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For the Motherland


An introduction to wargaming:
Okay, so some of you that have been following this blog for the month or so of its life have noticed that my posts have slowed down. The reason for this is that this P&M blog is not just to showcase my ability as a painter, but to showcase the impact of social media on wargaming in the US, the UK, and around the world. This project started because I wanted a P&M blog that I could be proud of, and while my updates have been slow, I am still proud of this blog, and will continue to do update it when I can. So for those of you from my class, let me give you a brief introduction to wargaming. According to Alan Emrich, Wargames are simulations of combat situations. Alan Emrich is a professor at the Art Institute of California: Orange County, where he teaches game design. In his course, “The Principles of Game Design,” Professor Emrich teaches about the basics of wargaming, and a bit of their history.

Wargames come in different forms and spread from the realm of fantasy all the way to simulations of combat zones currently active in the world today. Many wargames, according to Emrich, are games that deal with wars or battles. He also tells us that “a wargame is much more than just a reenactment of the event; it is dynamic: it re-creates the situation and underlying conditions of the event, showing the major factors which influenced the outcome. It is also competitive: two players vie against one another to win the game, creating a drama and intensity in game terms which echoes that of the real battle” (Emrich). So with this definition in mind, we are going to leave the realm of reality and head towards fantasy for the remainder of this project.

While many people enjoy “historicals,” wargames based on events that actually happened, such as the Battle of Waterloo , this project focuses on a different type of wargame, the Sci-fi/fantasy wargame. According to ICv2, a website dedicated to news and information for pop culture retailers, the top 5 non-collectible miniature lines from 2011 were all science fiction/fantasy wargames.. Each of these wargames follow a different style of play. The starting with number five, Malifaux is a small scale, meaning a few models, game that uses a deck of cards and a hand to determine the outcome of combat. The second and fourth slot are taken up by two versions of the same game, Warmachine and Hordes. Both of these games are a small scale like Malifaux, but the game uses dice to determine the results. The third most popular game is Warhammer Fantasy Battles (WHFB), a game developed by a British based company called Games Workshop (GW). GW’s game WHFB focuses on large armies of monsters, elves, dwarves, and humans as they fight for supremacy in an medieval version of Earth. Unlike the previous three games, WHFB has large rows and columns of models, leading to interesting tactical movement and is focused more on the army as a whole, instead of small squads. WHFB was one of the most popular wargames for many years, enticing gamers whether they played Gygax’s Dungeons and Dragons, were fans of military combat, or Lord of the Rings fans that wanted an army of elves. The current king of the sci-fi/fantasy wargame is Warhammer 40,000 (40k), a game set in the 41st millennium, where humanity has reached the stars and covers the entirety of the Milky Way Galaxy. This game is a combination of the other 4 games. It focuses on large armies like WHFB, but instead of ranks of men, 40k uses squads of soldiers to fight. My blog will focus on Warmachine and Hordes because these games are the ones that currently interest me, even though I play all five of these games.


Project and Personal Background
I've only been wargaming for roughly a year and a half. I've played Dungeons and Dragons for the past 13 years, and when my DnD group sort of died out in October of 2010, I started to look for something else that I could do in my free time when I wasn't able to play DnD. I stumbled across a few different source on the internet, namely Beasts of War, /tg on 4chan, and eventually DakkaDakka. I found Warhammer 40k and started to look into that, picking up an Ultramarines and Space Wolves Battleforce over Thanksgiving Break while I was home from college. I picked up an army here or there, not quite content with the army I played because I wasn't sure what I was looking for, so I would jump from army to army. Maybe it was the rules, maybe it was me, or maybe it was just the people I played with, but last year at Origins Game Faire 2011, I came across a man selling a Trollbloods Warpack and a Dire Troll Mauler. I had already gotten a Khador army, but Trolls drew me in instantly, and I was hooked. You can see some of my work in my gallery here. So recently I've been looking at adding more to my Warmachine collection, and decided that I wanted to step back into my Khador. Previously I had several casters, 3 warjacks (a juggernaut, destroyer, and Behemoth), and some small units. Basically enough to play a 35 point game. After gathering monetary resources, I purchased several more units, jacks, and casters for Khador.

