Immeron Newes 29/12/2012

A day later than planned, though there has only been one Insider this past week.

*William French give us a run down of his IKRPG group's first adventure.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-12-28-2012

~

Pop back on Monday for the final Mis-Adventures In The Iron Kingdoms of 2012!

Heres To 2013!

Now past Christmas and into the dying days of 2012 as we look forward to the new year thats just round the corner.

In 2013 I hope to get more active in playing Warmachine, getting my Mercs fully painted, play a few tournaments and perhaps even finish my current Iron Kingdoms. I'm also hoping to launch a career as a freelance writer and have a Role Playing Game setting source book in the works called Frozen Skies.

Part of plans also include attending the 2013 UK Games Expo with my book, something I've decided to do a crowd funding project for. Even if you don't pledge anything just spreading the word will do, but thanks either way.

http://igg.me/p/300259/x/1917505

Seasons Greetings

Merry Christmas all and a Happy New Year!

Immeron Newes 21/12/2012

OK then, we've had quite a few Insiders this past week.

*Will Schoonover shows off his new Thornwall Alliance army.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-12-14-2012

*Simon Berman shows off a Cryxian raiding force.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-12-17-2012

*Aeryn Rudel gives an overview of the new Iron Kingdoms Urban Adventures book.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-12-19-2012

*And finally there is a Winter themed Khadoran army from Ed Bourelle.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-12-21-2012

Mis-Adventures In The Iron Kingdoms 17/12/2012

Last Friday's game saw the players face off against the Specture that was haunting the old coaching inn they were staying in.

Even with the fiend being a Veteran level monster it certainly that much of a tough fight, the Specture failed to achieve much aside from spooking the players and processing a  couple of them. It did its most heaviest hit when it processed Kogal the Ogrun and landed such a hefty blow on the wannabe Druid Iona that two whole branches of her life spiral was taken out, luckily she still had feat points and used Heroic Dodge to negate some of the damage.

In the end the group's gunslinging Priest/Knight managed to roll stupidly well on damage with a spell and completely totalled the fiendish spirit. After that the rest of the night past eventually and the party moved onto just short of Riversmet, where a couple went into town for a recce which'll form the next game session which is Tuesday.

~

In other news I managed to pick up the khador battlegroup from my LGS and I'll be getting the IK Urban Adventures book tomorrow!

Immeron Newes 14/12/2012

Just a couple of Insiders this past week.

*Will Shick mentions what we've got to look forwards to in 2013 from Privateer.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-12-10-2012

*Will Hungerfold talks about a PP staff Steamroller tournament.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-12-12-2012

Mis-Adventures In The Iron Kingdoms 10/12/2012

Just a short post this time around, mainly serving as a minor recap for this Friday's game.

The party are currently spending a night in an old coaching inn where spooky going ons have been happening, little do they know that a Specture calls the inn home.

After surviving the night they are then suppose to head to Riversmet, meet up with a Resistance contact and then sneak into a Khadoran administration office to steal some paperwork.

Simples.

Immeron Newes 7/12/2012

Just a couple of Insiders this past week.

*David Carl talks about painting up a Legion of Everblight army for a PP Staff Holiday Bundle Painting Challenge.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-12-3-2012

*Likewise Tony Konichek talks about the Merc force he's doing.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-12-7-2012

Town Crier 5/12/2012

No content today I'm afraid.

Working night shifts and so I'm switching to a Monday+Friday format up until Christmas.

Mis-Adventures In The Iron Kingdoms 3/12/2012

Having successfully completed their first mission for the Resistance the party has set off on their second one, this time a Khadoran administration office in Riversmet.

They've sought refuge for the night in an old coaching inn, one that they've been told has been abandoned for years and is occasionally used by the Resistance.From the moment they step foot into the old building they figured something was up, a few spooky incidents but nothing solid to go on. So they've set up a few Warding Circles for protection and settled down for the night, half the party camped out in a single room upstairs whilst the other half remained in the old bar room keeping watch. Outside there is also a storm that isn't helping matters.

So whats up with the old coaching inn?

Good question.

A Veteran level Specter (No Quarter 45) calls the old coaching inn home, rather its the old innkeeper who hasn't quite moved onto Urcaen just yet.

In short, the party is in store for a very interesting night.

Immeron Newes 30/11/2012

Well quite a bit to catch up on, lets get started.

No Quarter 45 is out, includes more stuff for the IKRPG, new Hordes previews (include a new minion Warlock) and a Historical scenario.

There is also a new IKRPG book due out next month, namely No Quarter Presents Iron Kingdoms Urban Adventures. Its focused heavily on the cities of Western Immeron, includes new gear and careers plus an adventure. I'm making sure that I pick it up when it comes out.

Privateer Insiders

About a month worth of these to catch up on.

-11/5/2012; David Carl talks about his Menoth army in the PP staff tournament.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-11-5-2012

-9/11/2012; Meg Maples discusses how she stays focused whilst painting.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-11-9-2012

-13/11/2012; A discussion and tips from Tony Konichek on absent-minded mistakes and how he tries to avoid making them.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-11-13-2012

-14/11/2012; A piece on running camapigns using Level 7 [ESCAPE] from Will Schoonover.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-11-14-2012

-16/11/2012; William French gives some insight into experiences learnt playing a recent PP staff Steamroller.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-11-16-2012

-20/11/2012; Aeryn Rudel offers a preview on the No Quarter IKRPG books thats due out soon.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-11-20-2012

-21/11/2012; A shoutout from Lyle Lowery on the 25 point army bundles being released for Christmas.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-11-21-2012

-26/11/2012; Another post from Lyle Lowery, this time on a new Trollblood army he's started.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-11-26-2012

-28/11/2012; Simon Berman offers a sneak peak at the new adventure that will be appearing in No Quarter Presents: Iron Kingdoms Urban Adventures next month.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-11-28-2012

And that brings us back up to date!

Turn in Monday for Mis-Adventures in the Iron Kingdoms.

Mis-Adventures In The Iron Kingdoms 28/11/2012

Well the party has certainly gotten into the swing of things in helping out the Llaelese Resistance.

Their first mission was to take out a Khadoran outpost that was a thorn in the side for the Resistance, being located close to one of their supply lines. So the party set off and met up with a contact who gave them (later proven inaccurate) headcount of the Khadorans and wished them look.

First task on the list was to take out a patrol, something they did frighteningly well and proved how effective acid bombs can be. Though the patrol turned out to be larger than what they were told, which raised questions over just how accurate their intel actually was.

The forces at the actual outpost itself proved to be much larger than what they had expected, the party discovered that they were outnumbered about two to one. Never the less they hatched a plan; Gret the Gobber commando would sneak into the outpost's barracks with a few knockout grenades to steal with the soldiers inside, the rest of the party would then attack and make an explosive entrance.

It went pretty much to plan, though a couple managed to avoid being knocked out and fled outside alerting the entire outpost, though they were dealt with in short order. Our wannabe Druid had great fun blowing a couple of soldiers out of the top of a watchtower. After the skirmish they planted a few powder kegs, set alight to the wooden buildings and withdrew having completed their task. On their way home they encountered some Isoans, though managed to avoid bloodshed.

All in all it was fun and I feel everyone's starting to get a feel for how combat works in the IKRPG, though I'm still scaling things and trying to keep combat a challenge for the group. But thus far they're really enjoying the system and I'm having great fun running it as a GM, so I'm glad I made the switch from D20.

Next game is this coming Friday where they'll be breaking into a Khadoran administration office, a more of a stealth based mission compared to the outpost.

Town Crier 26/11/2012

Well tis been a while.

This past month has been a bit on the hectic side for me and so the blog has unfortunately had to take a backseat.

Now that things have settled down once more I'll be looking at resuming a regular posting schedule, so pop back on Wednesday for an update on the Iron Kingdoms campaign.

Workbench 5/11/2012

At last! Some progress on the miniatures front!

Devoted some time on Saturday to working on my miniatures, a mix of assembly and a bit of painting.

*Started painting up Magnus, but still a long way to go before he's done.

*Nomad is now painted up in the colours of my army, just some highlighting left and then the varnish.

*Croe's Cutthroats proved harder to assemble than first thought, probably going to end up pinning them as I'm having no end of trouble gluing their arms on.

If anyone has any advice on pinning miniatures then I'm all ears.

Immeron Newes 3/11/2012

Just a quick post, meant insanely busy today.

The Merc Colossal, the Galleon, is up on the front page!

http://privateerpress.com/warmachine/gallery/mercenaries/colossals/galleon

I'll most certainly be getting this.

Mis-Adventures In The Iron Kingdoms 31/10/2102

Been getting involved in a couple of Play-By-Post Iron Kingdoms games.

The first is Whimper's (of the PP boards fame) Flight From The North set in the frozen wastes round Uldenfrost, the continuation of his long running game on Role Play Online. He's converting over to the new IKRPG and so the group is mulling ideas over characters and adventuring companies. I'm hoping to play a Ranger/Rifleman, though waiting to see what adventuring company we go with.

The second game is one I'm running myself on the PP forums, tis called The Dispatch and revolves around the Cygnaran Dispatch Alliance which is the closest the Iron Kingdoms see to a postal service even if it is run by the Cygnaran military. Idea is that the party are stationed at a remote relay station on the Gnarlwood Trail from Point Bourne, responsible for the security of their 'patch' and seeing messages and parcels get through unmolested.

