WIP 20071022

Just some works in progress. I evidently failed on my last weekly target and finished my IK Alexia instead (plus assembling the Risen and Thrall Warrior). Right now I'm contemplating on painting some more of Kei's and Les' stuff (maybe that other Fell Caller and Kaya).

Call To Arms
I got owned by Doclance's epic Deneghra last Saturday. LOL I'm not gonna make any excuses. I got caught. I'll try better next time. I only got to play against two guys last league Saturday. I hope I can get more games in this week ^_^

Mang's Website
Already laid down the foundations for this one. I hope he takes time off to email me his logo though. Can't proceed well without it since it will dictate the general look and feel of everything on the site. He's still hyped with WMH gaming though. Maybe after CTA, hehe.

Alone
My brother, Koi, will be leaving for Australia this evening. As if mom and Babee and Jei leaving wasn't sad enough. I'll be home alone again. Koi's Alone (scary Asian horror) won't help, too. Maybe they'll come back for a visit on Christmas?

Dawn of War
Zero 40K presence these past few days. My Necrons are getting all dusty on the shelves. Crap. Looks like playing the Dawn of War campaign will be my fix for any 40K action.

Shameless Plug
Christmas is just around the corner. And here I am with no side projects. Referrals would be cool, dude. I need the extra cash T_T

Call To Arms

In addition to the current Escalation campaign, I am also participating in the Warmachine/Hordes Call To Arms league.

Escalation (Pod 2)

Throat Cutter
Opponent: Jeff's epic Stryker
Result: Victory for Kommander Sorscha

Within the Dark Soil
Opponent: Fred's Asphyxious
Result: Victory for epic Vlad

Awaiting schedule matchup vs Mang's Protectorate of Menoth


Call To Arms

WEEK ONE

Finished Matches
10.12.2007 - Patrick Palma (W), Mike (L), Joel Tiongson (W)
10.13.2007 - Tiny David (W), Cocoy Reyes (W), Ryan Tamayo(W)
10.15.2007 - Arvin Tan (W)

Scheduled Upcoming Matches
10.17.2007 - Mang, Kei Valentin

Unavailable Matches
Laurence Tan

Awaiting Confirmation
Dick Sy, Fluffy Peña, Obi Parcon, Raymund Tesoro
"Any of you guys available to play at Pitshop this week, I'm available for CTA league games so long as it's after office hours."


Weekly Painting Target: Time to show my Khador that I haven't left them unpainted ~ Greylord Ternion, Kell Bailoch, finishes on epic Vlad and Widowmakers

Weekend Fun Games

Very slow day with very uncomfortable weather. And I still haven't had my laundry done. Was waiting for Fred so we can play our Escalation campaign match, but later in the day he decided to reschedule.

The guys decided to drop by Hobby Haven on the 12th (hopefully they'll still be open by then) for some farewell matches - as sadly, Chicco confirmed that his shop will close by the 15th.

SO since I'm already paid for both the Escalation campaign and the Call To Arms campaign, I just hope my sked would cooperate and let me play.


Here are the results for the games at home (relaxed time limit rules in play):

Game 1
Tiny's Captain E. Dominic Darius victorious over Les' Kaya Wildbourne via victory points in 500 pts Moshpit
- Tiny tries out Darius as warcaster
- Les' big game gamble did not pay off, as he miscalculated distance
- Les' Totem Hunter made its first ever warjack kill (killed one of Darius mini-mine jacks)
- Tiny sees a lot of exploit points in Darius' spells

Game 2
Joel's Warwitch Deneghra victorious over Kei's Grim Angus via forfeit in 500 pts Killing Fields
- Kei tries out Grim Angus as warlock, using a shoot-heavy list
- Kei curses the knockdown effect of Deneghra's Scourge

Game 3
Joel's Warwitch Deneghra victorious over Kim's Hoarluk Doomshaper via forfeit in 500 pts Divide and Conquer
- Kim tries out playing Trollbloods after months of playing just Khador
- Kim clunkered through terrain where Joel took full advantage of his Cryx debuffs

Game 4
Kim's Dark Champion Vlad Tzepesci victorious over Kei's Chief Madrak Ironhide via assassination in 750 pts Divide and Conquer
- Kei surges forward, denying the Khadoran infantry charge
- Kim preps Wind Blast and Blood Legacy on some Doom Reavers and Drakhun FTW!

SIDEBAR: It's nice when your work is recognized. I scanned this off of one of the local journalism publications. Good thing I put my name there on the bottom of the screen LOL. Makes working more enjoyable ^_^

BER Months

What the hell have I been doing all this time?!?

