Experimentation With Photos - Penemue's Yu Jing

I photographed some of Penemue's Yu Jing/ISS minis recently, as part of my learning process in photography. These photos were all taken in the basement of the LGS, with the only lighting being the lights on the ceiling, and using mostly automatic camera settings. Penemue brought in a funky little tripod, which was great since my own tripod is way too bulky to bring downtown.

Given the conditions I was photographing in, and the fact that I took very few pictures (meaning I had a very small pool to choose good shots from), I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had a decent shot of almost all the models I photographed. The glaring exception was the Sophotect, which for some reason just wasn't capturing any light. Also note that all of these models are completely gloss varnished, which tends to obscure paint jobs.

Ninja with Banana Sword

Dakini a.k.a. Bumblebee

Wu Ming with Boarding Shotgun

Guijia

Sophotect hiding in shadows

Magister Knight, Plus Musings on Photography

"Where's his Rifle?"  "He doesn't have one."  "Oookay..."

I managed to paint up two Magister Knights (only one of them shown) for my small Military Orders collection. The only real idea I had for the colour scheme was to make green and white the main colours, and I kind of went on the fly from there. It's pretty apparent that I don't have enough colour on this model, but I was trying to get them done in time for our recent tournament, so I'm just taking it as a lesson learned. The Magisters are the poverty knights anyway, so my Teutonics can have more colour, and hopefully cleaner whites.

My limited experience thus far playing with Magisters tells me that outside of a Link Team, they're quite bad. This is ok, given that they only cost 27 points for a Heavy Infantry, but it's entirely possible that a Magister won't kill a single enemy model during a game. What they are nice for, is collecting points in a scenario. They're very durable for their cost, so put them wherever the scenario needs them, and don't worry about whether they will be fighting or not. I don't know if I would ever field a Magister in vanilla PanO, though.

I didn't photograph the other Magister because I dropped both of them while moving stuff around, and there's a pretty noticeable crack now on the base of the other one. This one also had a bit of paint chip on his sword, but since I just painted it silver anyway, it's no big deal. I was a lot less angry about the cracked Magister than I thought I would be, and I chalk that up to me not being that satisfied with how I painted it anyway, as well as there being 4 more Magisters.

Anyway, the photo is obviously overexposed in some areas, and some colours have been washed out. The model is also gloss varnished right now (there isn't a matte varnish I trust 100% at the moment) which I'm sure isn't helping matters.

I sometimes I get a nice, clear photo that is not only sharp and in focus, but that also captures the proper colours. The other 99% of the time though, I get a photo that is messed up in some way. And while I'm sure that my lighting, backgrounds, and maybe even camera aren't conducive to photography, the fact that I'm able to get that good photo once per hundred tries tells me that it is possible without a specific rig.

The other issue is, even if I wanted to fix my set up, I'm not exactly sure how. I have read up on how to make a lightbox and such, but since I'd need to go buy a bunch of stuff, that's a secondary concern for me. I've tried a bunch of things, including a white background (actually my worst photos, I'm guessing that only works in a lightbox), but haven't found something that works. I'll be trying some more photography soon, and will be posting up results.

Ottawa Newbie Friendly Tournament - Part 2

I faced JAD, the Ariadna player, in round 1. We were assigned to the wilderness board.

I won the Initiative and decided to go first. I spent my first two turns moving all my models up and onto objective plates, scoring me 2-3 VP on both turns. JAD only moved a couple models, and instead did a lot more lateral movement to get into LoF of my guys. We scored a few wounds on each other during this, but I got much more VP. Also, Joan scored a wound on the ARO during JAD's first turn, so Inspiring Leadership made all my units Impetuous. This is exactly what I wanted, to get my knights moving. All the Impetuous movement meant that I was frequently out of Cover, but it also meant that I could take shots while also having enough Orders to get onto the plates.

