Weekend Gaming Fun

My best weekend to date started off very early in the morning in the office. The boys were running a DOTA session and I happily joined in. To my surprise, they were running on random characters then. I usually play Traxex, a drow ranger with a bow that shoots freezing arrows.

My first game, I had the female elf on the white tiger with a multi-blade glaive. I got some kills in and was pretty much a "bonus stage" player throughout the whole game. I kept dying early in the game because I haven't really played that much DOTA. So I went on with my usual recipe, gatting a small amount of life-gain for my attacks due to an item you can build. I survived and instead of taking on hero-killings, I opted for breaking enemy towers and having our creeps wave on through. Despite that, I ranked #3 on the end results. Not bad for bonus stage hehe.

The second game, I played some strange creature named Darkterror. It was a blue thing with an octopus for a head, or that's the best I can make out of it. This one also sucked at hero-killing. But I kept playing for the heck of it and landed #3 again on the end results. Again, for someone who hasn't been playing DOTA as much as these guys have, #3 isn't bad.

Onto UPCFA for some WARMACHINE action (and yeah, from now on, I'm going to type in WARMACHINE in all caps, because from the article right here, it says "WARMACHINE, a game that rocks so much it has to be written in uppercase!" LOL!) Not much WM players present but it was still a good session.

I playtested my 5-model Trollblood wargroup against Pork and his Ashlynn-led Mercenaries on 500 points worth of Pendulum. The DTMs (Dire Troll Maulers) proved extremely resilient against Pork's offensive, making the trip to come up close and personal even more advantageous for me. Ashlynn was brought down by a Fortune-casted DTM, pounding her with a boosted P+S19 hit. Looks like I'll be assembling and buying DTMs after all LOL!

My second WARMACHINE game was even more memorable. I played Epic Vlad against Fred and a jack-heavy Asphyxious. The scenario was also Pendulum, but when I assassinated his warcaster on the first turn and sent 3 helljacks and 2 bonejacks inert, the game was pretty much mine already. First turn kill, baby. Doesn't get any better than that.

Afterwards, Pork, Jake and Ian even offered to take me to Alvin's place. Saved me some commuting time, too.

Played some Dungeoneer at Alvin's place with Kei and Tiny. Then it was a Forgotten Realms RPG session with Tiny as DM. I dunno. I didn't feel like DMing. I wanted to play instead.

I named my character Marik. He's a Human Male, True Neutral, Cleric with no specific aligned deity. I plan to take on Wizard later on, so down the road, I can be a True Necromancer. I made my background fluff so that he'd be from some undead-infested place in the Realms. Daggerdale suited him pretty well. Then I wanted him to be traumatized, so that he'll take on a personal quest to fight undead. But his beliefs and principles push him to use necromancy to fight the evil caused by necromancy. Tiny was pretty generous to my character, despite the two 18's I rolled (INT and WIS of course). I got a tiny black dragon as familiar, and some weird evil thing that wrapped itself around my body and acted as second skin. Apparently, that was to be my spellbook.

At the end of the session, it turned out that those items were indeed cursed/damned. Bane, the god of murder in the realms did that to us. So of course, we'll be facing off a lot of Bane-aligned enemies down the road. Time to read up and plan out my character then hehe.

And on Sunday, I bought me a brand new 21" flat screen JVC. Got me a new TV na woohoo! TV and an extremely long amount of quality time. Yeah life is good ^_^

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From April's Coffee Cups:

1. one book that changed your life?
Sun Tzu's Art of War. Made me paranoid though, but better that than having myself caught with my pants down.

2. one book you have read more than once?
Da Vinci Code. I don't read much but if I should, I should be reading up more on the WM rulebooks.

3. one book you would want on a desert island?
Several volumes of wilderness survival. I'll keep one for reading and use the rest for fire.

4. one book that made you cry?
I'll post it here if that ever occurs LOL!

5. one book that made you laugh?
Pol Medina's Pugad Baboy series. Yeah it has pictures, so what?

6. one book you wish had been written?/one book you wish you had written?
I dunno. I'd read books but I guess I'm not one to aspire writing a literary masterpiece.

7. one book you wish had never been written?
This one got me, too. I don't actively seek out to read books anymore. I stuff up my head with lots other stuff (not only from online reading but also with some books at hand as well).

8. one book you are currently reading?
I'm already flipping through WM PRIME, ESCALATION, APOTHEOSIS, HORDES and lotsa other D&D books now.

9. one book you have been meaning to read?
Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master Guide 3.5. Cover to cover. Then the PHB 3.5 and the Monster Manuals.