- Angela celebrates her birthday today!
- My sister gave birth to a healthy baby girl! (Mama: Dapat ikaw may baby na rin diba?)
- My folks are here from Australia; my Mom, Koi, Jei and Babee
- GMANews.TV nominated as semifinalist on the 10th Philippine Webby Awards!
- Koi bought me two boxes of the GW Woods. Put together one set for immediate home use. Set aside the other for Arvination.
- Les hoards more Menoth and Circle stuff at home. Very little progress since the folks are at home (dislike spraybomb fumes)
- Small farm partnership biz in Batangas already green light
- Organized backup CDs at work
- Pork gets Mando's LOE assembly done in record speed!
- Lito's RHGC forum closing down soon. Already setup another forum for community use.
- Hobby Haven will also close down soon T_T
- Koi brings home his heavy duty arcade controller for the PS2! Jun! Laro raw kayo ni Kei ng SF Alpha 3! LOL!
- Guitar Hero madness at home! My brothers got into NORMAL mode faster than I did! Babee also on NORMAL now! Don't worry, Kei, your guitar controller isn't broken. Much. LOL~!
- Koi and Jei let me borrow their Cybershot digicam! Woohoo! More pics soon!
- Mang to hold Call to Arms WMH campaign on the 20th! No time limit guys! But you go high up the ladder the more games you play! Coins on the line, too!
- Playing in Mang's Escalation campaign Pod 2! Won my first campaign game a few days ago vs Jeff's Cygnar!
- Raf came and got me some "Japanese entertainment!" Kamote, hindi man lang tayo nagkita, nagninjavanish ka na!
- Got to go to Trinoma for the first time!
- Got to watch Rogue Assassin at Trinoma theaters! It was a stupid experience. Just justified why Pinoys SHOULD by pirated DVDs instead!
- Jun got me some Dawn of War installers! Just installed the first one and playing through the campaign now.
- Connie got to have my Maxim mag signed by Francine Prieto ^_^
- Found the quested Battlechasers and Shanna CBR files on my computer! At long bloody last!
- DVDs watched: Conspiracy, Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix, Eye 10, LSATSB, Ace Ventura, Ace Ventura When Nature Calls
- Doing a lot of progress on the Kingdom of Loathing bounty hunter outfit run (if you call 9 filthy lucre progress); will ascend as soon as I complete the bloody outfit!

Still very sluggish updating the rest of my sections here.

Blogging Hiatus

No updates. Still fiddling around with that PHP for the ranking. Enjoying painting and modeling more than playing. Got to play Hard-level songs in Guitar Hero. My cavy's are both dead.

Live chat with Francine Prieto and Maureen Larrazabal tomorrow. It's Francine so there.

Be back whenever.

RIP Mark "JC" Lim

Yeah, we'll see you when we cross the fold, too, dude. You'll be very much remembered.

The best memories I have with this guy is his non-sugar-coated sharp-witted snaps. Everyone knows his own flavor of articulate remarks.

I've only played against him twice in the sporadic moments that he does play. It was both in 40K, his Grey Knights against my Necrons. Yeh I got owned both times LOL. Looks like our rematch will be later on, my friend.

The Game

The WARMACHINE/HORDES (WMH) momentum has picked up in the past few months here in the Philippines. I am indeed glad and proud to be one of the pioneers of the game in this country, but as with any gaming community that's growing, disagreements of varying degrees appear. As if fighting make-believe battles weren't enough. Luckily, said disagreements are very minor.

As I've observed, there are players who prefer laid-back casual gaming, and there are those who prefer tournament-style competitive gaming. The "disagreement" occurs when tourney players insist that the more casual gamers follow the tourney standard; or when casual players drag out the time during their turns in a game (something that tourney players value). Some players stay away from the stressful timed turns in tourney gaming. Some players dislike the scenarios laid out in the rulebooks or the official Steamroller format. Some dislike playing against opponents with unpainted models. But all of these are familiar issues from any miniature wargame.

Don't get me wrong. The said disagreements are not full-blown fights. Some players just do not play against other certain players because of contradicting standards. But for me who can play casual or competitive, that is something I really have a concern for.

Time Limits

Officially printed in WARMACHINE Prime Remix, it says there that 500-point games have a 1-hour time limit (an hour and a half for 750 games, goes for both WARMACHINE and HORDES). In Mang's current tourney setting, 500-point games dictate a 7-minute limit per player turn. In more casual settings, some games last for three hours even for just 500 points in playing an assassination run or objective win.