By the third turn, models on both sides had suffered plenty of wounds, but I was so far ahead on VP that he couldn't make a comeback with his limited amount of models and turns. We played out the rest of the game to see which units would survive, and to see if either of us could pick up more VP. I feel that he could've done better if he had focused more on the scenario, but it's possible that he didn't think he could win without killing my guys first, and made that a priority. His VIP was definitely his AP HMG Vet Kazak, which terrorized my army and survived through the whole game.

Round 2 had me up against swsCHEN, one of the Haqqislam players. We headed over to the cargo yard.

I again won the Initiative, but decided to go second to give me the best chance of scoring the endgame VP. I started off the game with a Magister getting knocked unconscious, and it didn't get any better from there. A combination of me making poor choices, being outranged, and of course bad dice rolls had me getting massacred. In fact, until my final turn, I barely even got out of my Deployment Zone, I was pinned in so badly. The only bright spot was that Joan scored a wound fairly early on against his Azra'il (who then moved out of LoF), so at least I wasn't totally screwed on Orders.

I entered my last turn with only Joan and my Spitfire Teutonic still standing, and almost all of swsCHEN's guys still up. He was also ahead on VP, 3 to 1, and was qualifying for the 2 endgame VP. This was where Joan went crazy, running up the middle of the board in the open, to kill his VP possessing models. She got one of them, and then with my last order, got another one, his Spitfire Muyib, which was also qualifying him for the endgame VP. Since Joan was now qualifying, I went from essentially being down 5-1, to being up 1-6. I'd have to say that swsCHEN's VIP that round was his Spitfire Muyib, who almost survived the whole game, despite being shot at by nearly my whole army.

In round 3 I faced endalyon, the JSA player. We moved onto the forest board.

I lost Initiative this time, and endalyon didn't hesitate to go first. He seemed unsure if he wanted to go for the scenario or just kill my guys, although I think he eventually settled on the scenario. This indecision unfortunately meant that his Lt, Shinobu, was left hanging just outside of my Deployment Zone and in range of multiple models. While her loss didn't put him into LoL due to his Kempeitai, she was still a valuable resource lost. In general, his units were dying much faster than mine, and I wasn't far behind him in terms of the scenario.

Then Joan found the Data in a Terminal, and I was ahead on VP. I couldn't have her die while carrying the Data, so I hid her behind terrain while my other units interfered. I lost a Teutonic to endalyon's Karakuri during this, but he had so few models left that he wasn't able to get by my knights to reach Joan, and when the final turn finished I had won. I think the game would have turned out very differently if he hadn't been so aggressive with his units at first, only to leave them hanging. I'm not sure who his VIP was, since there wasn't any single model that did much of the work, but I'll say it was his Haramaki, who knew exactly what it needed to do and went and did it.

Final standings:
1st - MuRm (Military Orders)
2nd - Tevesh (Haqqislam)
3rd - endalyon (JSA)
4th - JAD (Ariadna)
5th - swsCHEN (Haqqislam) and Century (Aleph)

Thank you Penemue for running a great event, and I'm looking forward to our next tournament, which will likely be run by Tevesh.

Here's a bunch more photos from the tournament day.

Seems safe, but danger lurks around every corner

Shinobu's in ur base, killin ur mans

Haqqislam as far as the eye can see

Keeping that Deployment Zone safe

Kazaks waiting for something to happen

Zayin Rebot in front, squishies behind

Ottawa Newbie Friendly Tournament - Part 1

Showdown in the desert valley

We recently had an Infinity tournament here in Ottawa, held at Fandom II and run by Penemue. It was designed to be newbie friendly, meaning that there were rules in place to make things easier for the newer players, which would be at least half of the participants.

200 points
No TAGs
No Link Teams
Announce if you have AD or TO

I also decided to challenge myself and run a list with 5 models, at which point the other veteran players also decided to challenge themselves and run something similar. The tournament was 3 rounds, with the scenario changing each round. The scenarios themselves are posted up at Penemue's blog. The idea was that we would be tracking down a rogue AI across various battlefields, until we finally confront her in the final round.

