House Teknes Leaders & Specialists

The forces of  House Teknes made their debut today with the Union Workers being 'supported' by some of their finest leaders and support troops!

First up as I had decided on an all Union Worker force (as opposed to mixing in some Linemen from the starter) I went with 2 Union Bosses as my leaders.  I've got to say that even though it was my first couple of games the synergy between the Union Workers and Union Bosses was really easy to use and intuitive.  The ability of the bosses to 'motivate' the workers at the price of some physical pain meant that they could make the workers (those are the Pig-Men from my last post) devastating if either I could get lucky or waited until I had initiative.  In addition to being highly effective in the game I also think they are outstanding models.

Next was the Galvanic Defender.  To be honest he was a poor choice for me given the objective I was going after (strike opponent support or leader models in close combat) but he is a fast moving specialist with a rare ranged attack.  I can see a lot of ways he could be useful and unlike the Union Boss who increases synergy the Galvanic Defender fills in some skills and abilities that the rest of the Teknes force lacks.

Lastly is The Zaalak.  The Zaalak is a psychically controlled octopus that is disturbing and unnatural and has a demoralising effect on enemy leaders.  It is also incredibly fragile as I was a bit late in realising unfortunately.

I really enjoyed my first 2 games of Wrath Of Kings.  I found it to be an easy to understand intuitive game that played quickly and easily but still offered a lot of tactical challenges and options.  I like the Teknes models and am definitely going to paint a pile more of them over the next month or so.  First up on my to-do list will be replacing the Zaalak and the Galvanic Defender with a couple of specialists who look like they fit better with the rest of what I have (I'm looking at you Butchers!) and then after that I think I'm going to do a patrol-sized force built up around Linemen as opposed to Union Workers.

Tons of fun and I can't wait to play more!

-Jay

Look at us! We "joined" The Union!

I'm finally going to play my first game of Wrath Of Kings tomorrow at the 'Patrol' level.  That means; 12 levels of Infantry, 2 levels of Specialists & 2 levels of Leaders.  Levels are basically Wrath Of Kings points system, so given that I'll be using all level 1 miniatures it means I need 16 models.

After a number of false starts I finally completed my Union Workers this morning.  Union Workers are citizens of House Teknes who have either volunteered or been voluntold to have themselves injected with demon blood, which transforms them into man/pig hybrids.

I really like these pig-men models and if they look vaguely familiar it's because I previously used 2 of them to convert up some mutants for This Is Not A Test.

I also completed the 4 solo models that will be completing the force but I didn't get pictures yet so that will have to come tomorrow.  The good news is that by then the figures can be accompanied by either a glorious tale of victory or a shameful story of defeat...we'll see....

-Jay

Rise of the pig-men WIP

So after circling back to get some D&D stuff done I needed for this week I'm now back to plan A; my Teknes force for Wrath Of Kings.

In a perfect world I will have the starter box done by Wednesday next week.  Having said that I'm off to a slower start than I anticipated.  I decided to kick-off by doing the Union Workers as they were the figures I was most excited about but so far my progress has been slow.

I got the flesh based, washed and highlighted and got my base coats on my bases and armour but not much else to report beyond that.  The goal will be to finish these first 12 models tomorrow and then get my Linemen built.  When those two units are done I'll only have 6 figures left from the starter to get done by mid next week.

The real challenge for me will be to not get over distracted before I finish......say, this Rumbleslam game looks cool.....

-Jay

Experiencing technical difficulties....

This has been a very frustrating week from a hobby point of view.

Last Friday I got some more amazing Wrath Of Kings Teknes models and also got back from a road trip and got ready to work on some buildings I'm doing for another project and ever since I got everything prepped the weather has made it impossible for me to prime or spray ANYTHING.  And so here 6 days later my pig-men sit still waiting to see some paint...

I'm going to work on some floor plans tonight for some new buildings I'm doing (interiors and exteriors) and will hopefully also finish 1 model I need for a game tomorrow afternoon but other than that I'm in a bit of a dry spell until the weather co-operates.

So I can finally say I've found a downside to working quickly though my models.  It means when I can't prime I don't have a pile of primed or half-painted stuff just hanging out on my desk.

-Jay

This is what hickory maple vengeance looks like!

Tonight I finally finished the main man, Napoleon himself.  I had been debating for awhile now just how big and bad to make him (power armour?  some kind of mecha suit?  use a figure twice the size of normal?) but eventually I realized I was moving from fun and humorous to overly cartoony and decided to just go with an over-sized pig-man, with over-sized gear.

I'm pretty happy with how Napoleon turned out and he fits nicely with Snowball (the pig-man with minigun from awhile back) so even after his one-shot appearance in my current This Is Not A Test campaign he could get use again down the road.

I believe this will bring about an end to my wacky manimal shenanigans for now.  Its been tons of fun but it might be time to switch gears for my future This Is Not A Test games.

-Jay

The pig, the myth, the legend...

We all like to pretend that we know what's coming, or we figured out the plot twist before it happens.  I'm not going to lie, if you had asked me when I painted my first miniature in 1986; "Hey Jay, at some point do you think you'll paint a giant pig-man armed with a street lamp and riot shield?" I don't think I would have seen that coming.

As Ash and I ramp up to what I suspect is the beginning of the end of our super-fun This Is Not A Test campaign I do need to bust out a "boss monster" type figure for the final encounter and this feels pretty right to me.

So Napoleon is a Wrath Of Kings Teknes model armed with a street lamp from the Malifaux Lamps pack and carrying a shock shield (that I found during my first post-game way back when) from a Games Workshop Ogryn kit.

I'm really impressed with how all the pieces came together and I think the figure looks suitably ramshackle while also being super-menacing.

He should see some paint over the next few days and then the mayhem is only a game or two away!

-Jay

This is how the world ends.....

My mutant animal farm continues to grow and expand!

After my last game of This Is Not A Test the forces of the Colonel's Revenge were able to get their hands/paws/wings on a mini-gun salvaged from a ruined tank in the wasteland.  This turned out really well as I didn't lose any of my warband members and accrued enough barter script to recruit a new follower.

So a little bit of chopping and swapping later and I've got the first of my mutant Porkers (pig-men) to add to the Gallus Gallus and the Hoops.

The figure itself is a Wrath Of Kings Union worked with the sword arm chopped off midway up the forearm and then replaced with a GW Terminator Assault Cannon.  In addition I trimmed the round shield up into an octagon shape to re-purpose it a stop sign and a fantasy themed figure suddenly feels like it fits into a sci-fi game.

I'm bouncing around on a few things right now so I honestly have no idea what the next fig showing up on the blog will be.

-Jay