Newes From The Front 29/10/2012

Well I managed to get a couple of games in over the weekend.

The first was a 50 pts one against my regular Cygnar opponent, similar lists to our previous game.

My opponent opted for a Refused Flank tactic and deployed his army in a single corner, I deployed most of my army opposite his with Saxon Orrick running with Croe's Cutthroats. Charged my battlegroup forwards to get into melee quickly, managed to severely damage my opponent's Cyclone early on to limit its effectiveness so that Stannis and both squads of Steelheads could move up relatively unmolested on my left flank. The sellsword ranger and the Cutthroats took the right flank, supported by the sniper Kell Bailoch, managing to wipe out the opposing Long Gunners. Trenchers proved to be much much harder to take out but I managed it in the end, though lost both my heavies in the process. The Steelheads ended up being almost wiped out whilst Stannis hacked his way through my opponent's Stormguard and went for Stryker. In the end it was the Cutthroats that managed to get the killing blow, shooting Stryker in the back with a crossbow getting a  POW 10+5d6 damage roll.

Second game was a quick demo game against a guy who was interested in Warmachine; I set him up with Ashlynn, a Nomad, Mule and a Vanguard whilst I ran the Magnus battlegroup of Mangler, Renegade and a Talon. His Nomad took a pounding early on but his Mule got a crit and pushed back the Talon, smacking into Magnus and doing a POW 15 damage roll. Ashlynn managed to get a charge off on Magnus and gave him a sound trashing but the Traitor remained standing with 1 HP left. On my turn Magnus' first attack misses and triggers Ashlynn's attack back which hits and does more than enough damage to win the game.

All-in-all both good games, plus may have a new Warmachine player.

(Belated) Workbench 25/10/2012

Didn't get much of a chance to post anything yesterday so heres a belated post today.

This is really just to take stock of my current projects.

*Terrain; Still have plenty of work to do on the house I have been building, been pushed to one side after everything thats happened past week (illness, etc).

*Miniatures; Just got Croe's Cutthroats to put together, multi-part metal models and that I've been picking 'em packed in my army case for games means I haven't done much aside from gluing to bases.

*Painting; The real big one, some models are painted whilst others are simply undercoated. Most of the army is actually unpainted, so goals are to get everything udnercoated and then the battlegroup fully painted.

Plenty to keep me busy aside from the household chores.

Changes

After struggling to do a full week of content over the past month or so I've decided to change the format.

I'm going to be switching to a Monday/Wednesday/Friday format as of this week.

Mondays and Wednesdays will probably have a different content each week, but Fridays will still be a roundup of the PP Insiders.

Hopefully this new format will work and will save me from burning out on doing the blog.

Thanks for reading.

Mis-Adventures In The Iron Kingdoms 22/10/2012

Did another session on Friday, though round somebody else's house.

Suffering from a bout of the flu and with a marauding dog, a bunch of cats and a devilcat meant dice rolling and combat was limited. So it was more of a Role Play evening, mainly consisting of travelling by caravan up towards Llael.They skirted up past the Bloodstone Marches and the caravan was hit by a sandstorm that it managed to weather it. Eventually they moved into Llael seeing signs of Khadoran occupation and recent battles between them and the Menites.

They finally arrive in Rhydden where they linked up with the Resistance and given some missions to do;

*Take out a Khadoran outpost thats sited close to a route used by the Resistance.

*Attack a Khadoran administration office, steal some paperwork and raze the building to cover their tracks.

*Using (stolen) mercenary licence to move across Khadoran territory to Elsinberg, posing as mercs going to bolster the city watch during the March of the Dead. This will give them a cover identity as they prepare for a raid on the estate of the Llaelese Minister of Internal Security.

Have to admit that I was surprised the party's resident Khadoran, a Morrown Paladin, was quite eager to help out the Resistance.

Immeron Newes 21/10/2012

Apologies for the lack of content towards the end of the week, got pretty much wiped out by the flu.

Better late than never heres a runup of last week's Insiders.

*Lyle Lowery posted a write up of his recent Unbound game of Khaodr vs Cryx.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-10-15-2012

*Meg Maples posted a FAQ on miniature painting.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-10-17-2012

~ ~ ~

Thanks for bearing with me and tune back tomorrow for a write up of Friday's IKRPG game.

Sick Day

No content today I'm afraid, down with a case of Man Flu.

Armchair Briefing 17/10/2012

Been a while since I've done one of these, but I'm doing something slightly different compared to the others.

I've been looking at the idea of starting a second army and I've considered doing Khador, main reason being I've played them before and its an army I can easily use my mercs with. My idea is to build up a 50 pts Khador force to be combined with my 50 pts Magnus one to form a 100 pts army, though in the mean time I'll be using this segment to post up possible lists as I worked towards my goal.

Natural place to start is the Khador battlebox with Sorcha, I've played with this 'caster before and have a reasonable idea of what she's capable of. So things should be fine....long as I don't freeze my own warjack again. ¬_¬

Newes From The Front 16/10/2012

Played a demo game of Warmachine on Saturday, typically battlebox game of Cygnar vs Khador.

I opted to play Khador whilst my opponent, a newcomer to Warmachine, went with Cygnar. I went first to take him through step-by-step how to the play the game, within a couple of turns he had a grasp of the game.

Incidents of note were;

*Freezing my own warjack; Tried casting Freezing Grip on a Lancer engaged with my Destroyer so I could move it without Free Strikes to fire its Bombard, needless to say it didn't go quite as plan.

*Charged Stryker with Sorcha and missed with TWO boosted attack rolls!

My opponent had managed to take out my Juggernaut and then dogpiled Sorcha to win the game, he certainly enjoyed it and will be looking to get a Cygnar battlebox.

Mis-Adventures In The Iron Kingdoms 15/10/2012

Finally got a new session of IKRPG done last Friday with my regular group.

There was the usual hijinks but managed to get a few things done;

*The group's Paladin had a message from the Morrowan officials in Caspia basically saying that they can't act against Lady Ellsworth unless proof of evil misdeeds are found.

*An assassination attempt on Lady Ellsworth by a group that had been causing group was brutally dealt with by the group in short order, IKRPG combat may be lethal but it is especially so for NPCs.

*The group has linked up with a caravan bound for Occupied Llael and meet a couple of Resistance members that they'll be working with.

*One of the PC's child is proving to be a thieving little blighter and will be joining the group as a Thief/Spy, though he has also made a deal with the Rusalka.

Next game should hopefully be this Friday coming.

Immeron Newes 12/10/2012

Since the last Immeron Newes entry we've had a bunch of Insiders.

*Lyle Lowery talks about building a Khador army for a 150 pts Unbound game.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-10-5-2012

*Tony Konichek talks about inspiration gained from a holiday in London and Paris.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-10-8-2012

*William French goes on about his character and his group playing as a Menite themed Arcane Order in the IKRPG game he's in.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-10-10-2012

Apologies

Getting a post up is proving unexpectedly harder than I thought at present.

Hopefully will have the usual Friday Immeron Newes post up tomorrow.

Mis-Adventures in the Iron Kingdoms 9/10/2012

As well as GMing an IK game, I'm also taking part in one on the PP forums.

Its a RP set in Five Fingers revolving around a few gangs, the one my character is part of is an outlaw one.

Start off with Ranger and Thief, looking at possibly picking up Pistoleer and perhaps even Cutthroat but we'll see.

~

Kaya Waddock

Archetype: Skilled

Race: Human (Morridane)

Careers: Ranger, Thief

Height: 4'6”

Weight: 90 lbs

PHY 5

Spd 6

Str 4

AGL 4

Prw 5

Poi 4

INT 4

Arc -

Per 4

(Human: +1 AGL. +1 Prw, +1 Int, +1 Per)

DEF 13 (6+4+4+0-1)

ARM 11 (5 +6 from Armour)

WILL 9

INIT 15

Military Skills:

* Hand Weapon 2

* Pistol 1

Weapons:

* Assassin’s Blade - MAT 6, P+S 8 (10 with back strike)

* Pistol - RAT 5, RNG 8/40, POW 10.

Occupational Skills:

* Detection 5

* Sneak 6

*Survival 5

* Tracking 5

* Bribery 1

* Deception 1

* Escape Artist 5

*Lock Picking 6

* Pick Pocket 6

*Streetwise 5

Abilities:

* Skilled:Preternatural Awareness, boosted Initiative rolls and enemies cannot gain back strike bonus against this character.

* Camouflage

* Pathfinder

* Conniver

* Dodger

Languages:

* Cygnaran

* Ordic

Equipment:

* Leather Armour (-1 DEF, +5 ARM) - 30 gc

* Assassin’s Blade - 10 gc

*Pistol - 20 gc

*25 light shots - 10 gc

* Bandolier, Ammo – 5 gc

*Thief's Tools – Free from Career

*Gunsmith's Kit – 20 gc

*Goggles – 5 gc

*Lantern – 10 gc

*Pocket watch – 25 gc

*Rope & grappling hook: twenty feet – 5 gc

*10 gc

Background: Kaya is the seventh child from a family of twelve children and her family is part of one of the notorious smuggling clans along the Dragon's Tongue. Her short stature and slight build is characteristic of the Morridanes who inhabit the Thornwood area. Like most in her family she has green eyes and, when not covered in grime, pale skin and red hair that is also a trait of her family.

