Clockwork_Fish

Had my first game with Shenlong today; Turf War against Ulix. My opponent conceded middle of turn 4 when Shenlong burned through Penelope an Ulix in a single activation using High River Stance. My crew was Shenlong, Sensei Yu, two Students, High River Monk, two Wandering River Monks, a Low River Monk, a Tanuki, and a Samurai. The Samurai did a great job holding up one flank, while Shenlong and Yu kind of held up the middle. The Tanuki mostly sat between the Samurai and Shenlong and Sensei Yu, handing out focus (mostly successfully). It's certainly a big change from 2e. I had a ten model crew, where previously I would rarely have more than six. Wandering River Monks were slippery little eels and got to my opponent's deployment zone easy peasy. The game board had some buildings that worked to the Monks' advantage, allowing them to leap around and drop scheme markers for breakthrough without interruption. The spent all their Chi on defense and making sure Leap succeeded. Only thing either killed was one or two piglets. High River Monk was ... present (?) for the battle. I can definitely maybe say that. I found him a bit sluggish, and the terrain was not favourable to him, so he didn't get to do much. Will have to try him some more. Definite improvement over the OLD High River Monk though. Their damage output is rather flat, with the exception of Shenlong himself. Everyone's 2/3/4 or 1/3/4. They hit very consistently though, thanks to Chi. Hence why I took a Samurai, to add a little oomph. Overall really enjoyed it. 😃

And his wingman, Rail Metal Golem.

Fire Golem! I was really intimidated by this model when I first got him.

Here’s a question; do different Mantras stack? If a Gamin is standing next to two Oxfordians, he only heals once when he concentrates. But if he’s next to Kandara and an Oxfordian, does he have to pick a Mantra to use?

H'okay, not perfect, but still, quite proud of the fire effects. Dunno why I was worried about it not working before. Just did what I did with Kandara's hair in reverse. This was really fun, and I think the Fire Golem will be next!

Everything on this was contrast. Skin was a thinned down Talassar Blue. I tried using it straight from the pot, but found there wasn't enough detail on the skin to make that work, so thinned it down bit and it worked fine. I'm finding that Contrast Medium is the solution to a lot of the problems I've had with the stuff so far. The darker colours work poorly on larger, flatter, less detailed surfaces, and work as intended on small, detailed things. Templar Black, as the darkest of all, is great on things like guns but has been giving me grief trying to paint Batman mini (he just came out of the Simple Green). I'm thinking multiple thin coats will be the answer for Mr Wayne. As for the arm and leg bands, those were an experiment. I painted them using a light yellow, then went over with Agaros Dunes. Then added a few highlights. Turned out okay. The hair was done by laying down pure contrast medium onto the hair, then adding a new colour while it was still wet. Did that over a progressively smaller area with progressively darker paints.

Finished Oxfordian Mage #2 (don't really need three anymore, so the last can stay in the box). Aethermatic Blue is great, even if it's not quite a blue. Also Kandara. Needs a bit more work, but I liked how the hair turned out. Wanted to try a kind of 'sunset' thing, where I did the hair in successive layers from yellow, to orange, to purple.

How weird is it that the Archer is even a consideration? A year ago, mine were collecting dust.

I wouldn’t say distracted is their only defence, in fact it’s not even their primary one. Most of the crew only hands it out on triggers. They aren’t Performers. Youko pressures her opponent’s hand a lot, and the crew is pretty card efficient once you start gaining pass counters. Running her aggressively (ideally with a bodyguard) should keep the number of shockwaves down. In theory, anyways. Even low target numbers need cheating sometimes.

WIP Shastar Vidiya Guard. I was worried that I wouldn't like the yellow, that it'd be like Magos Purple, and be a really washed out colour with minimal pigment. I was pleasantly surprised with how rich the colour was. I normally hate painting yellow, so this is getting used a lot. And yes, I'm going full Power Rangers with this crew, so green is next.

The basic fleshtones they give you are good for what you get, but if you just paint them onto the recommended base paints you get several different shades of white people. However, if you paint the contrast flesh colours onto other traditional flesh colours you get a really nice dark skin, a lot better than some more traditional painting methods. Going to try painting Neil Henry once I'm done this crew by painting him light brown, then going over with contrast, to see if I can get him dark enough. More generally, I'm finding that the recommended base paints kind of limit what you can do. I'm currently trying to make the black work a little better by basecoating a Batman mini in GW Thunderhawk Blue. Then I'll go over it with Templar Black contrast. You either die a hero, or live long enough to become some nerd's painting labrat!

Had a hard time getting the right lighting to show this guy. Had to take it outside. Admit to not being very good at photos. This was Basilicanum Grey, then Magos Purple after it dried. Then more Basilicanum, then MORE Magos. Lightly drybrushed with a bit of grey, which for some reason shows up the photo like I frosted the damn thing. I like how the contrast paints blend together. Someone more talented than me could probably pull off some really cool colour transitions with it.

Okay, here's finished Kudra and my first Oxfordian Mage. Really liking Snakebite Leather, along with the other fleshtones, browns and sepia type colours. The leather bits are just straight up Snakebite. Just need to back in and do the buckles.

Haven't tried him, but I do like the ability to hand out Staggered with a action. I don't think he's bad at least.

Here's WIP Kudra. Was hoping to have more done by now, but real life got in the way. Turns out that when a billion people swarm Toronto your commute home from work can be unexpectedly delayed! 😐 Incidentally, skin tones were done by basing those areas in Cadian Fleshtone, then going over it with Guilliman Flesh contrast paint.