaybloke and Faultie all butt their heads against each other as they try to remember what happened on which say, and just for the heck of it we sat down with a couple of Privateer staffers for some short chats as well.

Join us, won’t you? Download the niftiness on iTunes, or by clicking the linky: LINKY!

DISCLAIMER: Even though we waited until after we’d been home a few days before recording, we still sound exhausted. Take our fevered ramblings with a grain of salt.

http://losthemisphere.com
http://privateerpress.com
http://templecon.org
http://thehobbykingdom.com
http://advanceddeployment.com
http://dragonforge.com

We’ve had a few particularly nifty releases already this month, what say we take a peek at a couple? I had the delight this week of watching not one but two of the Lost support crew racing to get their Archidons finished, but let’s take a look at the floating mushroom of evil first…

Yes, yes, I have some pretty pics for you after the cut, but for now? Six components to an Iron Lich Overseer – The “head”, three arms, the the two pieces that make up the “tail” it hovers on. You’ll likely be looking to pin the tail pieces together for stability.

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