I've always been a fan of Khador's background, I love the look of the models and the idea of this ever plodding war machine that doesn't back down, doesn't break down, and just keeps trucking. I love the Russian influences of the army, and the color scheme of the army. My army has a little bit of a different look to them because I received the initial army in a trade. So my army has two parts to it. The first part, linked in the previous words (different link per word), was painted by Dakka's DJPhranq. This represents what I consider the veterans of the army. These men and women have been fighting far longer, and far farther from Khador's borders. To represent this, many of the models are painted in a forest green scheme. The second part of this army, the main focus of this blog, contains reinforcements or other theaters of war for the Khador forces.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Without further ado, I present the first few models of the reinforcements.

These models are close to finished, but I promise you that I have plenty of unpainted models to sate your palettes.

First up we have a Kodiak, designated Kodiak 001

An early Kodiak chassis under the command of Kommander Sorcha Kratikoff.




He still has some work, but as he stands, he has been painted and shaded in Army Painter Strong Shade Dip.

Under the command of Kommander Orsus Zoktavir, we have Devastator 003, Kommander Orus's personal warjack (I've yet to play him with any other caster, so this might become a little bit of fluff I write for him).




He is a little frost on that front plate, he is the closest to done. I like how the effect looks on him, even though it was a mistake and on accident. It makes him look a little more damaged.

Then finally we've got a unit of Bombardiers that I painted for a speed painting contest. We were given 3 hours to paint a unit from start to finish... This unit took about an hour and a half, I beat the next best contestant by 30 minutes. They're not amazing, but they got me a boatload of prize so I love them




Bases aren't done, because I'm not sure how to do the bases, I want something that looks like some snow. Any suggestions?

That is a good beginning for a Khador army.

For the snow bases I would go with normal sand base first and paint it as usual. Then get some baking soda and mix it together with white glue and water and apply the paste to the base. Do not cover all of the base to make it look more interesting like late autumn or spring and the snow is not covering all of the ground.

Looking good alf, those speed painting models look great!

Looking good Alf. I don't know anything about Warmachine... but they look pretty spiffy to me. Get to finishing those Bombadiers!

Hey everyone,

Quick update: Started on my Winterguard Infantry last night and managed to get base colors down on a minimum unit.

I'm not going to post the whole unit (cause I couldn't get good pictures of all of them, but here's a nice teaser)





The basic colors are laid out (minus metallics and flesh tones).

Red needs another layer at least, and I need to see if I have a light enough grey to highlight the folds on the greatcoats.

C&C is always appreciated.

Not to bad, going with a Slightly off-shoot of the Standard Khador scheme i see. i have pics of my stuff on my buddies camera.

Im with gits on this one (thats how i found your blog actually). dont know a lick about warmachine but they look good. I am really liking the Winterguard they kinda look like vostroyans to me good luck with your blog.

Gentlemen,

Been a while. I've needed to get some schoolwork done, so it bites into my painting time majorly. I finished a minimum unit of Winterguard.

I've finished painting them. I'm happy with where they are at, painting wise.

I'm still working on a basing scheme, but let me show you what I've done so far with the bases.



This is one of the infantryman with step one completed. I put some pva glue on the base, dropped him into some Gale Force 9 small "dirt", and then dipped his base into my Army Painter quickshade Strong Shade (which gave it a nice color and a helped seal it in).



Here is the whole unit, finished up. I've noticed a slight issue on the front one's pouch.



And here is the second step of my "snow bases" Our local pressganger does his snow this way. He takes some Dap Spackle and lays it down in patches. I ballsed that up, and put too much down on the first mini. The following minis should have smaller patches. I got the pink stuff so I know when it dries (goes on pink, dries white )

Third step will probably include some level of snow flock before I seal them with Matte Varnish.

Drill out the barrel of his gun!

Or at least paint a black dot on it...

So, continuing with my opening post, I'm going to talk a little bit more about how some of these major companies use social media, and the impact it has on their business. The two major companies, Games Workshop and Privateer Press both use social media to promote their products, and both of them have different uses for different social media.

When looking at websites like Facebook and twitter, both companies use these to alert facebook users of upcoming products, though each does it a little bit differently.