I do know some players who refuse to play tournaments even before the 7-minute/turn concept. I do know some players who take at least a minimum of 15 minutes even before activating his first model.

In tournament formats, players can always choose to join a tourney or not. But in a casual format, crossing the boundary between standards can be tricky. A player who trained himself to complete everything his army can dish out in 7 minutes will have his patience stretched if he's fighting a casual player. Alternately, a casual player will have fits if a tourney player is prodding him unceasingly to hurry up and finish in just a few minutes.

My suggested solution for casual games: Mutually agree with your opponent whether or not you are playing with time limits before bringing out your models. If your opponent doesn't agree with your suggested time limit, make some sort of compromise. If in total disagreement, just go look for another opponent and respect your opponent's choice.

When playing at my place: I will have a sports timer there so I strongly suggest (if not enforce) an additional 30 minutes over the time limit in the book (1 hour 30 mins for 500-point games, 2 hours for 750-point games).

Additionally, a player should limit his turn to a maximum of 15 minutes. If models are not activated during the end of the time limit, they are considered to have activated but have done nothing (no movement, no action). If a player is resolving a model or unit's activation at the time the limit is called, he should resolve the model/unit's activation and end his turn immediately afterwards.

These resolutions for time limits are the most fair I can come up with for casual gaming.

My suggested solution for tournament gaming:As for tournament gaming, organizers will always have final say in how they run tourneys.

I do suggest a timer for each table, but that would be costly to the organizer. Proactive minutes for players would be more fair, i.e. if it only took you 2 minutes to finish your first turn, your second turn should have 12 minutes, and so on. Maybe later on we can have something like this.

Scenarios/Missions

As many of us have our roots in miniature wargaming from Games Workshop's Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000, it is normal to compare both. There has been significant difficulty by some players in adapting a chosen WARMACHINE or HORDES faction to fight (much less win) in certain scenarios as laid out in official Steamroller scenarios.

In casual gaming, this is alright since most just dust off and fight another day (sometimes another game right afterwards). But in tourneys, it bears a lot of weight since there's money involved. And to some, dropping P250 is easy, but others' pockets aren't as deep.

Some stick to Steamroller scenarios strictly, and frown on custom scenarios. I would understand, as I assume SR scenarios have been playtested and approved to be as balanced as can be by the makers of the game itself. But does it mean playing custom scenarios aren't worth it? I disagree. I do agree with Mang testing out various scenarios during his tournaments. It may be a pocket risk to some, but then again, no one is being forced to join any tourney anyway. Others frown on the official Steamroller scenarios (most notably Killing Fields) for many, many reasons.

My suggested solution for casual games: Same as with time limits, mutually agree with your opponent as to what scenario you'll play. They may be from official tourney scenarios or custom scenarios, or even tweaked tourney scenarios. Just try to have fun while trying your best to win.

We're all used to making a come-on-all-takers list with WFB or 40K, and doing such is a bit more difficult in WMH. In the book, players do should decide what scenario to play first before making a list. It may mean that you'll be carrying a cabinet-load of your minis wherever you go if you're that intent on making such a broad spectrum list though.

When playing at my place: I will have a copy of the rulebooks at home, plus the latest Steamroller tourneys, plus I had the Summer Rampage scenarios bound. I also have No Quarter magazines with special scenarios in them. There will be very little in the way of a lack of scenarios at home.

However, I do suggest playing Summer Rampage scenarios. IMHO they are more balanced.

My suggested solution for tournament gaming:As for tournament gaming, organizers will always have final say in how they run tourneys. Yeah they do.

Tournament Scene

Some think tourneys are the end-all of the game. But since we all live in an imperfect world, there can never be a perfect tournament. Some will complain of venue. Some will complain about entrance fee. Some will complain about time limit usage (or lack thereof). Some will complain about scenarios or special rules. And being in the Philippines where complaining has been raised to the level as art, it's worse.

The game may continue to stick around even without tournaments, but it is the tournaments that spice it up.

To organizers, I suggest switching between formats and attract the different mentalities of players. Mang is already doing this one, considering timed tourneys and casual campaigns. Other people can readily setup their own tourneys with their own standards. I'm sure you won't find it difficult to attract participants since we all wanna help each other out anyway.

To players, I suggest to play tourneys, even the ones you dislike. You may learn a few tricks here and there, plus you break the monotony of your usual casual gaming. AND you may teach yourself to adapt to the community's current tourney scene.

Parting Shots

I guess what I'm trying to say here is that as players of such a small community, we should all practice common courtesy. You cannot have your way all the time, but bottom line of the game is for all players to have fun.

