Big and slow?

...or how it took over four year to finish one model.

Hi there everyone, Arides here with a mayor update on one of my oldest huge-based (120mm) model painting projects.

I hereby announce that on Thursday November 17th 2016...

The state of Research...

...or: What if it's the WTC and I couldn't care less?

Seriously, I can't be bothered this year. Faithful readers of this blog might have already wondered why there's absolutely no coverage of the WTC (like there was last year), or of Warmachine at any rate.
The answer is: Since ClogCon '15, I only touched my models to put them into cases, and those cases into my basement. Between work and two children (the younger of which requiring way more attention than his sibling) there's just not enough time to break out the models, play, and produce content. Also, there was Mk3 rocking the general boat.
They're not gone, though, and once time permits, games will be had, and you will know about it!

On Hearthstone: I've promised an ONiK review, and that'll come, but it was delayed since... I wanted to clear it in heroic mode, and now that that's done, it's coming. I'll start typing today. The post series will, however, be "rebranded" as they say, into "Playing without a full deck", but only the name, not the numbers. This has two reasons: 1) I think that, now that I did my first adventure in heroic, I have a good inkling of what I'm doing in general and 2) that name is easy to translate into German with both versions being as idiomatic as possible. Yes, select posts of the series will be translated, and linked to the Hearthstone Deutschland FB page.

Until next time,
farewell.

WM/H's long 2015, Part 04 - Mk 3

So, unless you've been hiding under a rock, or in your secret moon base, you will by now have heard about the fact that MK III coming out basically right when this series was supposed to end.

However, I don't see a big point in writing about things that change anyway.

What does it mean for the future? Well, most obviously, I'm at no shortage for topics! I could, can, and probably will, revisit each and almost everyone of them and put them into the current state of things - after MK III is out.

Things are looking good so far, but the Khador spoilers haven't hit yet - so I can't call this the final post of this particular series JUST yet.

But until then, farewell!

WM/H's long 2015, Part 03 - When a wolf drops dead in the forest...

...and anybody is left alive to testify - might it still have been Sorscha2?

Whenever I built list pairs, Circle is always on my mind. For some reason, they - as a faction - frighten me the most. Too make matters worse, you are guaranteed to run into them since they are such a good faction. In addition, their playstyle is (or appears, at the very least) to be the polar opposite of the Khadoran playstyle (Hit & Run v. Kill everything that isn't us) - with some powerful exceptions.

So, in my strife to find a 'Caster (and list) that can deal with this, I've come around to Sorscha2.
More of my thoughts after the break.

WM/H's long 2015, Part 02 - The errata from the Khador PoV

   But first things first *ahem*...
NAILED IT!!!
   Thank you. I was referring the change that happened to Calandra's theme force, EE. But this is not an article to talk about salty Trollplayer tears (well, maybe it still will be). We're going to talk about what in the errata matters for Khador players. More after the break.

WM/H's long 2015 - Part 01: Zerkova, Denial, and guns. Boostable guns.

   For the first article in this series, I'll try to understandably write down the realisations and thoughts which came from my games at ClogCon in Decembre. These will revolve around Zerkova, control, threat, and why it's a good idea to have a backup plan in case your opponent just ... backs up.
   That, and guns. Lots of guns.

More after the break.

Khador 2015, Part 15 - Observations on the Competitor Countries

Last time, we defined who qualifies as a Core Country for WTC (any country with a team in the top ten ('14) AND the top 6 ('13)), and looked at their team compositions faction wise.

This time, we'll look at the Competitor Countries - made up out of all those that had a team in EITHER the top 10 ('14) or the top 6 ('13). The Competitors are:

Australia*, Austria, Denmark, Germany, Scotland, Slovakia

Expected are greater swings in Faction choices, just to regurgitate that info.

*I am very well aware that the Australians did not, in fact, attend '13 WTC. So did about ten other countries. Neither Austria nor Slovakia DO attend in 2015. It may seem slightly injust, however we have to draw the line somewhere. This year's data will be vital to determine something more akin to a proper standing for those teams.

Follow me beyond the break for diachronic and synchronic analyses of these team's faction choices.

Khador 2015, Part 14 - Observations on the Core Countries

   So, after we established last time that Khador is not the most rail-roaded faction with regards to listbuilding (that's Trollbloods), we'll do sth more sophisticated this time around. We'll arbitrarily group the participating countries into three categories, to make it a) easier to choose whom to bet money on, and b) observe the choices made by the more successful teams regarding list pairings, team composition and other drivel.

   Follow me beyond the gap to the shenanigans, and hopefully, interesting graphics.

Khador 2015, Part 13 - WTC Khador lists

... a semi-outsiders totally unbiased and omniscient observations. As if.

You know, there's something good to be said about me having done this last year - I have something to compare to. It's like getting the second result of an experiment under lab conditions! So, to reiterate:

Keeping that in mind - I think there are too many people playing Khador for that to be a valid statement (thirty, to be precise). I'll judge the list by the following colour chart - and a number of KMIs (key model indicators) that'll reveal itself throughout the essay), and give my reasoning later.

Really Boring
Very Boring
Boring
Kinda Interesting
Interesting
Very Interesting

   That's professional, objective research right there! But since I'm the scientist, I set the parameters by which the data is analysed - so let's bring it on!