When looking at Games Workshop's facebook page, the primary point of their page is to direct traffic to their website via their "What's New Today" links. So instead of posting original content on their page, Games Workshop uses facebook to drive people to their site, where they're more likely to buy their product. This is not a bad thing, but it does mean two things. First, you're already a fan of their product, and check out their website regularly, or you're a facebook user that only clicks on these links when it is something that interests you. Because Games Workshop is such a large company (in the gaming world), they have their web pages in several different languages that users can set on Games Workshop's website. This isn't bad, but they use their twitter for the same thing, simply to draw traffic to their site. While looking at both their twitter feed, it is very apparent that their twitter feed serves the same purpose as their facebook page. The biggest thing that I notice about Games Workshop's use of social media is that they have very little customer interaction.


Privateer Press (PP) is a different beast all together, at least when compared to Games Workshop. PP's facebook page is very similar to GW's facebook page. They often link to insider stories on their website. Their stories are slightly different, GW focuses more on advertising their latest products, while PP focuses on creating a relationship with major staff members and their customers. This creates an image that they are more in-tune with their customer's wants. When looking at PP's twitter page Is a little bit different. They tweet out information that users can find on their website, i.e. the same stories as the insider stories on their facebook page. The twitter account is used as a direct means to talk with their customers as well. One twitter user, TaylimTseng, told Privateer Press about their recent purchase, and PP responded, "@TaylimTseng Awesome! Be sure to tell us what you think of all your P3 paints!" This simple interaction with their customers shows a level of transparency that is rarely seen from Games Workshop. This doesn't mean that one company is better than the other, but it does go to show that the top two game companies use social media to create relationships with their customers all over the world. In fact, any game company that doesn't use some form of social media is missing out on a fantastic opportunity to communicate and relate with their clients. This just goes to show that social media is booming in this little hobby of ours.

As another example, the little, yet growing game company On The Lamb Games, uses twitter, facebook, and even DakkaDakka to inform their players of new releases, and updates. So even the smaller companies have the same chance to reach new and potential players in the same vein as the big guys.

My next update for this will probably include the data I collected from DakkaDakka and friends.

Thanks guys

Really like the idea for this blog! Top work on the Bombadiers, hard to believe they were speed-painted in fact!

bases look good so far. just a question have you thought about taking your models out side to take pictures so you can use natural light? the last few pics look kinda muddy and washed out to me. and if you were not explaining the bases to me i wouldnt know what was going on cause of the lighting situation. any way thats just food for thought.

alabamaheretic wrote:bases look good so far. just a question have you thought about taking your models out side to take pictures so you can use natural light? the last few pics look kinda muddy and washed out to me. and if you were not explaining the bases to me i wouldnt know what was going on cause of the lighting situation. any way thats just food for thought.

I know all about the niceties of natural lighting. I paint by my window, and in the middle picture of my last post, you can see the daylight. I took some pictures yesterday afternoon with a lot better lighting.

I am no noob when it comes to daylight. I just don't have the opportunity to do so until the weekends due to class, work, and other obligations.

I will have an update either this afternoon, or sometime way late tonight.


Thanks for the feedback alabamaheretic

yea no problem man, was just tryin to help a bit thats all.

alabamaheretic wrote:yea no problem man, was just tryin to help a bit thats all.

That's cool man. I learned that with my first P&M Blog... I try to get daylight shots when it's really important.

But Alabamaheretic, fret not, I've got some updates






I added paint to those drilled out barrels

looks good them there commies...errr vosdtroyans...wait...well hell they look good man keep it up. Oh do you use a light box for inside shots?

Haha, thanks man. They're Khador Winterguard from Warmachine by Privateer Press..

And I do not own a light box. The most recent images were taken in a classroom. Lots of bright fluorescent light, a folded piece of white paper, and a white topped table... Mimics it very well

thats a sneeky trick maybe ill have to go to walgreens and use there florescent lights to take pics or cvs hmmm decisions

I should have the remaining unit up as a WIP shot tomorrow. Fret not readers

Also, any ideas on what I should paint next? Assassins, a Warcaster, warjack, Man-O-War? What do you guys think?

Edit: Hey, i've got a quick little survey up that people can see and take to help me with a class project on the use of social media in wargaming. So if you haven't taken it yet, please do.

https://docs.google.com/a/ashland.edu/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFFRYnBRR2QwWW1XT0J5OXJHblZQNEE6MQ#gid=0


Note:
These questions are not scientific in nature, nor are they meant to provide any significant data other than providing my Social Media professor some level of background on wargaming and the hobby we all love.