Nobody wants to play with an asshole, and with such a low number of players in the community, a rep of being an asshole spreads quite fast. Sayang naman ang ininvest mo sa pagbili ng miniatures, diba?

Peace ^_^

For the Motherland: Battles

Dark Prince Vladimir Tzepesci wins over Baldur the Stonecleaver (Obi) via forfeit
500 Pendulum, 9/15/2007 Kim's place

The Butcher of Khardov loses to Warwitch Deneghra (Joel) via forfeit
500 Crossed Lines, 9/15/2007 Kim's place

Forward Kommander Sorscha Kratikoff wins over Grand Exemplar Mikael Kreoss (Les)
750 No Man's Land, 9/15/2007 Kim's place

Dark Champion Vladimir Tzepesci wins over Lord Commander Coleman Stryker (Ryan) via assassination
750 No Man's Land, 9/14/2007 Hobby Haven

Karchev the Terrible wins over Chief Madrak Ironhide (Kei) via assassination
500 No Man's Land, 9/14/2007 Hobby Haven

Kommander Sorscha loses to Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight (Mang) via assassination
500 Invasion, 9/8/2007 Pitshop Tournament

Kommander Sorscha wins over Iron Lich Asphyxious (Fred) via objective
500 Invasion, 9/8/2007 Pitshop Tournament

Kommander Sorscha wins over Baldur Stonecleaver (Chris) via objective
500 Invasion, 9/8/2007 Pitshop Tournament

Kommandant Irusk wins over Rhyas, Sigil of Everblight (Mike) via assassination
500 Pendulum (old), 9/8/2007 Pitshop Tournament

Old Witch of Khador wins over Kaya Wildbourne (Les) via victory points
500 Invasion, 9/1/2007 Kim's place

Kommandant Irusk (Heavy Winterguard) wins over Chief Madrak Ironhide (Kei) via forfeit
500 Divide and Conquer, 9/1/2007 Kim's place

Butcher of Khardov draws to Baldur Stonecleaver (Chris)
Undetermined scenario, 8/27/2007 Pitshop Tournament

Butcher of Khardov loses to Pirate Queen Skarre (Doclance)
Undetermined scenario, 8/27/2007 Pitshop Tournament

Butcher of Khardov wins over Chief Madrak Ironhide (Kei)
Undetermined scenario, 8/27/2007 Pitshop Tournament

Butcher of Khardov wins over Lord Tyrant Hexeris (Patrick)
Undetermined scenario, 8/27/2007 Pitshop Tournament

Kommandant Irusk wins over Commander Stryker (Ryan) via objective
500 Twister, 8/20/2007 Kim's place

Kommandant Irusk (Iron Rain) loses to Chief Madrak Ironhide (Kei) via forfeit
500 No Man's Land, 8/20/2007 Kim's place

Butcher of Khardov wins over Kaya Wildbourne (Les)
Undetermined scenario, 8/19/2007 Kim's place

Butcher of Khardov wins over Kaya Wildbourne (Les)
Undetermined scenario, 8/19/2007 Kim's place

Kommander Sorscha wins over Lord Tyrant Hexeris (Patrick) via assassination
500 Moshpit, 8/17/2007 Hobby Haven

Kommander Sorscha wins over Chief Madrak Ironhide (Clemence) via assassination
500 Invasion, 8/17/2007 Hobby Haven

Kommander Sorscha wins over Lich Lord Terminus (Emp) via objective
500 Killing Fields, 8/17/2007 Hobby Haven

Butcher of Khardov wins over Archdomina Makeda (Chris) via objective
500 Pendulum, 8/17/2007 Hobby Haven

Kommander Sorscha wins over Commander Adept Nemo (Ryan) via objective
500 Invasion, 8/11/2007 Hobby Haven

Kommander Sorscha wins over Iron Lich Asphyxious (Fred) via assassination
500 Invasion, 8/11/2007 Hobby Haven

Old Witch of Khador wins over High Exemplar Kreoss (Les) via assassination
500 No Man's Land, 8/4/2007 Kim's place

Kommandant Irusk wins over Chief Madrak Ironhide (Kei)
500 Killing Fields, 6/30/2007 Kim's place

Kommandant Irusk wins over Rhyas, Sigil of Everblight (Mando) via victory points
500 Invasion, 6/23/2007 Kim's place

Kommandant Irusk wins over Hoarluk Doomshaper (Kei) via forfeit
500 Mosh Pit, 6/23/2007 Kim's place