Hakuna Matata, Bitch!

I just had a very eventful weekend; got to spend it with my old school buds and hobby buds at the same time, too.

Got to play WARMACHINE using the Butcher of Khardov last Saturday at Hobby Haven -- won against Tiny's Captain Victoria Haley and Ronald's Master Tormentor Morghoul. And, man, was the Butcher awesome! On the feat turn, he downed the Thunderhead with two swings in one turn! On a separate feat turn, he dropped a Titan Cannonner in three swings!

My old buds also brought me to several night places (not THOSE places though) - Blue Ginger along Retiro and HP along Araneta. Good times! My shirt smelled like godawful cigarette smoke but it's all good!

Got five stars on Thunder Kiss `65 on Guitar Hero, too! Woohoo! And my fingers don't hurt as much with the bloody blue button. Still no HARD levels, just NORMALs. Got a new favorite song, too - The Light That Blinds! *insert loud rocker growl here*

Got to watch Talladega Nights the following day on a PizzaHut lunch, too!

Updated rankings here. Will update Khador Empire within the week. And maybe try to get some creative juices pumping for CCPH.

Fury of Dracula + Foodtrip

I commission-painted some models for Howl of Tabletop Wars. It's good to see that they enjoyed my work. I hope I can get to play this game or even attend an AEGIS Open Meet sometime soon. ^_^

+++

Had dinner with Jake, Pork and Arvin at a Chinese restaurant somewhere in Timog. They were cool enough to park at the 711 near here and drive me back afterwards.

Talks about the imposed time limit rule for our WARMACHINE and HORDES games and disdainful reactions to the rumors about the changes in the 40K Chaos Space Marines. Arvin's also going to cook up a feast for tomorrow at da Shak, as celebration for Garr's birthday ("Arvin, bring food. I'll pay. So even if I won't be there, the boyz'll have grub.").

Man In The Machine

It's a rarity that Chicco Cuema Quema breaks out his Khador to play a game against us whenever we play at Hobby Haven. But there was one day that he honored me a game to go up against his 4-model Karchev list.

I've never seen that wargroup in action. It's either I wasn't present when he did play, or I was already playing a game at the same time. Basically, all that I knew of Karchev is from what I've read and from the bits I picked up when he was being discussed. And basically, as I still do not own a Karchev model at current time, I don't get to read him as I do the other warcasters.

At first blush, you'd see three warjacks on a list as godawfully slow. With my usual play, it's Vlad's Forced March or Irusk's Superiority that breaks the usual Khadoran-warjacks-are-slower-than-molasses mold. My God, Karchev warjacks are bloody maneuverable and gets in your face insanely fast.

I was using Butcher that time we gamed. Giving me first turn, I rushed up my whole force, throwing all caution to the wind and hoping I could weather the Behemoth's bombards. I got served straight up with a classic Turbine Tow powerslide. I can't recall specifically but I remember that between those three warjacks, a big chunk of my force was obliterated on just that powerslide turn.

I did win that game, I think by some funky Greylord move and finishing up with a massive Butcher charge on Karchev's rear arc with full FOC. But it made me want to own a Karchev, too.

As I'm still saving for some more Khadoran stuff, I took a try at using Karchev on a separate occasion. I faced off against Jake that time, and he used Darius. Naturally, I made many mistakes on that game. But I was enlightened with the use of headlocks and armlocks ^_^

Chicco's approach, as he was spectator to the game, was different from mine. He likes to use Karchev's spells for the finishing moves. I, on the other hand, preferred a more direct approach, using FOC for boosts or extra attacks (in Karchev's case, extra attacks). Knocking down a target via Iron Curtain and Karchev auto-hitting with his high-damage axe was my ideal game play. I did win that game, but can't remember much details, too (this one was unrecorded since there was only that game played that day).

If I were to get Karchev, I'd have to get another Kodiak as well. Fast-moving all-terrain Iron Curtain Kodiaks. But I guess that can wait.

+++

Reassembled my broken MOW Kovnik and put some more paint on one MOWDC Demolisher. Had to juryrig a paperclip for the Kovnik's flag pole. Gotta love Greco adhesive ^_^

Rock

Played another Weekday Warrior session last night. Dick and Tiny made an appearance. Dick played two WMH games against Obi's Nemo using Vlad and Irusk (Obi's first brush versus the Khadoran kommandant). There was an instance where Obi failed to kill Dick's Drakhun, and another where it looked like the Hot Gates scene from 300. Obi seems to be flipping tactics against Khador and at the same time getting more familiar with his Cygnar.

I played the starter warpack Trollbloods, while Tiny used Romy's starter Protectorate of Menoth. Evidently Tiny has been reading up on playing WMH before joining us last night. He still knew how to allocate focus and many of the basic moves for the game. I got him with the surviving Impaler's Critical Slam on Kreoss. Then Madrak stepped up with a damage-boosted thrown axe on the knocked-down Menite FTW ^_^

+++

Spent the morning painting some more MOWDC before joining up with Kei. We were at his place in Fairview and played Guitar Hero 1 and 2 on PS2 the whole afternoon. Yeah, I'm getting one for myself, too LOL! Got to play music and not by just hitting any "play" button. I loved the game so much, I'm hunting the MP3s for Lynrd Skynrd's Freebird and White Zombie's Thunder Kiss `65! I was pretty happy with how I turned out on the game. Sat a lot though, couldn't play well standing up. Maybe on some more practice.