Well, I'm no bookworm in the right sense of the word. Although I do read, albeit selectively. So since I was tagge by reading her entry, you're tagged, too. Copy/paste said questions and answer them on your blog.

Mauvais rêve

"He was a thin man, father," the boy said, "I don't know but I didn't like him. He's a bad man, father."

The boy went on describing the intruder. A thin man. A gaunt man. Looked like he played in the sand. Soft spoken. Tired eyes. Box cutter in his pocket.

It was one of those feelings when you know the person's gonna do something bad. And he did.

It was stupid though. Should've done something about it. Instead of being fearstruck.

Trollbloods at the Fortress +

Got some WM/H (Warmachine/Hordes) gaming in yesterday and tried out my Hordes wargroup. I had Hoarluk but proxied the four Maulers with warjacks (Look, I got a Dire Troll Mauler Destroyer, a Dire Troll Mauler Devastator, a Dire Troll Mauler Juggernaut and a Dire Troll Mauler Kodiak LOL!).

"Hey, Arv, I got fewer models than your Khador."

Arvin's Khador is infamous for high ARM, severely high damage output and funky movement (such is a feat for Khador). I had to bring down key elements in his wargroup, namely the Juggernaut and his warcaster, the Butcher.

In our game, he rushed in a Devastator in the midst of the Trollbloods wargroup. It was prompty thrown towards the nearby Khadoran Juggernaut by a Dire Troll Mauler with its big meaty fists. The Juggernaut was easily disassembled by another Mauler as it was knocked down by the thrown Devastator.

Another tactic that messed up Arvin's plans was when I casted Vexation on the closest Devastator. I knew Arv was going for the kill, dropping Butcher's Blood Frenzy feat then engaging Hoarluk in base contact with the Dev and opening up with 3d6 POW 18 worth of pain on my warlock. Of course I didn't let that happen. With Vexation on the Dev, I made it activate first. It can still engage my warlock and drop its ROD, but not with Butcher's feat on it hehe.

Victory for Hoarluk of 500 points on Killing Fields scenario.

"OMG, lookit all those guns!"

Emp's Cygnar was geared precisely to put a beat down on a slow-moving, low number model count wargroup like mine. Lots of Long Gunners. 6 inches of Snipe. Double-tapping with +2 for aiming. Gun Mages with pushback capability. I knew I was in a fix for this but I took on the challenge. Yeah, I was basically screwed LOL!

I took to one side of the table, which was a mistake. I should have spread out my forces more. I thought I could make a considerable advance, using the Maulers as a living and moving shield for Hoarluk.

In the end, all Maulers were shot down, and Hoarluk all by himself couldn't prevent Caine from taking Control Points on the scenario.

Loss for Hoarluk of 500 points on Pendulum scenario.

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Games were fun, although it might be my last as sked's gonna change again. I guess I can play on workdays after 5pm. Ah well.

+++ Friday and Saturday

Went home around 4pm to dress up for Dillian's party. Rina was supposed to pick me up near GMA since Congo Grill was near the area from there. It was terribly great. I suddenlt felt envious of Rina's BF. Touch hints. Flipping crazy, man. If she's like that, it makes me wonder why all those idiots quit. Stupid. Blissful ignorance anyone?

Christmas Wishlist

BER months officially underway, and Christmas not too far away. I'm now accepting Christmas presents as early as September so don't be shy and send, send, send!

[ ] Greylords Ternion (price range: P750-P800, type: miniatures in blister, location: Fortress, Greenhills)

[ ] Spindle of blank Imation CDs (price range: P700, type: blank CDs for burning files and stuff, location: Any CDR-King branch or outlet)

[ ] Kommander Karchev (price range: P2000, type: miniature in box, location: not yet for sale in Fortress, maybe online)

[ ] Slipknot CD (not bootleg) (price range: P500, type: music/audio CD, location: Any of the good music bars)

[ ] Asia Agcaoili's Sex Guru DVD (price range: P500, type: semi-educational DVD, location: Any of the good music bars)

[ ] Chestnut Ink (price range: P250, type: ink for painting miniatures, location: Neutral Grounds)

More to come (most probably I'm gonna buy these for myself anyway ^_^)

Welcome To Our Neighborhood

I got ripped off of P60. I was in Baclaran last night and stumbled on a whole street filled with bootleg DVDs. Since my TV's still broken and unreplaced, I couldn't watch any of those I might've bought then. I saw the Slipknot Welcome To Our Neighborhood DVD cover and immediately got it. The dude even wanted to fast-hand P5 of change. Un-frickin-believable! And bloody worse, when I got to the office to view it, it turned out to be an Avril Lavigne concert. OMFGWTF!