Kaya is a true child of the Fingers, having been born and raised on Captain's Island. From a young age she explored the nooks and crannies beneath the streets, mainly to seek refuge from her elder siblings and over time she also begun to hunt for treasures. It didn't take long for her to stumble across strange artefacts with leering faces, she weren't certain what they actually were but she soon found that she could earn a pretty penny from selling them. She later discovered that the artefacts were Orgoth in origins and shortly afterwards she sought a fence to act as a middle man for her so that she could avoid unsavoury types that wanted such items.

Her exploration of the old tunnels beneath the islands and her knowledge of them built up over time proved to be a boon to her family, thanks to Kaya they were able able to store or move goods through places that very few other people could reach or even knew about. From time-to-time Kaya was required to smuggle a few items herself across the islands, making good use of her skills as a 'tunnel rat' in doing so. Though she learnt the hard way which passages and chambers were safe and at what times, a few close calls taught her to stay cautious and have weapons ready at all times.

Since she has effectively spent a large part of her life underground Kaya has a disliking for being above ground, especially the Rigs and loathes big open spaces like the fields beyond the city. When not at home in her natural environment she is a little twitchy with a short temper, when combined with the grime she's usually caked in this makes her a rather unfriendly person.

Newes From The Front 8/10/2012

Was hoping to post about the one-shot IKRPG game that I was running Friday, however nobody turned up and I wasn't able to run the game (not to mention wasted my time and bus fare). Though I spoke to the other GM who had planned to run another game that same evening that there had been a poor turnout out all week long and that only one game barely had enough to actually run.

On a lighter note I did manage to get in a 50 pts game of Warmachine over the weekend.

It was against my regular Cygnar opponent and was out first game against each other in quite a while as well as being out first 50 pts one. He went with his usual Stryker list that he played before with the addition of some Stormguard, maxed out Long Gunner and Trencher units backed up by a couple of Lancers, a Defender and a Cyclone. Likewise I played my normal 35 pts Magnus the Traitor list with the addition of Stannis Brocker, Kell Bailoch, Orin Midwinter and Croe's Cutthroats.

My opponent deployed the bulk of his force in one corner as I spread mine out a bit, Magnus' battlegroup in the center with the Cutthroats backed up by Midwinter on one flank and the Steelheads backed up by my other solos on the other flank.Getting first turn I opted to do the '20 inch' dash across the table by running my warjacks and then popping Magnus' feat Hit and Run to run my warjacks again so that they were across the table in one turn. Whilst the rest of my army tried to outflank, my opponent focused on taking out my two Renegade light warjacks but not before they decimated my opponent's Long Gunners. The Trenchers proved to be a tough target as the Cutthroats quickly found out, Dug In with Arcane Shield and Stryker's feat the Trenchers were quite capable of being made nigh impossible to kill. But lucky dice rolling with Midwinter's Chain Lighting spell cleared out most of 'em before the Cutthroats charged in with poison coated weapons.

In the center the Long Gunners ended up being wiped out, so were my two Renegades whilst my Mangler got wrecked as well. The Nomad fared better, typing up a Lancer and the Stormguard for a fair number of turns. On the other flank Stannis proved to be a tough customer as the Steelheads dealt with the Cyclone and the second Lancer.The final turn saw Magnus casting Obliteration to do a ton of damage on Stryker, but the Cygnaran 'caster barely survived. I then decided to move Magnus up and fire of an unboosted shot from his scattergun, needed a double 6 to hit or otherwise it was game over for me.

Amazingly the dice were with me and I managed to do enough damage to finish Stryker off and win the game.

It was a long, hard fought game that I really enjoyed. Though my opponent made the mistake of spreading his firepower out when he should've just focused his attacks on punching through my warjack screen to get to Magnus, but the dice were against him as he kept rolling double 1s and took about 3-4 turns to kill Stannis who is a 10hp Solo.

Our next game I should hopefully be trying out a new warcaster, chiefly Drake MacBain.

Immeron Newes 5/10/2012

Well another couple of Insiders this past week.

*First off Darla Kennerud talks about commonly confused words, though to bit of a mixed reaction on the boards.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-10-1-2012

*David Carl talks about the community behind Warmachine & Hordes.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-10-3-2012

~

Thats me signing off for the week, enjoy your weekend and tune back in on Monday for the hijinks of a one-shot IK game I'm running tonight.

Town Crier 4/10/2012

Just a Public Service Announcement that the blog is going to see some changes to the scheduling,

The new schedule is likely to be something like this;

Monday: Mis-Adventures in the Iron Kingdoms
Tuesday: Newes From The Front
Wednesday: Armchair Briefing
Thursday: Workbench
Friday: Immeron Newes

Mis-Adevntures In The Iron Kingdoms 3/10/2012

With the party bound for Occupied Llael I've been watching what documentaries I can and reading up on the various Resistance movements of WW2.

Are the Llaelese Arc I'm thinking of having the group do various tasks for the Resistance, perhaps a few raids before they go after the Minister of Internal Security and the Black Pearl he has in his collection.

Idea I have for a first mission is the party being sent to find out what happened to a missing scout.

Newes From The Front 2/10/2012

Sadly my opponent had to cancel our game last night due to a family emergency, though luckily everything seems to be fine there. *touch wood*

No battle report but I did manage to pick up No Quarter No.44 and have a glance through.

*An adventure for the new IKRPG and new monsters were the stuff I went straight to, both look good and I shall have a proper read through later.

*Modelling conversion guide to create models for the IKRPG was also a nice touch, may try some of them myself.

*A rather fluffy Guts & Gear with general tactics (which seems to be the format now) on the Cryx Kraken, though I do have to wonder whether they'll start doing RPG stats again.

*Two new Forces of Distinction for Retribution and Circle respectfully.

*And the Hordes Gargantuan battle report.

Workbench 1/10/2012

Been a busy week in general which included a 40K Combat Patrol tournie over the weekend, but managed to get some work done with my ongoing project.

*Croe's Cutthroats are finally getting put together as I move up to a 50pt army, they'll get their baptism of fire this evening.

*That cardboard building I'd started on has seen little progress, mainly due to having to wait for the glue to dry. Intending to at least get all four walls sorted and the roof if I can this week.

Immeron Newes 28/9/2012

Apologies for the lack of a post yesterday, I simply didn't the chance to write anything.

There has been a couple of Insiders this week;

*Ron Kruzie posted a painting guide on how he paints black and gold Skorne.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-9-24-2012

*Meanwhile Tony Konichek posted about video tutorials for Level 7 [ESCAPE] and Heap!

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-9-26-2012

Mis-Adventures In The Iron Kingdoms 26/9/2012

Had to cancel this week's game because half the group weren't able to make it, so hopefully the next one will be in two weeks time.

In the mean time I've volunteered to run an IK game for the local university's games society during their 'Newbies Week'. Already have an adventure in mind; An artefact gets stolen and ends up in the Corvis Undercity, being a no-go area for the City Watch the party are hired to go and retrieve it instead.

This will probably just be a one-off, though if theres interest from the players then I may make a full campaign out of it. Though it'll be limited to 6 players and I may restrict a few of the classes like Iron Fang Pikemen, etc.

I'll post up a report of how the game went, but it isn't going to be until Friday next week when I run the game.

Newes From The Front 25/9/2012

Haven't gotten any gaming in this past week but I have been looking at trying out a different warcaster, namely MacBain.

Heres what I'm looking at;

MacBain
-Talon
-Talon
-Mangler
-Nomad
Steelhead Halberdiers x10
Steelhead Riflemen x10
Saxon Orric
Kell Bailoch

If anyone has any experience with MacBain then I'm all ears.

Workbench 24/9/2012

Haven't made much progress with miniatures due to everything being up in the air last week.

Instead I've started another little project, basically make some terrain that I can use for both Warmachine and the IKRPG. Found that the boxes that units and warjacks typically come in from PP are roughly a story in height when on the table top and compared next to a mini, so two of them with a cardboard roof should make a nice little house once finished.

Since I have a few of these boxes I should be able to quickly build up a collection of buildings, though until my computer is fixed I'm unable to post WIP pictures I'm afraid.

Immeron Newes 21/9/2012

Big news this, especially for the Role Players with the release of the long awaited Iron Kingdoms RPG.

The Insiders this week have been focused on the RPG.

*William French talked about this IK group playing a band of Menites and how he created his character.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-9-17-2012

*Simon Berman talked a little about the release of the RPG.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-9-19-2012

*Simon Berman also discussed creating the Gencon demo adventure which is now up ready to be downloaded.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-9-21-2012

IKRPG: First Impressions Of The Book 20/9/2012

Well I managed to pick up a copy of the new IKRPG today, but I wanted to have a flip through and posts my thoughts on it hence the lateness of this blog post.

Quality of the book is quite fine, hardback with glossy paper which should ensure a longer life of the book. Plenty of new artwork along with updated and coloured versions of old artwork from the previous version, always good but I wished that they had done more of the Human ones.

Theres a 100 odd pages of fluff that form the first part of the book, nothing really indepth but enough to give you a feel for the setting and its history. The shortened timeline was a bit disappointing, though I hazard they only decided to list key events and that we'll see the timeline fleshed out more in future books when they cover the nations in more depth. What was nice was the bit on the Ascendants of Morrow and the Sicons of Thamar, chiefly listing each one with their symbols and patronage. It was interesting to see that one Sicon protected Morrowan communities against Menite purges and another's research led to the cortexes used by warjacks and is the patron of arcanists, artificers and teachers. Also Thamar is portrayed as being more more of a grey area when it came to good and evil, she's really more towards the 'one over the many' whilst her brother Morrow is the 'many over the one'.

