Cerridwyn1st

Thanks for that detail, Bryan. I've got players who have worked very hard to purchase, modify and paint stand-ins for the not-yet-released Reptus figures - I'd hate to penalize them for their eagerness to play the game by saying "you can't use that, get the new one." All the minis they used are Reaper figs. I'm guessing that the same does not hold true for us Black Lightning types - we should replace stand-ins with Warlord Minis as soon as they become available.

What I meant to say is do 12 of one figurine at a time and sell one each month, rinse and repeat with as many figs as you can handle. i.e. Due 12 Alluras, 12 cave trolls, 12 male druids and post them all and as many more as possible and each month as you sell one ship it off. Of course one has to have a great deal more shelf space than I to do it That's actually not too bad an idea, Chuza. Wait two weeks and hit the "sell similar" button. :) Or Relist, and change the photo.

Hey, Rhino, this had occured to me regarding a Merc fighting company. Have a leader like Nicole in charge of one troop, with Lorrielle Silverrain and Elven Archers under her command. Have the Lupine Lord with the Lupine Shaman and Lupine Rangers under his. You would have a group of very vicious melee fighters backed by exceptional archers. Sure, the Elven Archers loose their All-Elf force abilities, but they are still pretty good without them.

The 105 has a 1/32 cutting tip and 3/32 shank so I think you need the 3/32 collet. The collets are a pain so I switched my Dremels to #4486 chucks which are 0-1/8 inch. Saves a lot of time with bit changes. Could you explain the chucks a little more? Maybe give links to explainations or pictures?

The ones you get at Walmart aren't thin enough for most of what I pin. I'll keep going to the Hobby store and getting individual bits in good-for-drilling-pins sizes. Imidiate satisfaction, get it when you've just broken the last one. Doh! I also bought the set of ten in a little metal box set from the flea market. What I don't like about that set is when you bust the bit you like best, you'd have to get a whole set with nine other bits you don't use as much to replace it. Hobby store is MUCH better. I've seen that Dremmel has four packs of its next two smallest sizes. I'd like to get those, but Walmart doesn't carry them, either.

It might be that. I've used another two part epoxy, and if you can't hold still really well the stuff doesn't set worth a darn, so that might be it too. I was able to get the mini wedged in one place on the latter parts so I wasn't holding it while it set. That might me as much a key to success as the rubbing alcohol. I use alcohol to prep clean anyway, since it dries much faster than water and I'm impatient. If you don't wait long enough for the water to dry before you prime a mini, you get bubbles. I mentioned using alcohol to prep clean minis to Marike at GenCon - she thought it was a great idea.

I guess you could say VMCs are more "arty" than other paints. They are formulated for use in painting historical miniatures and display pieces, hence they have a lot of colors set to mimic specific uniforms. The grind of the pigment in the paint is very fine. Additionally, there is a heavy saturation of pigment in the paint. Because they are formulated for more artistic than playable use, they are wonderfully fluid and stay fresh quite a while on a wet pallet, but they don't wear well on he surface of a mini. This means they are prone to wear off if you don't seal them. By contrast, Vallejo Game Colors (VGC) were created for gaming enthusiasts. The first 60 colors are analogs of the Citadel line - every color in the 1-60 numbered VGC has a corresponding Citadel color. Most of the names are similar. For example, the off-white in Citadel is Bleached Bone, while the VGC analog is called Bonewhite. They are a closer in consistancy to a fresh bottle of Citadel paint than Model Color. I think the Game Colors are just a bit thinner than Citadels. Game Colors contain vinyl, which helps the paint resist chipping, scratching and wear better than Model Color. But the vinyl seems to affect the way Model color will sit on a pallet. It starts to clump up and solidify; once it does that you might as well start over. I have to admit that I use the Model colors more frequently than the Game colors. part of that is because they will stay open in good condition on a wet pallet or watercolor box longer than most paints, and I hate having to put new paint on my pallet or throw away a mix I like. I've also been studying the color mixes used by Thierry Husser (the artist of the original Pilzenbahir that inspired Whiz to use that model for a Colaborative Painting Project), and his color mix chart is almost exclusively VMC. If you'd like to take a look at the chart, click here.