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Painting some Knights Exemplar

The old office Nikon + Dulce's Date

Connie was kind enough to lend it to me, so I tried my hand at it with stuff at home:

A Man-O-War Demolition Corps (MOWDC) Kapitan. Black basecoat by Semco. Face colors used also by Semco (just mixed the right stuff to get the flesh color). I'm out to prove a point with this one.



My messy workdesk and room. Something I've gotta clean up before my brothers come late this year.


Hoarluk Doomshaper, a Trollblood warlock. I tried painting him using flesh colors, but it seems I should paint him green instead...

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I've been reading Dulce's very interesting incident on her blog. It seems that Mr. Usher finally spoke up (in his defense heh). IMHO, who in his right mind would pass off a crappy iPod for a limited edition one that he lost?!? WTF? Read more here.

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750 points

I've been mulling around the idea of playing 750 points for quite some time now. The result is lots and lots of lists. And I'm enjoying painting my miniatures so I just hope it'll all come together soon (and hopefully finish Les' Menoth, too).

IRUSK - Kommandant Irusk, Destroyer, Spriggan, Greylord Ternion, Iron Fang Pikemen, Man-O-War Demolition Corps (+2 Demolishers), Widowmakers, Winterguard Mortar Crew (x2), Man-O-War Kovnik, Manhunter, Eiryss, Gorman (Still got 10 points free on this one, and you can actually swap Irusk for Sorscha or Vlad).

Let's see if I can make one for epic Vlad or epic Sorscha, too ^_^

Unranked

One of the more memorable games I had that wasn't included in the WMPH ranking was due to the lack of players gaming at that time (we kinda put a requirement that in order to be ranked, there must be at least four players gaming at the same time).

I played an Irusk wargroup against Arvin's Butcher wargroup. Now, we all know how Arvin delivers a shitload of damage when Butcher calls up his Blood Frenzy feat. Couple that with the autohit Rain of Death from a pair of Devastators and you know you're in for a world of pain.

Irusk, on the other hand, has an annoying feat called Undying Loyalty. Any friendly Khadoran warrior model that dies within 14" of the Kommandant gets to stand up and fight again on a roll of 4, 5 or 6 on a D6. The +2 on all attack rolls and Fearless for one round is just added gravy for me when facing Arvin's wargroup.

At a crucial point in a Killing Fields scenario at Fortress, I held up Arvin's warjacks with my MOWDC and popped Irusk's Undying Loyalty. Arvin responded with dropping Blood Frenzy the following turn and opened up his onslaught. For those who do know, 3D6 on POW18 is not bloody amusing.

When one of his Devastators opened up, I think one or two of my MOWDC suffered horrendous damage to send them to the next life (or next game whatever). I rolled for one MOWDC for Undying Loyalty. I succeeded. Nice.

Then came a Driven Juggernaut, bringing down its massive Ice Axe on the surviving MOWDC. Evidently, I needed to roll for Undying Loyalty again. And again I succeeded on THAT MOWDC! Whoyeah!

But the Juggernaut wasn't finished. It still had an open fist to attack the undying MOWDC. Arvin made his rolls and again the loyal MOWDC was brought down. Again I had to roll for Undying Loyalty. And once more, I succeeded! YEAH!

Odds are I shouldn't have made the rolls by this time. And there I was, picking up dice and tossing them back on the table without as much as some funky gimmick or superstition that some players do. So, with the Drive ability on, the Juggernaut was able to attempt another Ice Axe attack. Again, Arvin made his rolls. Again the patriotic MOWDC bit into the ground. And again, I was made to roll for Undying Loyalty. And again, the roll defied the odds and succeeded. Man both of us were flipping!

Arvin decided enough was enough. He moved the other Devastator into Rain of Death position and opened shell. The hardy MOWDC was too far out, and would only get POW 9 but still on 3D6. Expectedly, the damage was far too much to bear, and again the MOWDC Demolisher fell for a fifth time. And as if a divine light was shining on him, again I succeeded my Undying Loyalty roll for him! WAHAHAHAHAHAH!!! Insane I tell you!

On the following turn, that Demolisher was hit by a far off ROD attack again, but the damage Arvin rolled wasn't enough to bring him down.

I won that game, holding on several Control Points. That MOWDC Demolisher survived the entire time. Truly unbelievable!

By my own wargroup's storyline, he should be promoted to Kovnik. And since I'm getting a Drakhun, he'll be that Drakhun ^_^ Is there such a thing as a Drakhun Kovnik?

I don't know what to name him though. Arvin should give him a nice Khadoran name ^_^

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Pics of my stuff, courtesy of Fred Escalona.