Races and Careers don't need much explaining, I'm a bit disappointed that there is only one entry for Humans rather than the different stats for each ethic group that existed in the old version. I can understand that they could only fit so much in, but it would've been something nice to add a bit of flavour to the setting. A good selection of careers, though I'd like to have seen more variety but that is something that'll be fixed in future books and issues of No Quarter.

The game mechanics also don't need much coverage, its mostly the Warmachine rules and work pretty well. Combat is nice and fast paced whilst fairly lethal at the same time, really prefer it over D20.

Equipment for most part is fine, but I'd like to see more gun ammo types and a few more iconic IK weapons but I guess this may also be addressed later on.

Reuse of artwork and a few typos have bit of a negative impact on the book, but it isn't really that much of a big issue in my personal opinion. A bit more in the way of original artwork would've been nice but isn't really that important and typos are something that plague dozens of books no matter the company, tis something that happens. Overall I really like the book and the system, certainly going to sit down and read it cover-to-cover when I get the chance to do so.

Mis-Adventures In The Iron Kingdoms 19/9/2012

Viva La Llaelese Resistance!

The chapter in the campaign will see the group head off to Occupied Llael for a stint with the Resistance in order to gain the last Black Pearl that is in the procession of the Llaekese Minister of Internal Security.

So I've been thinking of NPCs that the party will encounter, ones that'll be genned up once I get hold of the new IKRPG book (payday is the day AFTER it releases). I have a few in mind that'll probably aid the party.

Kogul Ironhead

An Ogrun mercenary working for the Resistance, haven't decided upon careers yet but he'll be carrying around a Slug Gun as a personal weapon.

Gret

Gobber Commando, most likely be Thief and Ranger or Spy. But certainly tooled up.

Decklan Ellsworth

Lady Ellsworth's missing brother,though have yet to decide upon careers.

Newes From The Front 18/9/2012

Finally got a game in last night, this game against a Mage Hunter heavy Retribrution force.

Since the Elves ignored cover it menat staying at range and shooting them wasn't such a good idea, so I used the normal list for this one. Surprised my opponent a bit by running my warjacks and then popping Magnus' feat Hit and Run to move a total of 20 inches across the board on turn one, it meant I got into melee much quicker and limited the amount of shots against my army.

Then I discovered another sneaky Elven trick, 4 inch melee attacks!

Oh and other stuff like ignoring magic buffs, Free Strikes and even Focus stealing. It quickly became one of those games that was going to end on turn two no matter what happened, ultimately I ended up losing thanks to my opponent doing well on damage rolls. My tactic was proven to be valid since we rolled to see what happened if I survived a little bit longer, average rolls with the One-Shot Wonders on the Renegades would've killed his warcaster...if only I'd gone first.

Still, we both had fun and my opponent said it was the msot enjoyable game he's had in a while.

~ ~ ~

As a side note, home computer went kaput last night so posts will be irregular this week.

Workbench 17/9/2012

Due to a bout of illness and other things I haven't made any progress on the workbench front this past week.

That said I did sort out a decent pic of the Rusalka mini.

Immeron Newes 16/9/2012

A rather belated entry for Immeron Newes this week mainly due to illness.

First insider is from Aeryn Rudel, No Quarter Editor, on the new issue of No Quarter thats due out next week. He mentions new Theme Forces, an adventure for the new Iron Kingdoms RPG and a Gargantuan battle report for Hordes.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-9-10-2012

Will Hungerford posted on the fourth and final season of the War-Torn Alliances league, namely Dark Secrets. He discusses a bit on the map and developing the rules for it.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-9-12-2012

Mis-Adventures In The Iron Kingdoms: First IKRPG Game 12/9/2012

Finally got round to trying out the new IKRPG, all in all there was a positive response from the group.

Did a small skirmish to ease them in, it took no more than 10-15 minutes to do whilst a similar one in D&D probably would've taken up to an hour to do. The Life Spiral certainly proved how much more lethal the system was and how more dynamic the health system is, something that went down well. It was quickly learnt that in this system even a single hit can end up hurt quite a bit as opposed to hacking away at 100+ health in like D&D.

The group was more than happy to use miniatures and play it bit like a wargame, it certainly helped combat flow that much more quicker. They're able to do so much more in combat and they've only really just scrapped the surface, once they've seen how much they can do in combat I think they'll really playing this system. Least I'll have the book in a week's time so I can get the players up a level closer to their D&D characters and explain various stuff before the next session.

Plot wise we've advanced things a bit, the party has made contact with agents of the Highborn Covenant based in Corvis. Next game they head into Occupied Llael and join up with the Resistance to launch a raid on the estate of a certain di Viadro, Minister of Internal Security.

Mis-Adventures In The Iron Kingdoms 11/9/2012

Well finally gotten to the point where I'll be running a game of the new IKRPG, things are looking promising and I have sorted out reference sheets for the group.

Hopefully they'll find combat more enjoyable and dynamic than they did in D&D, certainly a bit more lethal. Magic is also lot more straight forward and so our resident spellcaster should be able to react bit more quicker rather than the group having to wait 10 minutes for him to look up spells in the book.

Figured I'd eased them into the new system with an ambush...

Workbench 10/9/2012

Not much to report, the Deathwalker/Ruslka model is fully painted and varnished.

Croe's band of brigands are mocking me in order for them to be glued together.

Immeron Newes 7/9/2012

Couple of Insiders this week.

*Ben Misenar talks about the re-sculpt of the Cygnaran Centurion heavy warjack as a plastic kit.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-9-5-2012

*Laine Garrett talks about using Photoshop to help decide on colour schemes for models.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-9-7-2012

MAILBOX

As usual, feel free to email in thoughts and questions *here*, please include 'Mailbox' in the subject title.

~ ~ ~

EXTRA

Following a topic on the PP boards about it, I may adapt Pathfinder's Kingmaker Adventure Path to run as an Iron Kingdoms campaign and sequel to my current campaign.

Armchair Briefing 6/9/2012

The Nomad is this week's 'jack under review.

Backstory

The Nomad is an old Cygnaran warjack designed with one purpose in mind; cutting open heavy armour like a tin can. Its massive battle blade brought a world of hurt to anything unlucky enough to get in its way, serving Cygnar in this role for over a century.








It was one of the first few designs that was produced in bulk, something that allowed the liberal allocation of this 'jack widely throughout the Cygnaran Army. But with the coming of more mechanikally advanced designs the Nomad was decommissioned from Cygnaran service in 563 AR and found its way quickly onto the mercenary market. Though its design now predates anyone living today, the Nomad has become a mainstray for many sell-swords for its reliability and ease of maintenance.

Abilities

See weapons.

Weapons

*Open Fist; Nothing special, an open fist that allows one-handed throws and a buckler that adds +1 to the ARM value.

*Battle Blade; Big Bloody Sword with Reach, it'll hurt whatever it manages to hit.






Tactics

The Nomad is the Merc's generic 'jack and a fairly cheap one at only 6 pts, its main job is to charge big targets and whack 'em for six. Load up with 3 Focus, charge and let loose. Most 'jacks will take a battering from its sword.

I usually upkeep Magnus' Iron Aggression spell on this 'jack, being able to charge and boost attack rolls for free that Focus you put on its can be used to buy extra attacks and boost damage.

Mis-Adventures In The Iron Kingdoms 5/9/2012

Due to circumstances and a couple of players not being able to make it, last night's game unfortunately had to be cancelled.

On the flip side this gave me extra time to finish sorting out everyone's character sheets for the new IKRPG, chiefly weapons and armour. Getting the hang of how things work and starting characters seem to be roughly on par with infantry units in Warmachine/Hordes in terms of stats and things like DEF/ARM. The weapons stats are pretty same the same as in the wargame, though some have attack modifiers so I'll have to see when the book finally comes out in a couple of weeks.

With the next game scheduled for next week I hope to ease the party into the new system with an ambush given that they're in the perfect place for one... 

Workbench: Rusalka

So I happened to find my old digital camera, though surprised that I managed to get the damn thing to work!

Its 10 years old and should've given up the ghost a long time ago, in fact it did at one point...

Nevertheless I am able to present to you the Queen of the Bog herself.

IK Homebrew 4/9/2012

Fortunately haven't been able to get a game of Warmachine in, so instead I've decided to focus on some homebrew material for the IKRPG.

The Rusalka I've posted previously, so now is the Shadow Element for the Sorcerer career I've mentioned.

Starting Abilities, Connections, Spells, and Skills:
Shadow: Occultation, Ghost Walk, Venom
Shadow sorcerers begin with +1 AGL and +1 to their racial maximum AGL at each level.

Cost 1 - Influence, Protection from Corrosion, Jump Start
Cost 2 - Ghost Walk, Occultation, Marked for Death, Venom, Malediction, Mirage
Cost 3 - ***Hellfire, Curse of Shadows, Hex Blast, Gallows, Shadowmancer
Cost 4 - Scourge, Hellmouth, Dark Guidance

*change all references to "models in battlegroup" to "steamjacks this character controls"
**change all references to "model" or "unit" to "character"
***change the effect of Hellmouth to "The spellcaster immediately makes a contested Willpower roll with the target. If the spellcaster beats the enemy's Willpower roll, the the target suffers Anxiety".