Someone suggested trying a hobby store (such as one that sells models as opposed to a gaming store) for bits. I picked up several nice ones and a little plastic case to carry them in. One bit was a size 61. I'm not sure what the other was, might be around a 70 or so. It was nice to get multiples of a specific size, instead of a whole bunch of bits of all different sizes. I don't have a bunch of different tools for my dremmel, but after reading this I may have to check out Micormart.

ELVES RULE!!! ELVES RULE!!! ELVES RULE!!! ELVES RULE!!! ELVES RULE!!! Ahem, he he.

Thanks, guys, for pointing out that the differences between Beta and Final are essentially minor, and not something that would affect a sample game. That should relieve a lot of antsy Assault Officers trying to run on the Beta rules alone. I hadn't realized the differences weren't so great, since I haven't read most of the Beta version. I didn't really start playing until I got my OLE, so I didn't know the differences.

More precisely, the Coup de Grace is an automatic part of the Loot action. I guess the ideas is you don't want to the guy to roll over and try to bash your head in while you're picking is pockets, so you slit his throat first. Or, if you are a Crusader, you make sure he's dead before you administer last rights. Sort of like that joke about the blonde calling 911 when her boyfriend has a heart attack...

It may also be the stance of the character. Aparently they don't have plastic bases with a horizontal as opposed to diagonal slant, so minis that need a horizontal base get metal ones. It also seems to have to do with packaging - most of the older packages have metal bases, from what I've seen. I like Warlords to have metal bases, since they are more topheavy. If a Warlord comes with a plastic base, I switch it out for metal.

Sounds like a good plan, Kevin. As Freefall points out, while there are differences, you should be fine to run under the beta rules, especially for a starter game. Do you have all the models you need for this one?

I've been working on assembling T'Raukzul. I'm using a combination of pinning, inner CA glue and an outer rim of two part metal epoxy. It says in the instructions to prep the area to be glued by cleaning with alcohol. Well, when I started assembling I was hanging out at my LGS, so I skipped the alcohol cleanup. BAD IDEA! The parts didn't stick well, and when they did, the glue cured kinda thick, so the parts are misaligned. I assembled later parts AFTER cleaning the joins with alchohol. On those, the glue cured quickly and very nicely. I've been prepping minis for painting by cleaning with alcohol, so I guess I'll start doing the same pre-assembly.

Verry cool, Flynn, thanks for sharing.

Bring it on! I hear bats make great pincushions.

Hey, Kevin, I'll help you get through it. I'll PM my cell phone number; if you really get stuck then call me, I've got free evening and weekend minutes. :) For Kevin and everyone else running your first demos - if you use a simplified form of the game you will be fine. No magic, no faction abilities, models with few, well-defined special abilities. Build your troups with one leadership model, one hero, and six grunts. These units are very simple to run. I'm sure Freefall can correct this, but I don't think you'll run into any special abilities that have changed if you use this makeup. Keep your scenario simple and fun, too. Last Man Standing will work, but thow in something that will egg them into duking it out early. Makes for a faster demo, and players get frustrated if one player holds back and wins the game by holding back and picking off the leftovers. I tend to do this by awarding points, roughly 10 per damage track of the models killed. I also give "first blood" points to the guys who make the early attacks. Usually "blood points" are a bonus of 5 points each for the first five kills. Under this application, the guy who gets knocked out first often wins the demo. It makes being the first to get picked off a little less painful.

I may have messed up about points, but I'm correct about this one.

I could play ANY of seven factions at this point - I've got models for Crusader, Dwarf, Elves, Necropolis, Nefsokar, Reptus and Reven. Granted, I'd have to pry the Dwarves away from my son, but I could manage. I play Elves. Why? Feathered Sky: Elves volley for a larger EOA with a smaller number of models Shadowy: Treat all cover as Heavy Sure Shot: Elves may fire into melee without friendly models being required to make a Discipline Check Marksman: All models with a Ranged Attack my sacrifice their movement action for an additional ranged attack. Just about anything you can think of about Caerwyn Mossbeard as a Solo Model Need I go on? Situations where I would not play elves: Opponent has strong Melee fighters and it's a small playing field. Elves benefit from having lots of room to manuver. Playing in a swamp against an all-Reptus force. Them having Swampwalk and good melee ability would mean they could catch up to and decimate the elves.