Mando and Tiny arrived later on. We played some more Guitar Hero and introduced Mando to the World of Warcraft board game after. Kei teamed up with Mando as the Hordes faction, while me and Tiny were Alliance. We won the game, toughing it up against Lord Kazzak, luckily revealing the overlord on one of the random counters.

Level 4 then going boss hunting is good. Level 5 and THEN boss hunting should be better.

+++

Need to paint some more. Must finish a fully-painted 500 points of Khador for the upcoming Scarella challenge ^_^

Thursday, 4/19/2007

- Rina's birthay ^_^ Olive's birthday ^_^
- YM with Luigi, declared 500-point challenge (prize is a box of Doom Reavers, free if I win, niiice)
- Updated my Khador Empire blog.
- Weekday Warrior session later at Makati, drop by Fortress to fetch Arvin and ask about Pyre Troll and Fellcaller.
- Barby goes back to Batangas, discussed ways to further business venture.
- Played Company of Heroes on Angela's PC, infantry FTW!
- Bloghopping in lurkmode LOL

Page 5 FTW

We've recently implemented gaming our WARMACHINE and HORDES with the default time limits, 45 minutes for 300-point games and 60 minutes for 500-point games. So far, I've done pretty well with more Page 5 in the bloodstream. Very little convenience of time for baiting tactics.

I've played a lot of starter box action with the Trollbloods warpack. I haven't lost as of current writing so I have done well using Chief Madrak Ironhide, a pair of Impalers and an Axer. I must say, HORDES as a whole is frightening with their damage-dealing potential. I've always heard and read about it, now I have solid proof of it.

I've also played 500 points using the Old Witch of Khador. This one was against Obi's Commander Adept Sebastian Nemo. As expected, Obi was a lot sharper this time around, using terrain and fellow models to screen his warcaster. With a streak of luck, my Manhunter managed to tie up his Stormclad for two full turns, the Cygnaran warjack missing all melee attacks horribly. I also pumped out Page 5 here full force, giving up my Man-O-War Demolition Corps and Widowmakers to position my forces better and draw his forces in even more.

One of the more funky moves I liked was casting Slaughter on the Scrapjack inside Gorman's smokes, casting Murder of Crows in the center of Obi's expensive Stormblade unit, using Unseen Path and `porting the Scrapjack right smack in there. The remaining Stormblades was deftly put down.

The best move in that game by far is more serendipitous than actually planned. I was supposed to activate Gorman first, and flinging Rust towards the Stormclad so that the Manhunter can dismantle more metal from the `jack. Instead, I was left with a yet-to-activate Gorman and the Old Witch. Nemo can be charged by the remaining Demolishers but then again, it'd be way more rewarding if the Old Witch can kill Nemo instead.

And so it hit me.

I activated Gorman first so that he can put the Old Witch in a cloud with Smoke Bomb. Then activating the Witch, I used Unseen Path and displaced her from inside the cloud and reappear inside the upkept Murder of Crows very near Nemo. I then declared her to charge and the rest was history.

I also got to play Rogue Trooper at da Shak after all that WMH action. It was one of GW's (if not THE first) oldest boardgames. It took us to 2am but it was fun. Playing boardgames is different from the usual CCGs and miniwargaming, and the change was refreshing.

Escalation

• Developed a new blog, Khador Empire. I'll be posting narratives of my WMH (WARMACHINE/HORDES) games there from now on.
• Updated the ranking for the RHGC blog.
• Developed Flash maps and family trees on Eleksyon 2007.
• Downpayment for Ian Kuneho's Necron army. I can now play with a Lord on a Destroyer, more Warriors and two Monoliths.
• Started on some Hawk Turquoise on Trollblood Impaler.
• Finished painting Iron Fang Pikeman Sergeant. Ready for gluing grass and snow on base.
• Bought another carrying case for WMH. It now fits the Lito foam.
• Stopped playing Suikoden 3 on PS2. Started playing Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army instead.
• Looking for new strategy games for GBA.

Thirty-One

Another year. Looking back, being thirty was very fruitful for me - PWA Best Media, better painting, better gaming, just a lot more good things over bad things. More work, should be updating a lot of stuff this coming Holy Week.

+++

• Some people called, some texted - greeting me; too bad my phone's battery died so I wouldn't have known if anyone else tried to greet afterwards
• Fetched my laundry and paid some bills
• Met with Arvin at Fortress; proceeded to a grocery and bought ingredients for spaghetti
• Spagfest at da Shak! (*Will look at da Log to see who was there that time)
• Played against Pork's Ashlynn D'Elysse and won!
• Went home and got sick the day after (whoopiefuckendoo)