How to get the Stormwall safely across the ocean

The top layer of my Battle Foam holding the infantry models.

Whenever I go to a Warmachine tournament in Europe people keep asking me about my P.A.C.K. Air from Battle Foam. Yes, they are rather expensive compared to other products and yes, models still break, but ever since I had Battle Foam this has been reduced to a minimum. Every once in a while a model's arm may fall off, but that's nothing that can't be fixed with super glue in a couple seconds.

The only time I had several models break was when I flew to Texas for Wargames Con. I had only two foam trays in my P.A.C.K. Air to fill the remaining space with my new custom cut foam trays for my Cygnar/Trollbloods armies. I filled the remaining space with clothes figuring that would be soft padding and a filler enough for a safe transport. What I didn't realize, however, was that the clothes didn't exercise enough pressure onto the trays so about half of the models fell out. Although they were still fairly well padded by the clothes, they bumped into each other so paint was chipped off and several limps had to be glued back together once I had arrived in Texas.

Good thing I took my trusted superglue and minimal modeling equipment to Texas.

To make a long story short - in my eyes, Battle Foam is worth the purchase, you just really want to fill the entire bag with foam to prevent anything from falling out of anywhere. Thinking about taking other things than minis and foam in your Battle Foam bag for the weekend trip to the tournament because it's convenient? I suggest you take another bag instead.

The bottom layer with a custom cut for my Warjacks/Warbeasts plus  a cube for the Stormwall and the War Wagon.

Currently I am really excited about the new Stormwall foam tray as the Stormwall perfectly sits in its tray. The fit is firm and snugly so it doesn't go anywhere even if the case is being bumped. This kind of safety comes at a price, though, because one has to be careful not to exercise too much pressure onto the model when putting it into or taking it out of its tray. When pushing the Stormwall into its tray, I suggest to push it at the base with your stretched fingers. When taking it out of its tray, I suggest you gently lift it with a finger below its perineum. If necessary, wiggle the model carefully as you softly pull it out. The worst thing you could do is to just grab it by its shoulders and pull it out.

One thing I really like about the new Stormwall foam tray is how it lets you pluck part of the foam so it perfectly fits its arm positions. Here I even plucked so more so that its right shoulder canon doesn't rub with the foam either.

I am not affiliated with Battle Foam at all, I am just a happy customer. Since Battle Foam still mostly is a US company geared to the US market, Wargames Con is a great opportunity for me to buy their products. However, I suggest you advance order their stuff because they only have a very limited supply and it's flying off their shelves.

The Battle Foam stand at the 2012 Wargames Con.

This year they announced their presence at the Wargames Con and brought way more stuff, but certain things were either not available (foam toppers? they had no foam toppers - bought them at the FLGS instead) or only in limited quantities (they only had one display tray for WM/H - if I had bought it, they'd have had to keep it for the remainder of the Con to show it to other customers). An important point also is that the Wargames Con substantially grew in size since last year, but I hope Romeo ships the necessary quantities of products to the 2013 Wargames Con. After all, he'd be a fool not to.

Battle report Cygnar vs. Trollbloods (35pts)

Sara Wood chatting away at the 2012 Wargames Con with fellow WM/H players.

After the 2012 WGC I was able to play two games with Sara Wood, WM/H Masters player, over at Darkwynn's house on the 4th of July. This article covers the first of the two games, the second will follow later. Since my current record in Texas (W-L-T; 2-7-1) wasn't that good and Sara definitely knows how to play Trollbloods, I knew I was in for an uphill battle. Yet we had a great time and playing her I could observe and pick up tactics that I will use in my upcoming Trollbloods army. Sara also helped me with army list advice, so I have to say she is a great resource for anything Trollbloods related.

Sara's army - Kriel Warriors with Kaber Throwers, an Axer, Mulg,  pDoomshaper, a Mauler, and an Impaler.

In both games we played simple caster kill scenarios. In our first game, Sara was playing pDoomshaper vs. my eCaine. We played on the Dust Warfare board from the 2012 WGC in Darwynn's garage (damn it was hot!) and we just agreed that the cliffs were rough terrain, but the miniatures could pretty much walk anywhere except up the walls of the houses - they could use the stairs, though.