Calm before the storm is right - as soon as new players have the book in hands, we will be inundated with questions. Many of which have already been answered.

Gee, Flynn, that explains a lot.

Well, Tat, there's a couple of things that factor in that math. To begin with, the models are being painted to a different standard. For instance, I might spend more time on the face of that one model than I do on the entire paint job for one of the eight. For me, production lining is also more productive because I'm repeating the same process over and over. I can do the same step repeatedly, and instead of waiting for part of that mini to dry before I can paint again, I just pick up the next one in the line and do the part that is drying on the first model. For example, I was working on these Cronopia dwarves with little dragons on thier helms. I'd do a level of layering one one, put it down to dry, do the next, on down the line until they'd all had the same level done. Then I'd pick the first one up and do the next highlight, on down the line. No time wasted waiting for one stage to dry. So, between not painting as much detail and production lining the painting that is done, it is possible to paint several models in time you would put into a single high end one. I'm a bit slow in my production to be a "pro" at this, but I have been steadily increasing my speed. If I did it full time instead of part time, no doubt I could make a reasonable, if small, income. But no benies. No 401K, no stock option, no health insurace. So for the moment, it's a hobby and I keep my day job. Oh, and Chuza, the prices you command on ebay are in part governed by your rep. It would be hard to have a good score as a seller if you only sold one mini a month for twelve months. Of course, you could augment your rating by selling other stuff or making some modest purchases. Magic cards are great, by the way. The buyers are friendly, they leave good feedback and the product is cheap to ship. There aren't too many gamers out there who don't have at least a few Magic cards they could unload. I've got some Blouncing Beebles I really should list.

If you think there's no noise, you haven't been hanging around my LGS. All those screams of anguish when the dragon hits the table. God, I miss the screaming. Must start another tournament or campaign soon.

Remember you can also use Ranger during the post-deployment phase to widen the distance between units that need space and those that would rain on their parade. Baiting someone? I dunno, those bats kinda look like bait already, especially if you want to catch a big lizard.

First off, keep in mind that the Coup de Grace is automatic in a loot action. In otherwords, when you loot a fallen body, you finish it off automatically, so models that would otherwise get a thoughness check woun't have the chance. I know that the when and how to loot can be confusing. Loot is a non-combat action, just like movement. If your models move into contact with another model, they can either take a combat action or take another non-combat action, such as looting. The model sacrifices its attack action for a second non-attack one. What can be confusing is how you perform the loot action once you have already used a non-combat action. When you declare your attacks, you must declare all attacks of the same type at once. If you declare attacks from all models that make contact with a defender, then you can't reverse that to have one of the attackers sacrifice its attack action for a second (ie loot) non-combat action. If your intention is to have several attackers swing at the defender and another attacker finish it off once its down, you must say that model is not attacking when you declare your attack actions. If the attacks fail, then you can use the passed attack action as another non-attack action, but you cannot attempt another attack. If you do not have unused actions left at the end of the turn to perform a loot action, you must wait until your next activation (whether its another troop that same turn or the same troop in the next one) to loot fallen bodies. If your opponent activates before you do, he may attempt to have stunned models recover (through healing, War Cry innate ability or successful toughness checks) or loot them himself. In my group, when we wish to declare that a model will not make an attack action and instead hold to make a non-attack action, we call that a "hold for coup". That way everyone knows the model is skipping its attack action in hopes of using a loot action. Now, if you are in contact with the target already, it's a little different. You have two actions per turn - a non-attack action and an attack action. If you have not expended your non-attack action (through movement or other action,) then you can make all attacks and then declare non-combat loot actions. So, if you close and smack, then somebody is going to have to hold off his attack if you want to loot the fallen model and perform a Coup De Grace. If you are already in contact, then you've got enough actions to smack and loot without needing to give up any attacks to do so.