Storytime with I_Avian: The Saga of Muggs and Krump

“He gave the snare gun to me! That means I’m the favourite!”

Muggs squared his shoulders and walked with as much swagger as his Pygmy frame could hold. Krump stuck out his tongue and shouldered Muggs into a tree. The two Pygs scrambled at each other for a flurry of seconds, each pushing and trying to force the other into a headlock to deliver The Dreaded Noogie.

Krump was certain he was about to win when Grim’s angry whistle cut through the muttered curses and name calling. The two Pygs immediately stood to attention, whistling innocently. Krump nonchalantly placed Muggs’ bowler hat back on his friend’s head. It was only a bit dented.

Converting the Masses: Sticking to a Theme: Part 1

Right, sooo I have a little problem when it comes to modeling minis. I see a fantastic mini and think to myself, “He needs a better pose, more dynamic, more guns, more bling and just… more!” I can’t just open a box and put together minis from stock anymore. It’s a problem I’ve developed over my many years in the hobby. What I love the most, however, about putting together war gaming minis, is having a good idea behind it. The best way to differentiate your army from anyone else’s is a really solid theme. It makes your army look unique and well.. awesome!. Now this can be purely colour choice or it could involve a little conversion work.

Over the course of the next few articles, I will be showing you how to choose a theme and stick to it. I’ll cover the simple stuff like colour choice and basing themes, as well as the little extra details that will just push your theme from “Yeaaaaaaah that’s pretty good…” to “Mind. Blown!!!”

Hacking the Cortex: Know Thyself

If you take a casual interest in (Pop) Psychology, you’ve probably heard the phrase “Mindfulness”. It’s a big buzzword right now, equally drawing attention from good scientific researchers and pseudoscientific hacks looking to sell a book. As such, there’s a whole lot of bunkum attached to the idea that’s of little value. In particular, it’s talked about as if it’s a panacea in and of itself. It’s not, but it’s a very useful skill on which you can build other useful skills.

Simple Scenery: An Introduction to Water Effects

Scenery is a vital aesthetic to war games, you can certainly play a game of Warmachine with books, CD spindles and other household objects as terrain and it is indeed adequately functional. The fact though, is that most war gamers will spend a large amount of time building and painting their miniatures for the look that they want. I personally believe this is because we not only want to win, but to look good doing it, and nothing complements a beautifully painted army like a beautiful battlefield to fight on.

How to Spice A Gorax – Introduction

There is nothing quite as satisfying as a well cooked meal, and nothing quite as splooshifying as a well cooked meal that makes your guests giggle wildly at the idea. If you are like me, and my local meta, you talk about Warmachine way too much. As I write this, we are sitting around a table, drink is flowing and warmachine banter abounds. It was at one of these little pow-wows that the idea for this column came to being. And Menoth be praised we are going to do this thing. So sit back, set yo’ taste buds to salivate and welcome ladies and gentlemen, to How to Spice a Gorax.

Nemesis: Lady Goat. Aside – Tipping the Scales

Morvahna the Dawnshadow is my dream caster. I lasted about a week before changing back to Circle, because man I hate dice. She is the only caster that I constantly review upwards in power level. Why does she have life trader? She has a 13” threat, and if you’re caster is within 11” she can ram you and your caster definitely dies. Anywho, I digress!

Scales of Fate makes her. Fog of war in Circle, and purification are powerful. Scales of Fate alters the course of games. And she doesn’t really pay to use it with all of her healing. If you think she does, you haven’t seen her in game enough. I’ve been watching Will Pagani’s (skillt) videos and reading all of the threads, in addition to play experience. And she makes everything insane!

Nemesis: The Lich. 2 – Into the Onioney Breach

“That boomhowler is within nine of Madelyn, so I use the intrigue move to shuffle the bile thrall leader forward by three inches.”

“Sure… I..”

“I activate Darragh and shuffle all my undead forward an inch.”

“Wait… Oh n-”

“Excarnate, boosting to hit.”

“No, no, no, no, no! I thought I was safe!”

Nemesis: The Lich. 1 – Introduction to Doom

“And that’s the last bile thrall?”

“Yes. No more purges.”

“Great! I’m through the worst of it, okay, I charge the Lich-”

“He has hellbound up.”

“What the f— is hellbound!?”

Starting Armies: Part 1 – Circle Orboros

Welcome to the wonderful pair of tactical miniatures war games that are Warmachine and Hordes. Allow me to adjust my nerd glasses for a second and snort in a snide manner. Pretentions aside, this is a game of man/woman-dolls, and that’s okay because toys are fun. It’s my opinion that WarmaHordes is the best of these games. That’s not what I intend to discuss here though.

This is an article aimed at two kinds of people. The first group are those who are new to the game, having played a few battle box games and dabbled in the factions. You have decided your path to glory, but the big bad world of 35 points and above is daunting. You want to get to know your faction while building your way up to the more commonly used levels of play. Excellent, you’ve made a good start. The second type of person this is aimed at are those people who are looking to move into a new faction. Phenomenal! Branching out into other factions has certainly improved my play enormously. In fact it’s not a bad idea to play the faction that you have the most trouble against and learning the game from that side.

Hacking the Cortex: Cognitive Biases and Tilt

The phrase “Going On Tilt” has entered the everyday vocabulary in our local playgroup, and I see it more and more often online. In the manner of slang, it creeped and crawled its way from the neighbouring country of Poker Slang into the lexicon of some podcasters who spread the linguistic virus far and wide in our own little community. In Poker and in Warmachine, being “On Tilt” refers to a state of mind wherein your emotions start to override your rational decisions, adversely affecting your gameplay.