Deployment

Sara goes first and carefully moves forward and into cover.

I pretty much do the same. I was hesitant about the Gun Mages  because I could have sent them up the stairs and on top of that roof, but I was afraid of them jamming on the stairs and get eradicated in that tight spot. Therefore I decided that they have to walk around the building on the left instead. Then I showed Sara that Cygnar armies can be tough, too (Greygore Boomhowler & Co. in combination with Heightened Reflexes from eCaine, Rhupert Carvolo). eEiryss shoots at the Mauler and removes one point on the Spirit.

Sara basically just moves into the center of the table to make a stand there.

The Gun Mages on the left move around the building and start shooting the Axer. Greygore Boomhowler & Co. plus the Stormclad charge into the Kriel Warriors. eEiryss continues to fire at the Mauler.

Sara gets only very minimal gains in close combat as Greygore Boomhowler & Co. just eat up all damage. The Impaler charges eEiryss, which I didn't like too much.

The Gun Mages continue to shoot the Axer. Sara is less fortunate with her Tough saves, so Greygore Boomhowler & Co. start to run down the Kriel Warriors in the center. The Stormclad finishes off the Mauler. The Stormblades charge in as well. eEiryss successfully escapes from the Impaler and starts to shoot pDoomshaper - even with Janissa's wall that's an easy task for her. eCaine moves to the right flank, kills the Impaler and hopes to get shots at pDoomshaper in the near future, too.

Well, when Sara sees an opportunity for a casterkill, she seizes it. First Janissa kills eEiryss on the far right (just to be save), then the Axer finishes off the Stormclad, then Mulg tramples through the Stormblades and uses Fury to purchase additional attacks to swing his giant club at eCaine. With boosted attack rolls he hits and kills.

My really big mistake in this game was that I knew that Mulg can trample and likes to do it, but that I didn't consider the option that Sara may just do that to get in range of my warcaster. In other words, my line of defense made out of Stormblades is basically worthless against Mulg, so I have to keep this in mind for future games. Jedi Master Gati won't be happy with me, he will assign additional training and study to me upon return. ^^

Failcast? Not really

An unboxed Fennblades unit. Every model comes in its own compartment, can easily be snap fit together and requires almost no cleaning.

Being a Cygnar player since Christmas 2009, I have assembled many metal models and there was nothing slow curing super glue in combination with green stuff and the eventual pinning couldn't do. One thing that always amazed me how little flash and mold lines I had to clean off a Cygnar model if you compare it to one of the old GW metal models. If you have ever cleaned eCane and a Space Marine Librarian, you know the difference.

With the arrival of more and more Privateer Press resin products this has gone even better and I simply loved putting together the trolls in the starter box. I am really looking forward to doing my Fennblades next. All those models come with holes for snap fit so you may even put them together without glue.

So in the light of all this, everything would be perfect except for my Stormwall I just put together. I spent approximately one hour cleaning off flash and mold lines. Now this is nothing extraordinaire in comparison with other companies - if you ever ordered from Forgeworld, you know what I am talking about. However, compared to Privateer Press' standard of perfection, this was unusual.

Now the bitter pill in combination with the Stormwall really were the casting/assembling errors I have on it. Once again this is totally acceptable on a kit that big and it's nothing that can't be fixed, but once again it is unusual in comparison to Privateer Press' perfection on other products.

The upper torso of the Stormwall comes preassembled as the cast is made of two halves that are being glued together at the factory already. The Stormwalls right shoulder (not seen on this picture) is a perfect match, but here on the left shoulder the two pieces didn't align well. In the center you can see how I used some green stuff to fix one of the two plates above the railgun. You can also still clearly see where the two halves have been put together even after I cleaned the connection with a hobby knife. This will require some more filing at home.

Here we have a tiny little hole in the center of the picture. This will have to be filled with liquid green stuff. I also noticed holes in some metal parts, but they were already filled by Privateer Press with some sort of soft plastic. Those areas shimmer blue on the otherwise silver surface.

Here you can see Andrew show the individual parts of the Stormwall and how he puts it together. However, I assume that for the video he already cleaned the parts although he fails to mention it. You can skip to 3:20 as everything before is just introductory chat.