Alot of thanks to relasine on the PP forums for pretty much taking my notes and making something that fitted the theme I was aiming for, hopefully I'll get to playtest it soon.


I plan to do Tharn Bloodtrackers next to round out the Tharn stats we already have.

Workbench 3/9/2012

Bit of a productive weekend, managed to get a bit of painting done.

The model that I had converted is now undercoated, though I have yet to settle upon a paint scheme for it and so still kicking about ideas.

Did manage to get a second model effectively fully painted and based, will probably apply some varnish to it to protect the paint. Its the Cryx Deathwalker model, I'm planning on using it as the Rusalka in my Iron Kingdoms campaign. Though lacking access to a decent camera at present, though I will try and get a picture up later this week. Quite proud of how its turned out, especially since my first attempt as a proper base turned out pretty well.

Found an easy and quick way to do swamp bases.

*Used blue-tac to fill in gaps in the slot and to break up the base's surface a bit.

*Mixed up some green paint, a dark manky colour, and slapped that on.

*Poured superglue on to give a water effect, works best with the non-GW style bases with the indent like the ones Warmachine use.

*Tore of a tiny amount of the green scourer pad from a kitchen sponge and stuck that on in clumps as the superglue dried.

*Painted the clumps with different shades of green.

*Finally used a watered-down brown ink wash on the base once the superglue had dried.

The result is like the green muck of a swamp, which came out fairly well.

Immeron Newes 31/8/2012

Up this week on PP's website were a couple of Insiders.

First one was from David Carl on the Heap demos at Gencon.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-8-29-2012

Second one was from Meg Maples on painting the Con Exclusives Druid Gone Wilder and Bombardier Bombshell.

http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-8-27-2012


This weekend PP will be at PAX Prime with limited copies of the IKRPG along with the Con Exclusive models.

http://privateerpress.com/iron-kingdoms-rpg-making-its-way-to-pax-prime

~ ~ ~

MAILBOX

Please send your messages, questions, etc *here*

Make sure to include 'Mailbox' in the subject line.

Apologies

Simply not able to get a proper post done today, will try and make up for it tomorrow.

Mis-Adevntures In The Iron Kingdoms Extra 29/8/2012

Was expecting to have a battle report up today, however I wasn't bale to get a game in last night as I had hoped to do.

So instead I'm posting extra IKRPG stuff, namely a bit on character creation as I attempt to stat up Lady Ellsworth who is the main NPC in my current campaign. I'll try to do this step-by-step as was presented in the Character Creation Preview that PP posted up on their website.

1. Choose your character's race

Nice and simple, Lady Ellsworth is Human and gives us these starting values.

PHY 5
SPD 6
STR 4
AGL 3 (+1)
PRW 4
POI 4
INT 3
ARC *
PER 3

The Primary stats are Bolded and you may have noticed that Arcane (ARC) doesn't have a value, this is because its a stat only normally used by spellcasters and so is left blank unless you take the Archetype Gifted. Now being Human we can increase teh starting value of one of our Primary stats by +1, we'll do this for AGL to start off with a better DEF (the +1 is included above in brackets).

2. Choose Archetype

Already decided that one of Lady Ellsworth's careers will be a magic one, so we need to take Gifted in order to do so and this will give us a Arcane starting value of 3 since the character will be a Will Weaver (its 2 for a Focuser which is normally a Warcaster). With each Archetype we can pick a benefit at character creation, though we can gain more later on. We'll go with Combat Caster, this will allow us to roll an additional die on magic attack rolls and then discard the lowest result.

3. Pick Careers

To begin with we pick two careers, but later on we'll be able to take other careers if we so wished. Since Lady Ellsworth is a noblewoman and a spellcaster we'll go with Aristocrat and Sorcerer, the details of which are below;

Aristocrat- (Human only)

Abilities: Good Breeding, Language (any), and Privilege
Connections: Connections (nobility)
Military Skills: Hand Weapon 1 and the choice of one other: Archery 1, Pistol 1, or Rifle 1
Occupational Skills: Command 1 and Etiquette 1
Special: A character who chooses Aristocrat as one of his two starting careers gains 50gc each month from his family holdings.
Starting Assets: 200 gc

Sorcerer-

Special: Choose the element the Sorcerer can manipulate: Fire, Ice, Stone, or Storm. Once chosen, the element does not change. Abilities are determined by element. Spells are determined by element.

Now I've created my own Element that I've dubbed Shadow, this is meant specifically for Lady Ellsworth and thus my own purposes. I'm happy for other people to use long as they bear in mind that it is still Work in Progress and still incomplete, though I'd be grateful for feedback to be posted in this thread; http://privateerpressforums.com/showthread.php?120054-Homebrew-Sorcerer-Element-Shadow

Shadow
Spells: Influence, Piercing Shadows and Telgesh Mark
Special: Feat: Strength of Will - After failing a fatigue roll, spend a feat point and automatically pass. (This is a benefit normally granted under Gifted, though other careers include Archetype benefits as career abilities)

(all elements are the same for the following)
Military Skills: Choose 1: Archery 1, Crossbow 1, or Hand Weapon 1
Occupational Skills: Detection 1 and Survival 1

4. Increase character's stats

At character creation you get 3 ability points to increase stats and customize your characters with, though each race has a 'Level Limit' on how high these stats can go. Levels in the IKRPG are actually more like tiers in the form of Hero, Veteran and Epic and the level limits are included in each race's stat profile. The ability points can be spent to increase a stat on a 1:1 ratio, basically one point increases a stat by one.

We'll increase our Arcane stat to 4 and our primary stats AGL and INT by one as well, the primary stats determine how much health you have on your character's Life Spiral. So now we're looking at something along the lines of this;

PHY 5
SPD 6
STR 4
AGL 5
PRW 4
POI 4
INT 4
ARC 4
PER 3

5. Finishing touches

Now you sort out your gear, money, background, etc.

And thats it, a relatively simple system of character creation compared to say D&D that should take long to create a character with.

Mis-Adventures In The Iron Kingdoms 28/8/2012

It seems initially there'll be a limited selection of monsters to fight in the new IKRPG, though it was been said that more will be released through the magazine No Quarter and in future books.

However there are no stats at present for the Rusalka and so I've taken it upon myself to create some.

~

Rusalka

SPD 7 - STR 5 - MAT 5 - RAT 4 - DEF 15 - ARM 12
Willpower 9 - Initiative 15 - Detect 6 - Sneak 7

Rusalka Blade - POW 3, P+S 8
- Magical Weapon
- Poison (Extra die on damage rolls vs living models)

Abilities
Amphibious - This character treats water as open terrain and gains concealment while within water.
Camouflage - This character gains an additional +2 DEF when benefiting from concealment or cover.
Feat Points - This character starts each encounter with 1 feat point. It is allocated 1 feat point at the start of each of its turns. It can only have up to 1 feat point at a time.
Prowl - This character is virtually invisible while in the shadows or in terrain that grants a degree of concealment. He gains Stealth while within terrain that provides concealment, the AOE of a spell that provides concealment, or the AOE of a cloud effect.
Unearthly Laughter - This character can spend 1 feat point during his turn to use this ability. When this ability is used all enemy models within 5" of this character must pass a Willpower check or be made Stationary for one round.

Arcane 3
Will Weaver

Base Size -Small
Encounter Points - 5

Spells
Fog of War
Inhospitable Ground
Mirage

Life Spiral
Physique - 5
Agility - 4
Intellect - 4

This looks about right to me, basically a sneaky 'lil blighter with a few tricks up its sleeve. More of a trickster than a combat monster but can be quite lethal if she manages to sneak into the party's campsite at night or lures away a PC by themselves. Slippery bugger to land a hit on but is fairly fragile, though she can use Unearthly Laughter and/or Mirage to try and escape if cornered.

Though feel free to use and playtest.

~

Similarly I'm having to create some career options for the campaign I'm running, this included another magic path for the Sorcerer that is still very much work in progress and can be found here;

http://privateerpressforums.com/showthread.php?120054-Homebrew-Sorcerer-Element-Shadow

Workbench 27/8/2012

Well I've I've some progress on the modelling front.

Picked up Croe's Cutthroats, though their metal models and so I'll be taking my time putting them together. Though I did have a conversion idea of maybe trying to do an all-female Croe's Cutthroats using the Khadoran Kayazy Eliminators.

Thoughts?

Also on the workbench has been the old Iron Kingdoms RPG model of Alexia Conner, basically a repair and convert job. The sword had snapped off a while back and I finally gotten back round to gluing it back on, though decided that I could use the model for an NPC in my current IK game and trimmed down the sword. It actually works quite well and most suitable for use as Lady Ellsworth.

~ ~ ~

Slight change in the schedule this week due to the Bank Holiday, Mis-Adventures in the IK will be tomorrow and Newes from the Front will be on Wednesday.

Still accepting emails for the Mailbox, so please send them to; stormwell55-at-hotmail-dot-com

Immeron Newes 24/8/2012

Only one Privateer Insider this week, this time round from the Seacat.

He talks about some of the work that went into the new Iron Kingdoms RPG, chiefly the fluff and the setting's background. Of note was a PDF preview from the new RPG book covering the icons of the various Ascendants of Morrow.

Link; http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-8-23-2012

~ ~ ~

MAILBOX

Again, feel free to email in questions, thoughts, suggestions to; stormwell55-at-hotmail-dot-com

Armchair Briefing 23/8/2013

Up this week is the Mangler heavy warjack.

