Lost Hemisphere

What ho, the seasons have swung, there’s a crispness in the air, the country is divided between pumpkin spice and apple cider while maple maintains its mainstay status. While the effects of COVID-19 continues to impact our day-to-day and we’re being actively encouraged by the powers that be to eschew gatherings with anyone outside of our households in the interests of health and safety for all, there are still turkeys being prepared, cranberries being sauced and I’m sure someone’s going to be cramming pureed pumpkin into a pie shell and then pretending it’s delicious for the sake of tradition.

It’s Thanksgiving here in Canada, and while the world is still topsy-turvy, while we’re still distancing from our friends and families, we’re still thankful for a great many things, not the least of which that we can still stay somewhat connected thanks to modern technology. May you all be safe, may you all be healthy, may you all avoid the dreaded lurgy, and may none of you find that instead of preparing a turkey, you accidently put a clockatrice in your oven, and now he’s -really- mad about the stuffing…

Happy Thanksgiving, Canada!

As a dork of no insubstantial girth myself, there are times I feel somewhat unrepresented in the miniature world. I mean, I acknowledge that there’s not a lot of call for bald, tubby warcasters and the like, but today we look at two particularly portly models. Yes, one of them’s a pig and the other’s a toad. No, I don’t consider either of these to represent me either. I mean, they’re Grymkin models! Neither one’s a Menite! I’m gonna go stare at Malekus…

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It’s a Grymkin kinda week here in the Lost Hemisphere. Today we’re taking a quick look at the Grave Ghoul – freakishly tall and armed with a shovel long enough to dig a 6′ hole without having to actually climb down into it – and the Neigh Slayer Warhorse – A macabre yet comical steed for a small for a small cadre of gremlins. I find myself torn between the creepy and the cute with a number of the Grymkin models, but today’s duo both appeal.

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I wrote about the Clockatrice back in November when we first saw the digital sculpt. It looked super cool, and my own love of the cockatrice as a mythical beast kicked in, wrapped up memories of seeing Tick Tock in the 1985 Return to Oz movie (yes, I’m that old), ensured that this is one model I was really looking forward to getting my hands on. I’m not disappointed. Tick.

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Sylys… Heirophant… Squire… there are some very distinguished Warcaster and Warlock Attachments in the games of Warmachine and Hordes, and then, with the Grymkin CID dropping, there’s a new contender in town. Baron Tonguelick, Lord of Warts. The Grymkin get what looks to me like a very dapper cane toad, who naturally has Swamp Gas as a special action… because of course he does 😉

The Grymkin seem to be a divisive faction for many players, and this doesn’t overly surprise me given the division within the faction. Just like you can divide, for example, the Khadoran army into Man-O-War, Iron Fangs, Winter Guard and Greylords as subgroups, or Trollbloods into traditionalists, trained military, and Northkin, the Grymkin – while all essentially fae – are either whimsically comical (eg Neighslayers), or malevolently sinister (eg Murder Crows). Some players seem to embraced the faction en masse, while others balk at the absurdity of some of the models.

Personally, I think there’s plenty of room for both concepts. The Trollbloods have some of the most amusing models in the game, and have never shied away from having a chuckle – Pyg in a snowman, for cryin’ out loud. The outlandish concepts of the Grymkin may seem alien to the setting of the Iron Kingdoms, but I think on some level, that’s the point. These are creatures not of this world, after all…

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In a world gone mad, February’s Warmachine and Hordes releases have been announced, there’s a Menite unit (Junior paladins!), and they’re not the immediate focus of a blog post! No, instead there’s an enormous clockwork lizard-chicken and my mind is boggling. It’s the Clockatrice!

If the clockatrice is born of nightmares, it comes from a dreamscape of fiendish engineering, the metallic grinding of countless gears, and a malevolence arising from an intricate mechanism that mimics a living beast. As in the fables it inspired, the clockatrice can freeze and kill with but a glance of its glowing eyes. Time flows differently around this creature, warped by the haphazard spinning of the arms of its giant clock, always to the detriment of any mortals facing its razor-sharp claws and beak.

I have no idea exactly how that’s going to translate to in-game effects, but this glorious amalgam of mechanisms and myth really tickles my fancy. It’s a monstrosity that looks like it just fell out of Labyrinth, Return To Oz or some other  fantastically absurd realm.

In other words, it’s perfect for the Grymkin. Half the faction is the creepy stuff of nightmares, half bleeds into nonsensical tomfoolery. This is one of those models that is going to polarize opinions, and will either look amazing on the field, or look completely out of place. Some people went gaga, others have already decried it as silliness incarnate.

On the one hand I get the folks who question whether a faction like the Grymkin really fits in with the quasi-steampunk setting of the Iron Kingdoms, but at the same time we’ve already got the sleek tech of Ios and the cult of Cyriss, and on the other end we’ve got the primitive elemental nature of the Circle Orboros and the Trollkin. The setting has plenty of room for something like the Clockatrice. I can see this model being painted up as a whimsically comical construct, and I can see it as a nightmare in brass and tarnished leather.

How we choose to paint our models can greatly colour our experience on the tabletop. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with going dark and gritty, nor is there anything wrong with going fabulous. You do you, enjoy your hobby, and for cryin’ out loud somebody paint this damn thing up like a Poule de Marans, cos those roosters are damn pretty.