Olympus has Fallen

This week has been a busy one for painting and playing so as well as completing a couple more units for Mythic Battles I have also played three games.
The first completed model is the Nemean Lion and I  borrowed an idea from a picture I spotted on Facebook to give him a Rasta feel.

The Lion itself is fast moving with a speed of 2 and rather tanky as he ignores the first wound from any attack. He should be leading the way on most battlefields.

The Infernal Hounds are also quick but having a low defence are likely to die quickly. Being Troops they can be recalled during the game so they will probably forge ahead to try and tie down the enemy.

The unit is six models strong but as part of the Kickstarter they supplied three alternate models as well to add some variety to the unit.

Friday night saw Mick & I play through the starter battle which comes in the getting started book. This pits Zeus, Hydra and the Spartans against Ares, Achilles and the Hoplites. We took turns to play each god and both battles ended with Zeus laying dead on the field and Ares running away with the victory.

Picture not great I'm afraid

The skirmish games of Mythic Battles start with a draft where the players take it in turns to pick a god then alternate through the rest of the units until they have a 18 point roster. On Saturday Stuart came over and we went through the process. Having not done this before and not been expert on the synergies between units it was somewhat a stab in the dark to build a decent force.

I ended up with Hades who is a tanky God and then some shooting and melee units so what looked to be a balanced force.

Stuart went with Athene who is a more cunning God with a decent ranged attack and backed her up with the shooting of Medusa and the tough Campe and Leonidas.

The skirmish games start with all the units off the table so the game was much more of a slow build-up than the starter game.

The early moves saw a clash in the middle of the field and the Nemean Lion race across the board to engage Medusa. In order to activate a unit you need to have it's card in your hand and as the number of cards is limited each turn you can easily find yourself not being able to activate the unit you want for several turns in a row.

Hades and Athena avoided direct combat and instead Hades managed to claim a couple of omphalos (the red gems) before Athena could pick them up. A skirmish is won either by claiming four omphalos or the opposing God dieing.

The clash in the centre started to swing the way of team Hades with the ranged units whittling away Athena's heros and Hades claiming another omphalos.

The game drew to a close when Hades claimed his fourth omphalos with Medusa in place to cast a powerful Petrify ability but not having the cards to do so.

It was an interesting first battle and it favoured team Hades who I think had a better balance with abilities that required less cards to activate. I have drawn up a spreadsheet which can be used to play out the drafting stage ahead of the games so rather than rush that stage it can be thought out more.

Don't Panic!

Once again I've been working hard on my Mythic Battles set this week and I completed the last two Gods and a few extra bits.
Pan comes with some free Troops who whilst they can climb they lack guard so most likely they will be off trying to harass the enemy.

Pan himself has an excellent looking area attack that can hit any area on the board so that should discourage the enemy from bunching up behind cover.

For his Satyrs I tried out a new scheme using a darker skin tone which I think worked rather well. I plan on getting some Satyrs to use in KoW:Vanguard ( more on that later ) so it was a good chance to try out the paint job ahead of time.

Pan was also mounted on a 50mm square so he can be used as a unit filler for my Herd infantry Horde.

The last God to be completed is Apollo who as befits an archer God has a strong ranged game, he can also make himself un-attackable which will no doubt be pretty handy.

The unit card has a set of numbers missing as his Golden Arrows ability needs an X value to work. This will be corrected in the Mythic 1.5 release but I haven't decided if it is best to change the card with a pen or just remember the missing numbers yet.

Tityos is similar in use to Minotaur but has a zero move stat so he can only be moved by spending a AoW card. You certainly don't want to catch any of your own troops in the areas he moves through unless they are tough or expendable.

He does have a good defence and high vitality so will be hard to shift once in place.

The last monster is the Graeae who at one point are the cheapest monster but really only useful if you are running a monster heavy list.

I also received my copy of Edge of the Abyss from the just started Tales of Mantica series. The aim of the series is to help build up the world of Mantica and add some rich lore into the game. So far I have read a couple of the stories which have been good and I am looking forward to the one featuring the Herd.

In a similar vein Mantic have also started releasing information on the soon to be launched KoW:Vanguard. In a series of blog posts they have been building up the excitement and detailing how the game will work. I have a 2 player set on the way from the Kickstarter which I think should arrive justs about the time I run out of things to paint, which is rather handy. Once I have seen the list for the Herd I will need to plan out a force and get some models bought and painted.

Something Monstrous

Another week with no playing once again means some good progress on the painting front. The week I have been working on more Mythic Battles models with several monsters and a couple of heroes being completed.

Arachne comes with some free bodyguards included and has a crowd control ability she can use to try and lock her opponents in place.

Echidna looks like a good counter-monster unit with her inbuilt resistance to the damage they dish out and a potent looking poison effect to wear the enemy down.

The Gorgon has the power Petrify ability and being a flying unit the mobility to get to the location it will cause the most damage. She looks like she could be a real handful especially against troop heavy forces.

Campe looks to be a solid damage dealer and being an amalgamation of scorpion, snake and woman likely to haunt a few peoples sleep.

If you want to stop your opponent claiming those all important omphalos then having the Python to hand is a must. Being able to stop the claim action in every area touching the one it occupies will cause the enemy real problems.

Cecrops brings some solid damage and also 2 Art of War cards which with his Worship ability you can make sure you have in your hand to play. The choice of extra move or longer range each turn also make him rather flexible.

The final model is Marsyas who is a pure support hero. He cannot attack but he can be used to pull the opposition Divinity out of position which could be useful if for instance you are playing Ares against a Divinity that wants to stay at range.

The Greeks seem to have had a thing for snake-monsters but I have now completed all of the them that came with the Kickstarter that I bought last year. When the second batch arrive next I will get a few more snakes and tentacle based monsters to paint up.

Chroneas

Quick update as I have completed the Chroneas model. I have added a couple of piles of 'rock' onto the base and some black flocking.

I have extended the light effect from the model onto the base to add some colour onto what could be a flat looking area otherwise.

This has been a fun model to paint with lots of detail and plenty of recesses to get into (and miss) during the process.

He's a big model so should stand out in any army that he takes the field with.

The Pile of Shame

Every wargamer has a pile of shame sat in the corner waiting to be painted up. This week I realised that my pile was growing rather short as I've been making steady progress over the summer through all the mini's I have outstanding. At present it looks pretty small but I have several Kickstarter projects due to arrive over the next couple of months and into the new year so it should start to grow again.

No game this week meant that again I could concentrate my efforts on painting so first off the blocks is a unit filler for my Herd Horde. The model is a cheap import from Russia with a pack of 4 54mm figures costing about £9 including P&P.

The quality isn't amazing as you would expect for the cost but being hard plastic they are pretty good and have enough detail to make a decent model.

I also completed the Minotaur for Mythic Battles and mounted him on a 50mm square so he can also be used either as a stand alone monster or a unit filler.

His specializes in attacking groups of enemies who have unwisely clumped together within his charge range.

The mighty hunter Orion has also been painted up he is as you would expect an accomplished monster hunter so would go well in a force if your opponent has gone monster heavy,

As I don't plan on using him in any other games he has remained on his standard round base.

Lastly I have also been working away on the Chroneas and the arrival of several new metallic shades to fill the gap between Bronze and Rough Iron has allowed me to build up a gradient on the metallic parts of the model.

I have also been trying to build up a reflected light gradient on the metallic parts close to the magical energy plumes. I happy with the result so far and can now start working on the base.