Backstory

Another one of the warjacks designed and built by Asbeth Magnus, the Mangler quickly became a favoured heavy warjack chassis amongst various mercenary companies. It was built from a collection of stolen labourjacks and outdated warjacks, its massive spiked ball it attached to a chain often nabbed from ship anchors or drawbridges.

Abilities

See weapons.

Weapons

*Punching Spike; Melee with a respectful P+S of 15, plus Open Fist to allow one-handed throws.

*Wrecker; Reach, ignores Shields and a special attack that allows a single attack against every single enemy model in LOS and melee range makes for a weapon thats a world of hurt for infantry.

Tactics

Typically I use the Mangler to clear out pesky infantry units, though I make it a habit to put Temper Metal on this 'jack to boost its ARM up to 21 so that it can survive hits against it with very single damage. Its a melee 'jack so get it stuck into combat soon as possible and try to position to hit one or two infantry units at the same time, Reach helps alot here, and then use Tresher on the chain ball. Alternative might be to put Iron Aggression on him instead to allow him to boost attack rolls for free and to give that extra chance to hit models with above average DEF.

Mis-Adventures In The Iron Kingdoms 21/8/2012

Well finally had the group together for the first time in about a month.

It proved to be a Role Play heavy night, some shenanigans between a couple of the characters and some investigation.

Having previously found some Thamarite literature back in the library of Lady Ellsworth's townhouse in Caspia the party decided to check out the library of her estate in Corvis. This library proved to be more used and kept in a cleaner state, but searching the bookcases didn't turn up anything suspicious. Further searching revealed a trapdoor that led down to a small camber and a short passageway leading off it, the passageway in turn ended at a T-junction with doors on either side. The door on the left had one set of footprints going in and out of it whilst the room itself was a wizard's workshop/study, an old journal revealed it was used by Lady Ellsworth's father and that he hid spellcasters accused as 'witches' from Vinter's Inquisition and smuggled them to safety using his shipping company. There was a copy of the Morrowan bible that also contained Thamar's writing, of note was that somebody had read the sections on the Twins' ascendant. Checking the door on the right revealed little more than old barracks style room used to hide the aforementioned spellcasters but now used for storage by the servants.

Not finding much else the party went in search of a drunkard who claimed to have found the wreck of the River Mistress (a riverboat that had disappeared on route to Caspia carrying one of the Black Pearls) and discovered that the wreck was inland after the creek it had floated down filled in and that it was haunted. A quick visit to the Strangelight Workshop and the party gained ownership of a couple of special goggles that allowed them to see spirits. After hiring a boat they set off deep into the swamp south of Corvis, coming across a skeleton of a man who'd been shot and died after crawling away from the wreck they sought. Quick glance through the goggles showed that his spirit was a pulsating dark blue colour streaked with black, basically Chaotic Evil and marked by Infernals. Approaching the wreck they found more skeletons and other spirits that had also been marked by Infernals, plus signs that the crew had turned on the passengers and then each other.

The Black Pearl they sought they quickly found along with some dead crewmen who'd pried open a crate of gold bullion before they were killed. Checking the captain's cabin they found an old journal that a man had been pulled from the river floating on a wooden crate. There was unrest amongst the crew and rumours of gold soon after, expecting a mutiny the captain kept weapons on him at all times and planned to hand the crate over to the authorities at Fort Falk. His last entry detailed that a mutiny had took place, but it appeared he was killed shortly after writing the last entry. The party took some of the gold which turned out to be fake; the man pulled from the river had been an Infernalist who'd marked everyone onboard the boat and got shot as he was making good his escape.

Thus thats where the game ended.

Newes From The Front 20/8/2012

Got a game in Monday night against a Khador player who ran a Butcher Tier list.

pButcher
-Juggernaunt
-Kodiak
-Maruader
-Wardog
Man-O-War Demo Corps x3
Man-O-War Demo Corps x3
Manhunter x2
Widowmaker Kaptain

I'd used my Magnus Tier list with the Mule instead of the Mangler so I had the ranged advantage and we rolled up a scenario; Throw Down

Nice and simple, take and keep control of two 10" diameter circles along the centerline of the board.

During the early turns my advantage paid off and I managed to inflict a few casualties amongst the Soviet Red Army...Khadorans including one of the Man-O-War units to allow me to at least contest one of the control points with the Halberdiers and the Wardog. The Riflemen didn't do as well as their melee counterparts and only claimed a single Man-O-War from the second unit, though they only lost a couple themselves and managed to pull back to reform as a gunline. Saxon was felled with a single bullet from the Widowmaker, though didn't inflict only damage himself and only helped out the Halberdiers by giving them Pathfinder for a couple of turns.

In the center the Mule fired off a few potshots at the Butcher and took him down to about half health, but the combined actions of the Kodiak and the Angriest Man On Caen eventually turned the Mule into a smoking wreck. The Nomad proceed to smash ten bells out of the Maruader, lost its sword arm in return and was eventually finished off my a Manhunter. Renegade No.1 was also lost to a Manhunter but took one of them with it, its twin tangoed with the Maruader to keep it occupied until I withdrew it when Magnus' feat was popped.

Last turn of the game I still had Magnus on full health, one of the Renegades and the surviving Riflemen forming into a protective block. The surviving Halberdiers still stubbornly hung on and contested one of the control points....well at least until the Butcher introduced Lola to them.

Thus Khador won on scenario.

Thoughts

In retrospect I'm thinking maybe I should've focused my entire force on taking control of one of the control points and using my ranged units to whittle down the Khadorans, probably focusing on one target at a time and using Arcantik Bolt. Had I used the Mangler instead of the Mule I suspect I would have been in for a tougher fight, the Mule's AOE was certainly useful throughout the game until the 'jack got destroyed. I also should have boosted blast damage rather than the initial hit on certain targets, least I would've taken out certain models that proved to be a bane for me later on.

All-in-all, an enjoyable game.

Workbench & IK Newes 20/8/2012

Workbench

Sadly this past week I hadn't had much of a chance to do some work on my miniatures, though I'm aiming to get them undercoated at least this week. Bonus if I can get some decent pics of my current collection.

IKRPG Now Due 19th September!

Big news from PP over the weekend was the announcement the the new IKRPG would be out a month earlier than originally planned, so mark your calenders for 19th September and get the pre-orders in.

Town Crier - August

This is little bit of a Public Service Announcement that I plan on doing once a month (probably on the first Saturday of each month) where I'll post news about the blog and where people can post feedback.

I'll kick off this first one with a couple of things I have planned for the blog;

*Add extra pages to compile links for a collection of certain articles together like the Workbench or RPG stuff for easier browsing. Think something like a quick links section.

*Continue with the Mailbox segment, perhaps adding an email form for people to post me questions.

*Review having ads on the blog, my original intention was to use the revenue from them to help fund a custom domain. If people want 'em or not then vote yay or nay in the comments, I'd like to hear people's thoughts on the matter.

*Expand the viewer count, working towards this already.

*See which articles prove popular and which don't, maybe do extra articles (open for suggestion here).

Thats all folks.

Immeron Newes 17/8/2012

Well the big news this week from PP is that they are of course at Gencon Indy this weekend.

This year they're in attendance with the pre-releases of the new IKRPG and a few con exclusive models including the Ashlynn resculpt, Druid Gone Wilder and Bombardier Bombshell of which the latter two are currently available through PP's webstore. I'm actually half-tempted to grab the Druid myself despite not being a Hordes player, its a pretty decent models and fairly inexpensive as models go. Though I'll most certainly be picking up the Ashlynn resculpt when it goes on sale through the webstore after Gencon.

Word on the boards concerning the IKRPG is that it sold out pretty quickly, many people have said it was gone within the first hour or so of Gencon opening. I had hazard a guess that it would be insanely popular in the run-up to Gencon but I didn't think it would be THAT popular.

This week's Insider was a short bit on LEVEL 7 [ESCAPE] and the tools the team developed to allow people to play characters based upon themselves.

MAILBOX

Please send questions, etc to stormwell55-at-hotmail-com

~ ~ ~

Thats almost all for this week folks, check back tomorrow for an extra post.

Armchair Briefing 16/8/2012

This week we're covering Magnus' signature warjack the Renegade.

Backstory

The Renegade is the result of Magnus' Meckanikal skills, being designed and assembled whilst the warcaster was on the run during the first few years of his exile. The main body is based on decommissioned Cygnaran 'jacks whilst various parts were salvaged from junkyards across Western Immeron. After seizing an estate in Ternon Crag Magnus gained access to a workshop and was enable to make improvements upon the basic design, presently his Renegades all utilize parts claimed from wrecks abandoned after the countless battles from which he emerged the victor.

Abilities

*Arc Node; Only Merc 'jack that has access to one.

*Custom Warjack [Magnus]; Only Magnus (in either form) is allowed to use this 'jack.

Weapons

*Obliterator; One-shot weapon with Arcing Fire and Knockdown makes this 'jack good in the indirect fire support role until it fires this weapon.

*Shredder; Critical Shred is nice for the extra damage but getting a double 6 is rare, Sustained Attack is extremely nice long as you loaded up the 'jack with Focus and hit first time.

Tactics

The Renegade is one of the 'jacks that tries to do everything but masters nothing, its most powerful weapon the Obliterator can only be used once per game and more often than not (in my experience) needs boosting on the attack roll to even remotely hit a target. The Arc Node is of use most games and I have found myself using it a few times to hit targets just outside of Magnus' normal spell range, but it is a bit slow for a light 'jack. I've only really used the Shredder on rare occasions, you really need to dump all the focus you can onto this little bugger to get the most out of it.