Thanks everyone.

Also: If you want to take a look at the survey results so far, you can check here.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AitbnQip2op1dFFRYnBRR2QwWW1XT0J5OXJHblZQNEE

Just a quick update.

The final 4 members of the Winterguard squad are done-ish

Thought I'd throw out a quick picture

Sorry about the lack of updates. It's been too cold/gloomy to finish off the Winterguard, and I'm still trying to figure out what else to paint next.

Hey everyone!

While I wait on the weather to improve, I thought I'd give everyone a little bit of a teaser of what I've been working on. In an effort to promote a game I really enjoy (even though I'm still very new to it), I went and created a demo for Brushfire!.

Brushfire is a game designed by On the Lamb Games, and it takes place in an alternate version of earth, where the animals from around the world are the the citizens of those countries. If you're not quite following me, think of it this way. In France, they have several different species of weasel, gopher, moles, and badgers. In Brushfire, each of these animals is a different unit, complete with little uniforms and weapons. And since it is a parody of our history, their version of Napoleonic France has Mongoose Legionnaires from areas that France would have controlled around the early to mid 1800s. So there is a lot going on in this game. Since I've spent my filthy lucre on some of Cyporiean's game, I felt that I should try to learn it. Since I couldn't get a demo of Brushfire! from her at a convention (didn't make it to DakkaCon or Adepticon), I decided that with this wonderful power of the internet, I would simply make a demo video of the game and get her feedback on what we did right/wrong.

So everyone, I seriously suggest you check out their game, and if you need any sort of background you can ask any number of Dakkanauts like RiTides, Chowderhead, Wehrkind, myself, Gavin Thorn, and of course Cyporiean. If you want to learn a little bit more about Brushfire, you can check them out on their facebook page, twitter, or here. And for some quick overview of the game you can look at their wikipedia page here.

And to keep you all entertained, please look at this video:





Edit: I want to put this out there: Still sketchy on the rules, we know we got some wrong D:

Ooh brushfire demo. Very nice. One of these i'll hit up cyporeian and actually get some Lol at the music. I cant help but feel some medieval music would be more apt, this game gives off serious redwall vibes.

Now all you need to do is paint em

Vitruvian XVII wrote:Ooh brushfire demo. Very nice. One of these i'll hit up cyporeian and actually get some Lol at the music. I cant help but feel some medieval music would be more apt, this game gives off serious redwall vibes.

Now all you need to do is paint em

Haha, yeah I'm in the process of doing I'm trying to convince my buddy who played Axony to paint his up lol...

We'll have a better demo soon.

Hey alf?

Do a better demo now please....

Vitruvian XVII wrote:Hey alf?

Do a better demo now please....

I don't have the camera anymore D:

Awww that sucks. Guess you'll just have to do some conventional batreps then..... *hint hint

Good stuff; really like that last Winter Guard. For the Empress!

This blog is going to take a change here in a week or so... We're starting up an escalation league for Warmachine/Hordes... I'm going to be starting to paint my Skorne... lol... So expect some new hotness

Edit:








I'd just like to take this moment to thank all of you that replied to my survey. While these questions might not be statistically accurate, they do represent what I feel is an accurate representation of the current gaming scene. Using the first graph, we can see that the most popular games are those created by Games Workshop, Warhammer and Warhammer 40k. The only surprising part is that Warmachine and Hordes, which took spots 2 and 4, are in third place, following WHFB. I am chalking this up to the fact the boards where I advertised this was prominently a Warhammer 40k board. When we look at all of those that responded, most of them use some level of social media, whether it is a website for their hobby, such as the one that this blog is being hosted, or Facebook. The use of social media prompted me to believe that most people that used these websites also had a facebook, which is not surprising, considering facebook's 800 million users. The only thing that I find odd is that those that do organize events for these games do not do so via social media. Meaning that wargames in the US, UK, and around the world are most likely still promoted via the friendly local gaming store (flgs).

Yay new stuff,

my g/f is an avid warma/horde player and shes trying to get me into it out of the "armies" the two that look visually appealing are the skorn and the menoth was wondering if you could pm me your thoughts on those two factions cuase the privateer press site kinda blows chunks. any looking forward to the new dudes.

bama