For safety reasons: I'm not judging the lists to be "done well" or "done badly", I'm merely going by how much reading the lists makes me want to see it played.

In addition, we'll compare observations made between last year and this year (and if I can manage, 2013), as to make some purely theorymachinical (that's a word if there ever was one) predictions.

Khador 2015, Part 12 - Lady eZ and Vengeance

I'm not bored. I just can't summon the energy to do a showdown between Conquest and Victor like I did between Rager and Vanguard. So I'll go down the "easy" road, and talk about Lady Z some more - especially, her in the context of the Vengeance releases.

The theory behind this is that she originally has been developed together with those releases, and later switched places with Butcher3, so there may some surprising synergy there.

Follow this link if you want to read OrsusSmash's view on Butcher3&Reckoning: SticksandDice
Follow me beyond the break to analyse Lady eZ and Grolar/Outriders/IFK/Malakov/TAC!

Khador 2015, Part 11 - Shieldguard Showdown!

With Reckoning came the Rager, an in-faction heavy with Shieldguard. He strode into the army - his army, his own god-given faction - and found his place contested.

By a miserable french llaelese light to boot!

Of course, this could not stand. Follow me beyond the break, where I compare the Rager to the Vanguard in context of the Khadoran army and Hunting Wolves in particular.

FIGHT!

Khador 2015, Part 10 - Lady E-to-the-m*****f***ing-Z

Third day of Lock & Load, third article in the series "Stuff Khadorans get for Christmas". As before, I'll only cover a single type of item per article to keep it clean, and this has thusly resulted in these three:

• Victor revisited
• Berserkers in Arms
• Lady E-to-the-m*****f***ing-Z

So join me as we look at the spoiled Zerkova2, do a little silly comparison to her first self, evaluate that, think about shit she can get done, her theme force as well as other lists and "drop targets" for her.

Khador 2015, Part 09 - Berserkers in Arms

Lock and Load (as well as L&L Outposts) are still going, so I keep going with looking at and overthinking what was spoiled - for my faction. This will eventually end in three articles:

- Victor revisited
- Berserkers in Arms
- Lady E-to-the-m*****f***ing-Z

If you join me beyond the break, we'll talk about disappointments, surprises, and potential of both the Rager and the Mad Dog.

Khador 2015, Part 08 - Victor revisited

Courtesy of L&L, everyone on the social media now has access to all the content of Reckoning (you can read that as kind of a criticism, I guess. 'Tis okay).

Since I'm not insane (quite yet. *cackle*), I will not deal with all of it in one go. Instead, we'll kinda split this up into three parts:

• Viktor Revisited
• Berserkers in Arms
• Lady e-to-the-m*****f****ing-Z

So, join me beyond the break for a comparison of my Viktor predictions with the actual crunch!

Khador 2015 Part 07 - Zerkova World Domination Tour, Initial Circle thoughts

Last thursday I got two games in (the first in roughly a year), and one of those actually was a ZWDT game - the other was only 35pts, so didn't count. The big game was against Morvahna1 with a Sacral Vault (with Robin M, Champion of SmogCon, at the helm), the small one was against Krüger2 (pardon the German spelling, can't help it).

Follow me beyond the break for lists, thoughts, and further considerations regarding Circle.

Khador 2015, Part 06 - Steam & Steel

Subtitle: Charge of the Lulzlords.

So, digital subscribers to NQ got to spoil a new theme force for Vladimir, the Dark Champion. It's called Steam & Steel, and it's about Man-o-War. If that means you can't hold your excitement any longer, follow me beyond the break. I'll go into the meat of the theme force, it's benefits, general list ideas, and it's problems.

Khador 2015, Part 05 - Strakhov in ADR

So, on the last Murder of Crows (found here), Lee and Niek talked about the second half of the Khadoran ADR roster. Having spoken about Butcher and Zerkova before, this time it was Harkevich's and Strakhov's turn, so, basically, the bottom of the ADR, and the two 'Casters that will most likely remain in the roster for a time.

Ignoring the f***ing disgrace that Harkevich is to the Motherland [that's how I feel, at the time of this writing], and because I also spoke about Harkevich's ADR options before, I have to say that I quite liked their Strakhov list. Follow me beyond the breach if you want to hear my thoughts on the matter.

Khador 2015, Part 04 - Whispering Occult Secrets

So, on Murder of Crows Ep 9 we got all giddy about Zerkova2 (man, that still feels strange to type) possibly having Spell Piercer... ...and a day later, there's a spoiler from the Riven Bonds league, showing us this:

It's nowhere near the greatness that would've been Spell Piercer (which still is up in the air), but it IS good. Follow me beyond the break to preliminary list considerations based on this spell alone.

State of Blues 01 - After the Stormwall...

...comes the Hurricane?

Like Marth, I was kinda underwhelmed by the revelation (ba-dum-dish) of the second wave of colossals hitting us before the next Prime. Sure, the first wave had already subsided and left a sour taste in some faction's mouth's, but there should have been at least another year before bringing them up.

Khador 2015, Part 03 - To the Victor, the spoils...

...and to the rest, death!

Before you read this article, I highly suggest you go and watch this:
TempleCon Keynote Excerpt

Otherwise, you may consider me nuts when going on beyond the break. Short spoilers: We now can light the Sea Witch on Fire, and that'll be glorious whenever it happens.