Common census says you typically run a single Renegade with Magnus, though his Tier list requires two (but makes them cheaper) and so thats what I've usually put on the board. Taking a couple certainly gives you a bit more flexibility and some more options, not to mention being able to use the Obliterator twice and a couple of Arc Nodes.

All in all a solid light 'jack that provides Magnus with a range of tools to help get the job done.

Mis-Adventures In The Iron Kingdoms 15/8/2012

Well I promised last week that I'd post up my plans for my current IK campaign and details on the characters, I plan to deliver on that promise but the characters will be posted up later today. So now its just the campaign that I'll be focusing on in this entry.

Campaign As It Stands

At present there are two plot lines that are taking place;

*The Black Pearls which the party are sort of tracking down for the Circle Orboros, though the party hasn't really delved too much into the history of the Pearls.

*Lady Ellsworth, the party's patron, isn't quite who she claims to be. The use of 'black magic' and ownership of Thamarite books certainly raised some questions, it is believed that she may even be aiming for godhood. As a sideplot to this there is a missing brother who was last spotted in Llael at the time of the Khadoran invasion.

So, Where To From Here?

Its sunk into the players that the Black Pearls are very bad news and must be dealt with, though thankfully there are only two such Pearls left to find. The first is located in a riverboat boat that has been missing for a number of years, though the wreck is located in the swamps near Corvis but the party have to contend with Gatormen tribes and the restless spirits of the doomed boat's passengers and crew. Course to find the damn boat they first have to track down the drunkard swampie that 'claimed' to have found the wreck, something that won't be an easy task. As for the boat itself and what happened to it I'm thinking of 'borrowing' (read: steal) the plot from the film Ghost Ship and have it that an Infernalist managed to get everyone on board to kill each other over some fake gold whilst the boat ended up drifting down a creek.

The second Pearl is a tad easier, it was brought by a Llaelese nobleman and so they have to track him down and discover his fate. Thinking of making the nobleman one of Archduke Glabryn's cronies, perhaps even the new Llaelese Minister of Internal Security so at the party could gain the help of the Llaelese Resistance. Course whilst in Llael the party could also try and track down Lady Ellsworth's missing brother if they wished to do so, but the Llaelese trip will largely be dictated by the party's own actions and decisions.....though I'll have Winterguard stated up just in case.

Now regarding Lady Ellsworth I had planned from the very start that she isn't quite who she claims to be, though the thing is she IS Lady Ellsworth though technically only in body. Confused? Good. I deliberately put in false clues and red herrings to throw off the party, which thus far have worked quite well. At present the party is under the impression that somebody killed the 'real' Lady Ellsworth and replaced her, theres a few little clues that support this theory but nothing really solid. What is really up with Lady Ellsworth is probably closer to a procession, basically a character of mine from a previous D&D game ended up on Caen and in the body of the then younger Lady Ellsworth. Over time the....entity (we'll go with that for now) gradually became powerful enough to fully take control and has been working on ways to free themselves, hence the books on Thamar's ascension.

Eventually the party will find out the truth about Lady Ellsworth and must decide whether to help the entity with its plans or not, though the Pearls will come into play again since they are powerful artefacts that the entity can make use of.

If It All Goes Pear Shaped?

It probably will.

Llael is where I see the party royally screwing things up, given the party itself I'd be surprised if nothing goes wrong. When the time comes and things do go badly wrong a roll of the dice will decide whether they end up in a Khadoran prison or get whisked to safety by the Llaelese Resistance, but really we'll have to see what happens.

~ ~ ~

Later today I should have details of the party itself up.

Oh and send questions, etc in for Friday's Mailbox to; stormwell55-at-hotmail-dot-com

Newes Fromt The Front 14/8/2012

Well haven't been able to get any games in this past week and so no battle report to post.

Instead the focus this time is on lists I wish to play, ultimately moving up my current list to 50 points from the 35 points it currently sits at.

pMagnus
- Mangler/Mule
- Nomad
- Renegade
- Renegade
Steelhead Halberdiers x10
Steelhead Riflemen x10
Croe’s Cutthroats
Stannis Brocker
Saxon Orrik
Orin Midwinter
Kell Bailoch

As with my current list the Mule is optional depending on what armies I'm facing, though the big fella will most likely be in when I'm facing melee heavy armies. The Mangler will be in when I'm facing Cygnar, effectively using Magnus' Hit and Run feat to get 20 inches across the board though some careful use of timing will be needed.

Kell Bailoch will probably be paired off with the Riflemen to lend them a hand, whilst the Halberdiers will get the support of Saxon Orrik and Stannis Brocker. Midwinter I've never used but common wisdom suggests he's best sticking close to Magnus.

The Cutthroats will be flank runners, probably operating opposite the Riflemen and helping to clear out infantry thanks to the overkill of Poison they have on every damn weapon!

It'll be a few months before I get the models together for this list but it looks to be a fun one to play.

Workbench 13/8/2012

Just a quick one this time round.

*Finally finished putting together the Steelhead units (Halberdiers and Riflemen) and so now have a fully assembled 35 points army.

*Next I'll be breaking out the paintbrush to undercoat the entire army in Chaos Black.

*Croe's Cutthroats are on order so I can start making the jump to 50 points.

Immeron Newes 10/8/2012

The big news this past week from PP has been the release of War Room.

This app for smart phones and the iPad, from what I've noticed, has suffered a few problems ranging from a delayed launch and bugs post-release. That said I understand that the bugs are being sorted out, however I'm sure alot of people are annoyed that these problems weren't sorted out sooner given the delay of its release.

I don't own a smart phone or iPad so its unlikely that I'll be getting War Room any time soon, so I can't really give a review of it. Course there are plenty of threads on the PP forums on War Room.

Mailbox

Well didn't have any questions sent in, but I'll keeping doing this for the next few weeks.

I'm after questions regarding Warmachine/Hordes/Iron Kingdoms, mainly general questions on stuff like the setting or certain units.

If you think of anything then please email me at; stormwell55-at-hotmail-dot-com

Armchair Briefing 9/8/2012

Welcome to Thursday's little segment; Armchair Briefing.

This is where I'll be discussing tactics, different units and a bit of Theorymachine as I attempt to cover each unit in the game. Alot of this will be based upon personal experience and/or guesswork, so if there is stuff you disagree with or think I've missed then feel free to post in the comments.

First up; Magnus the Traitor

Backstory

Magnus was once a warcaster and commander in the Cygnaran Army serving King Vinter Raelthorne IV, he was known to have a knack for mechanika and for his ferocity in battle.Though the lives of his troops meant little to him, happily sacrificing them to achieve victory at any cost. He naturally found favour with King Vinter, a man that he would remain resolute in his loyalty to.

When King Leto came to power Magnus was offered a pardon and military commission. Viewing this mercy as a sign of weakness Magnus led remnants of troops still loyal to Vinter in a bloody guerilla war. Since going rogue he has worked tirelessly to see his former master King Vinter restored to the rightful ruler of Cygnar and will stop at nothing until that goal is achieved.

Abilities

A brief overview of Magnus' abilities;

*Backstab; Extra damage die on attacks against a model's back arc, though of limited use. Best way to get the most it is either clearly position an Arc Node to gain Backstab on a spell or charge a model in its back arc to get a 5d6 damage, but this is tricky to pull off.

*Feign Death; Immune to ranged and magic attacks whilst knocked down, whilst useful it's let down by the rarity that Magnus will be knocked down.

*Resourceful; Hands down this is Magnus' best ability, basically upkeep spells for free which makes Magnus super focus efficient.

Feat

Hit and Run is one of those feats that require careful thinking and timing for when you use it, it can be used offensively early on during the first turn  to get your battlegroup across the board or later on defensively to pull your 'jacks back without suffering free strikes. Common rule of thumb is the latter option, though I suspect if used first turn you could possibly throw off an unwary opponent.

Weapons

Magnus has three weapons of note;

*Scattergun; Shotgun, plain and simple. POW 12 weapon with a spray template.

*Foecleaver; Magical Weapon and Powerful Attack that allows both attack and damage rolls to be boosted with just one focus point. Just gravy.

*Mechanikal Arm; Smack somebody in the face and knock them down, 'nuff said.

Spells

Like most warcasters Magnus has access to six spells, a mixture of utilities and offensive ones.

*Arcantrik Bolt; Bit of damage and causes a warjack to be stationary for one round, I've hardly ever used it and feel it isn't all that effective since Stationary can easily be removed. Its low focus cost is probably the only redeeming feature.

*Blur; Boost to DEF against ranged/magic attacks, combined with it being an upkeep and its low focus cost its a very useful spell that I always make a note of using.

*Iron Aggression; Very, VERY useful spell. I tend to get it up soon as I can since its another upkeep and makes a warjack focus efficient. Only draw back is that it costs 3 focus to cast, unless you've got focus to spare I recommend keeping it on a single warjack rather than cycle it.

*Obliteration; Straight up AOE spell with POW 15, nothing at all subtle about this spell and this is reflect in its focus cost.

*Temper Metal; Boost to ARM, on the right 'jack it can make it more tougher than a Khadoran heavy.

*Snipe; The only Merc 'caster to get this spell and makes running ranged units with Magnus that much nicer.

