White Company - Sort of but not quite the last bits to start playing

 

I got another batch of White Company back from That Mr Shy. When I ordered these, the intention was that they'd be the last bits I needed to start playing. However, unexpectedly, the EIC announced a tournament for the end of October, and included Unmasking, which requires three civilian models when I only have two - I've sent a small painting batch away to make up that gap.

First up in this batch are the Dronbots. Remotes are such a key utility piece in any force, I felt it was best to get one of each of the four profiles ready to play to give me much more flexibility in my list building. I may want a second of some of the options, so I need to have a bit of a think about which ones to double up on first, but this is good for now.

I also made sure the batch included the last two "named characters". Not proxying a named character is much clearer for opponents, and both have good uses. Valerya is a good but fragile Hacker, but by joining a link with a Tinbot, she ends up being much more survivable. Meanwhile, Tao Wu is a fringe "sometimes" model that I don't think I'll use often, which is a shame as the model and paint job are absolutely stunning.

On the heavier side, there were two Heavy Infantry I felt are key to White Company that I was missing. First up is the Haidao Hacker. Given one of the significant risks to Heavy Infantry are Hackers, having a model who specialises in taking out Hackers in a Heavy Infantry fireteam seems like a good call. Meanwhile, the ORC Feuerbach is an amazing gun platform and I want to try both that and the HMG to see which I prefer.

A second Varangian Guard won't be something I take every time, but it will be common enough that she was worth picking up. Taking a WarCor to make up points and be the fifteenth order is super common, so that was a no-brainer.

And finally, I had a limited edition HVT model I wanted to use for White Company so included it, bringing me up to two for now. The most I might need is five (for Rescue) so I will need to get a few more, but the priority at the moment is getting the third for Unmasking at EIC.

I'm pretty pleased with how the force is coming along - the next stage is already with Mr Shy to get painted up ahead of EIC, while I get some practice games on, whether in person or on Tabletop Simulator.

New toys to cheer myself up

 

Unfortunately, after Empire LRP, I came down with the 'rona. I'm now testing negative again, but it sucked. I got very little done for a couple of weeks, and it'll take me a while to get caught up on housework and other things that need doing around the house.

Still, as part of that getting caught up was putting away all the parcels that came while I wasn't well or recovering, I've taken some photos to share what has shown up recently. First, we have these two Warhammer Plus subscription models, which have come much faster this year.

I noticed the UK stores were getting Urbanmechs in, which were previously a Kickstarter exclusive. I grabbed a couple, one for my Lyran Guards, and one for my general militia force.

A small Kickstarter of Fantasy Adventurers by Black Scorpion also arrived. I've not taken photos of all the models that came, picking just the single piece ones. The halfling knight on a dodo is particularly delightful, but I also really like the understated elegance of the elf.

The Frozen Wilds Monster Fight Club Kickstarter also arrived. While the Kickstarter was mostly focused on scenery, I decided to pick up some of the add-ons that included an assortment of arctic wildlife, including a dire penguin. They default to coming pre-painted, but I wanted them unpainted, hence the unflattering white material they come in.

There's a good assortment of bears, wolves, penguins and seals that should be nice simple paint jobs.

There were also a wizard and "barbarian" type, both well outfitted for the cold weather. The sculpt and casting quality is really nice, although there are some really obvious mould lines. Hopefully they'll come off easily.

I'm not sure when I'll have the energy to get back to painting - I need to prioritise my Actual Job and making the flat not a disaster zone. Hopefully it won't be too long!

Red Star Blues Infinity Tournament

 

Last weekend was Red Star Blues, an Infinity Tournament held at Hackney Area Tabletop Enthusiasts (or HATE). It was a small event with ten players, though it's intended the next one will be bigger now the first has been a success.

I decided to bring Vanilla Combined to push some models around and shoot some things. I haven't played Vanilla at all before, so I wasn't confident with how I was going to do, but was happy to just roll some dice and have fun.

First up was Supplies, against TomxJ who was running US Ariadna. I took deployment and and was facing off against a strong Grunt link team with two Snipers and a Minuteman Missile Launcher in ARO.

Under the smoke from the Devil Dog, a Foxtrot opened the Supply box and handed the box off to the Devil Dog who ran away with the box. In the centre, again under smoke, they grabbed another box and ran away.

My attacks on the US reaction pieces took ages to take them down, and even at the end of the game, all the reaction pieces weren't down and I still couldn't move around enough.

My Malignos Hacker ran out and grabbed a box, but wasn't able to stay up to hold the box. I managed to get a Classified, meaning I lost 6-1.

Game 2 was Frontline, and I was up against Chappers playing Invincible Army. I was expecting it to be a very bloody game given two very punchy armies.

My Shrouded Killer Hacker held up the Hulang for a while, but couldn't take him down...

While the Libertos snuck past Krit Kokram and shot him in the back to take him down. He was then able to score the Extreme Prejudice Classified.

The Invincible Army were having trouble taking out the Avatar, but I was running out of other models. I needed to push up to the furthest board area to score points, which meant the Avatar was over-extended. A Zhencha was able to get behind it and crit with a Panzerfaust, taking him out, leaving me with a 9-2 loss.

My last game was against zenithed, who was also running Combined Army. He was bringing a Charontid, while I brought the Avatar again. It was a simple game of Firefight to finish the day off.

I managed to get my Killer Hacker up to his Charontid to score a Classified . . . 

A Caliban Spitfire (we couldn't find the model so used a Speculo) tried to take out the Avatar in close combat, but was unlucky with their dice, and got taken out.

In the end, zenithed couldn't hold the Avatar off, and I was able to score a comfortable 10-2 win for my last game, leaving me 9th out of 10 players. It was a great day, I had a ton of fun, and I'll absolutely be going to the next Infinity tournament H.A.T.E. puts on.

A busy week

 

It's been a busy week hobby wise. I got a bunch more Infinity models that I had assembled based and undercoated. I still need to check I didn't miss any spots and get the zenithal done.

I also went down to Bethnal Green for the first Hackney Area Tabletop Enthusiasts Infinity tournament. It was just a small one to work things out, but was good fun. I'll hopefully post a write up later.

I've finished a couple of Northumbrian Tin Soldier minis, which I haven't had time to take fancy photos of them just yet. I'll get them up soon.

It's preparation time for Empire at the moment, I may be quite for a little. But the hobby wagon is careening along at a reasonable rate now, so there's plenty to come.