Sadly, several people could not make it to the tournament for various reasons, but we still had six players and decent diversity between factions. Here are the lists, as best as I can remember them:

Military Orders

JOAN OF ARC Lieutenant Spitfire, Nanopulser / Pistol, AP CCW (57 | 1)

TEUTONIC KNIGHT Combi Rifle, Panzerfaust / Pistol, AP CCW (42)

TEUTONIC KNIGHT Spitfire / Pistol, AP CCW (46 | 2)

2x MAGISTER KNIGHT Panzerfaust / Pistol, DA CCW (27)

199 Points | SWC: 3

Japanese Sectorial Army

SHINOBU Lieutenant Combi Rifle, Nanopulser, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Monofilament CCW (50 | 1)

KEMPEI (Chain of Command) Combi Rifle / Pistol, CCW, Electric Pulse (24)

ARAGOTO Spitfire / Pistol, Knife (29 | 1.5)

KARAKURI (Forward Observer) Mk12, Chain Rifle, D.E.P. / Pistol, Knife (43)

HARAMAKI Blitzen, Contender / Pistol, DA CCW (28)

MIYAMOTO MUSHASHI Chain Rifle / AP CCW, EXP CCW (26)

200 Points | SWC: 2.5

Ariadna

VETERAN KAZAKS Lieutenant (CH: Mimetism) AP HMG, Light Flamethrower / Pistol, CCW (61 | 1)

3x LINE KAZAK Rifle / Pistol, Knife (9)

VETERAN KAZAKS Doctor AP Rifle, Light Flamethrower / Pistol, CCW (48)

MOBLOT Panzerfaust, Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, CCW (31 | 1)

MOBLOT (Multispectral Visor L1) Rifle, Light Shotgun / Pistol, CCW (31)

198 Points | SWC: 2

Haqqislam

ASAWIRA Lieutenant AP Rifle + Light Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, Shock CCW (59)

NAFFATÛN Rifle + Heavy Flamethrower / Pistol, Knife (12)

MUYIB Rifle + Light Shotgun, Panzerfaust, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife (25 | 0.5)

JANISSARY HMG / Pistol, CCW (47 | 2)

HUNZAKUT (Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife (21 | 0.5)

TUAREG Sniper Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife (35 | 0.5)

199 Points | SWC: 3.5

Haqqislam

JANISSARY Lieutenant AP Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, CCW (45 | 1)

NAFFATÛN Rifle + Light Flamethrower / Pistol, Knife (10)

2x GHULAM Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife (13)

MUYIB (X Visor) Spitfire, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife (31 | 1)

MUYIB Doctor Rifle + Light Shotgun, D.E.P. / Pistol, Knife (27)

AZRA'IL AP Rifle + Light Flamethrower, Panzerfaust / Pistol, Knife (36 | 0.5)

HUNZAKUT (Deployable Repeater) Sniper Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife (25 | 0.5)

200 Points | SWC: 3

Aleph

ASURA Lieutenant MULTI Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, AP CCW (73)

2x DAKINI Tacbot Combi Rifle / Electric Pulse (13)

DEVA Hacker (Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, Knife (35 | 0.5)

NAGA MULTI Sniper Rifle / Pistol, Knife (39 | 1.5)

ZAYIN Rebot HMG / Electric Pulse (27 | 1)

200 Points | SWC: 3

I played Military Orders and faced Ariadna, Haqqislam, and JSA. I'll update later with a short report of how it went for me personally, but for now have some photos from the day.

The calm before the storm at the industrial complex

Asura creeping around Haqqislam's Deployment Zone

Asawira looking for some JSA blood

Your Handbook to the Nomad Nation

I know that everyone that might see this blog probably already goes to Corvus Belli's Infinity forums, but just in case, I'm tossing a link to my Handbook to the Nomad Nation, which I recently posted there.

Both here and on the forums, I don't really talk about Nomads, but they're actually my first and main faction, as well as the one I like the most. It's just that Nomads have become such a normal thing for me, that I subconsciously assume that other players know the Nomads well too. I also don't really get that excited these days about Nomad models, not only because we've gotten almost every unit, but also because the new shinies for me are my other factions.