Tactics

Typically Magnus is ideal with his Tier List, all four Tiers can be done in a 25 point army and allows his upkeeps to be in play on his 'jacks from the get go. Iron Aggression is a good one to put on a heavy, perhaps Temper Metal on a second heavy if you're running two. Blur I'll put on an infantry unit to ensure that it can get across the board, or perhaps even on Magnus himself if you're playing him aggressively. Snipe should be cycling between your ranged units as and when needed, given how efficient Magnus is with his focus it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Magnus is the only warcaster with access to the Renegade light warjack, most people only run one but his Tier list requires two and so that is generally what I take. Taking two means you can have an arc node on either flank along with a one-shot AOE, this helps you stay flexible but I find that the AOE usually needs to be boosted on its attack roll to actually hit anything. But I'll be covering this 'jack in more detail later on.

With Magnus I've often found that you need to be keep him shielded at all times or otherwise it could cost you the game. When putting him into melee make sure to load him up with focus, use the Mechanikal Army to knock down a target first and then hack away with the sword. He can make short work of an enemy 'caster when in melee if the dice gods are with you.

Generally Magnus is a pretty good 'jack 'caster, though he still needs some good support options. Make sure to take some ranged units and have ways of boosting them.

~ ~ ~

Another reminder, Mailbox is tomorrow and I'm still accepting questions.

Send them in to; stormwell55-at-hotmail-dot-com

Mis-Adventures In The Iron Kingdoms 8/8/2012

Well this is looking like the spot where my RP group's rampage through the Iron Kingdoms will probably get reported each week along with my plans as GM for the campaign and whether or not those plans failed miserably (damn meddling kids!).

With the group on a short break for the next couple of weeks I'll be posting up a two-parter; a recap of the campaign thus far and my plans for the campaign next week. If anything it'll show how the campaign has evolved and the number of times I've had to revise my plans.

Backstory

I had originally intended to adapt the D&D 3.5 Savage Tide campaign (printed in the now defunct Dungeon magazine) to the Iron Kingdoms, the first half - perhaps two-thirds - of the campaign would've been simple enough to do simply by changing the monsters to something more suitable for the IK where needed. The final chapter or so would've been more difficult to do and I was planning on having the party go to Cryx and fight an Iron Lich as suppose to going to the Abyssal Plane in the Savage Tide campaign.

As the campaign progressed it deviated from the Savage Tide one that I had originally decided to use;

*Lady Ellsworth became the name of the party's patron, the heiress of a shipping company after her parents were executed by King Vinter's agents during the Skorne occupation of Corvis during the events of the Witchfire Trilogy. She had a brother (who has only recently come to light) who was last seen in Llael round the time of the Khadoran Invasion and is missing presumed dead. The other big difference is that she only has a single NPC merc bodyguard on the payrole as suppose to a fully fledged group of NPCs in Savage Tide, this NPC has since been taken over by a player.

*The Black Pearls became Isoan artefacts which the Circle Orboros has been trying to track down and seemingly destroy (well thats what the Circle itself has said). The party has already encountered the effects of a single Pearl in a pirate lair and are now trying to track down the last two missing Pearls, namely one on a missing steamboat and the other somewhere in Llael.

*The Crimson Fleet just became some random group of pirates with a much lesser role in the campaign mainly limited to three encounters; an attack on the Ellsworth estate in Corvis, the pirate lair post-Pearl and another attack against a distant colony originally founded by Lady Ellsworth's late father. They had also been mentioned harassing vessels of the Ellsworth Shipping Co. but at present they've effectively bowed out of the campaign.

*Isle of Dread I intended to do as printed in the Savage Tide campaign but with some minor changes, something that I did do with the voyage down. However the party found a way to effectively bypass the island and forced me to revise my plans completely, a single battle against the pirates took place (using adapted Warmachine rules) along with a trip to a ruined Menite temple and a meeting with a Circle Wayfarer. It was also here thanks to the Wayfarer that they found out about what the Black Pearls actually were.

*A Rusalka ended up becoming a recurring villain who ended up plaguing the group, managed to get the group to work for her and then the group got even by finding a relic that controlled the Grymkin. She also had a bit of backstory developed for her where she was originally the lover of a Menite priest/warrior when she was still Human. After she changed the disgruntled Menite create the relic that controls her. Thus far she managed to survive the party's wrath by letting slip some juicy gossip about Lady Ellsworth, though the party forgot to order her to be truthful....

*And to come full circle Lady Ellsworth I had planned from the get-go to be an imposter, originally intended simply to be somebody posing as an estranged daughter who claimed the Ellsworth family fortune post-Witchfire. This ended up getting changed a bit to the real Lady Ellsworth being replaced whilst she was in Caspia as a student. Her use of 'black magic' (actually Shadow Magic from the D&D book Tome of Magic) was meant to raise questions, though the source of her magic has since been changed to her being a Malefactor of Thamar and reinforced by Tharmarite books being in her collection. But this forms a second plotline where the party find out who she really is, what her goals are, where her magic comes from and why the group's Paladin cannot sense any evil.

~ ~ ~

Next Week: My goals for the campaign and an overview of characters past and present.

N.B. I'm still excepting questions for a Mailbox segment this Friday.

Newes From The Front 7/8/2012

Got to take the Mule for a spin down at the club last night with a slightly modified version of the 35pts pMagnus list I normally run.

Magnus The Traitor
-Mule
-Nomad
-Renegade
-Renegade
Steelhead Halbardiers x10
Steelhead Riflemen x10
Saxon Orrick

I knew my opponent would be playing Trolls and was half-expecting him to play a Grim Angus list, though I turned out to be surprised.

Epic Doomshaper
-Axer
-Earthborn
-Mauler
-Mulg
Runebearer

Believing that I understood how the Fury mechanic in Hordes worked my whole plan resolved around taking out my opponents warbeasts as quickly as possible. The Mule combined with the Riflemen, the two Renegades and Magnus' Obliteration spell were to give me some nice ranged combat options as the Trolls closed the distance. Saxon was to team up with the Halbardiers and use his anti-beast abilities to charge and take out targets in melee, but as it turned out he died embarrassingly early.

I hadn't counted on Doomie having a few tricks up his sleeve and the Trolls' Regeneration ability, something that ended up costing me the game as I struggled to kill his army. The Mauler got taken out eventually, but I lost just over half my army. The Riflemen spent most of the game sat useless on a flank, but thats due to my own indecision. I could've made more use of them, perhaps supporting the Halbardiers with a Combined Range Attack. Alas, theres probably a ton of stuff I could've done differently and after all each game is a learning experience as you find out what works and what doesn't against different units. 

Despite my defeat it was still a fun game, just need to figure out an effective way of dealing with Trolls...

~ ~ ~

As a reminder I'm still accepting questions for a Mailbox segment on Friday.

IKRPG MK.2

As promised previously a summary of my thoughts on the new Iron Kingdoms RPG from what we've seen from the previews both on PP's website and in No Quarter.

System

It was probably a given that PP would use the 2d6 dice mechanic from Warmachine/Hordes, it would certainly allow a fair few of the players that have picked up the wargame(s) in recent years to pick up the new RPG. The simple 'roll dice add skill and compared against target' should make it a fairly easily game for people to play, though the jury's out on the decision to use tap measures for measuring distances, etc and I'll have to see how it goes during playtests with my RP group.

As a side note, Dungeons and Dragons originally started out using tape measures having adapted the rules from a wargame called Chainmail.

The new Mechanika creation system looks a hell of alot easier to use than in the D20 version and they've used the magic system from the wargames, again this should make it simpler to run than the previous edition.

Feat points sound a little like action points from other games, least it seems like it'll make combat more interesting than the typical 'hack-n-slash' of D&D.

Characters

The lack of levels instantly scored points with me, I've never really been a fan of them preferring a more sandbox approach to character development. Careers that are similar in some respects to the Warhammer Fantasy Role Play is a nice touch to retain classes in a way but helps with the immersion into the setting. Though I was a bit disappointed with the lack of clear counterparts to classes from the D20 Iron Kingdoms such as the Bodger and  the Malefactor of Thamar, plus the lack of a 'cultist' career. There'll be other books with additional careers in them so I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Archetypes are certainly interesting, helping to create more diverse characters. However a sticking point is the requirement to take Gifted in order to play a spellcaster, whilst it does seem like a logical choice it may end up restricting certain characters. Again we'll have to see how it pans out during actual play.

Having only seen Humans and Trollkin race wise I don't have much to say here, the Trollkin does seem to fit in with their fluff and characteristics back in the D20 version. I do have to nitpick the Human one though, compared to the previous version they seem more generic and bland. I had hoped they kept the different Human sub-types that made them more interesting, or at least had something to make a Khard standout from a Morridane. But its entirely possible that they might still have that given there is still quite a bit we haven't seen yet.

Conclusions

I like most of what we've seen thus far even if theres a couple of things that nag me, that said there is still alot of things we haven't seen yet like skills, etc. Having done a big battle using a mockup of the new rules I can say combat will be hell of alot more fun, especially since I'm pretty much burnt out on D20 at present.


But throwing caution to the wind ultimately we'll find out how good the new IKRPG is when we finally sit down to play it.

~ ~ ~

Planning on having a 'mailbox' segment on Fridays where I'll answer Warmachine/IK related questions. Feel free to message me here, on the PP boards or email; stormwell55-at-hotmail-dot-com