A shortened PrezCon

Well, sadly, my PrezCon trip was cut short by an emergency, and having to drive Rob back from Charlottesville to make a Saturday morning flight.  That meant I was there from Wednesday night until about 1700 Friday.

In that time, I did manage to get a decent amount of gaming in, however:

• Combat Commander: Stalingrad
• Conflict of Heroes: Price of Honour
• Dust Tactics
• Earth Reborn
• Imperium
• Incursion
• Triumph of Chaos

No ASL Starter Kits or Napoleon's Triumph, I'm afraid.  Not too shabby otherwise :).

I had a decent amount of time on Saturday after doing some cleaning and recovering from my screwed up sleep schedule, so I managed to get in a few solo games of the new ATO release which was waiting for me- 'The Lash of the Turk', plus the bonus game, 'When the West Came East'.

This upcoming week I'll make sure to post a bunch of playthroughs and pictures.  Looking forward to getting them up!

Battle Report: Nations at War: WSR Basic Scenario 3: Vierville, France

Another report that still is about a month old, but at least now I'll be caught up, so that once I come back from PrezCon I can start posting about my time there immediately!

Rob and I played Nations at War's 3rd basic scenario back in January.  This scenario depicts a battle after Omaha Beach to take the town of Vierville-sur-Mer.  In game, the 507th PIR is defending Ville Sur Le Fleuve against a few German infantry formations- the Schtz.Btl.107 and the Kampfgruppe Beck.  This scenario is all infantry, and is pretty light even on the support pieces (a couple of HMGs).  It's just about the Germans grinding control of the town against outnumbered American defenders.

I played the Americans, and seeing that the Germans would have to cross at least some open ground to get to me, set up fairly far forward.  I kept a unit back so that I had a safe path to move through if I had to abandon one of the positions.  The Germans enter from the South board edge on the first turn, so don't start on the board, but automatically get an activation to start the game.

Turn 1:
The Schtz.Btl.107 formation gets its free activation, and Rob moved his units on and up.


The river doesn't exist for this scenario, by the way.  Having done that, the Schtz.Btl.107 formation chit is put back into the cup, meaning there's a chance that the German formation could move twice in the first turn.

Next chit draw was the 507th PIR.  I had nothing in sight, so I just repositioned a little bit, but tried to keep as much un-moved as possible in case I had a chance to Opportunity Fire.

The first End Turn chit was drawn next.  As the scenario defender, that's always great news- if the German formations can ever go a turn without being activated, it'll really help my chances!  However, it didn't matter in this case, as the Schtz.Btl.107 chit was drawn before the second End Turn chit.

The Germans continued advancing as quickly as possible, and I opened fire on a German unit entering the woods, disrupting it.



Turn 2:
We drew the first End Turn chit immediately, much to Rob's unhappiness.  Unfortunately, a German-less turn wasn't meant to be yet, and we drew the Schtz.Btl.107 chit immediately after. 

The disrupted German unit rallied, and the formation began its work.  The HQ and Inf unit opened fire on the nearest of my Para Inf units, getting a single hit which I couldn't save, disrupting it.  Rob moved his other German unit into the woods, and prepared to begin the assault.  His first unit moved into the open, and I destroyed it by fire from my HQ/Para Inf stack.  The second unit moved in to assault my disrupted unit, and succeeds in killing it.  The Para Inf who was right behind the just destroyed unit attempted to Op Fire, but to no effect.

Next chit draw was the second End Turn, ending the turn.



Turn 3:
On this turn, Rob received some reinforcements- the Kampfgruppe Beck formation is added to the chit cup, and enters on the board from the south to help with the German push.

The first chit draw is the recently added KG Beck formation, which advances onto the board, well out of my line of sight.

My 507th is activated next.  I move my non-stacked Para Inf units back, to buy me some time.  My HQ and Para Inf stack fires at the Infantry unit in the woods, disrupting it.

It's not a big help, as the Schtz.Btl.107 chit is drawn next, and Rob immediately rallies the disrupted unit.  He decides to go after my HQ, and begins by firing his Infantry with an HMG at my HQ/Para Inf stack, dealing 1 hit that I fail to negate- I'm not disrupted and still Ops Complete).  Not good.  He moves in to assault with 2 of his Infantry units, healing 3 hits to my one, and killing my HQ.  Now, since I have no front-line defenders, he moves his other unit into the city uncontested.

Not a good turn for the Americans!



Turn 4:
Followed by an amazing turn for the Americans.  The first two chits drawn are both End Turn chits!

Turn 5:
The Schtz.Btl.107 chit is drawn to start the turn, and they press the advantage, moving their units through the city.  When Rob moves his HQ and two infantry units up, I take a shot with one of my Para Inf units, and deal 2 hits, disrupting both of his units.  The Para Inf who shot didn't get off easy though, and was assaulted by another two units, dealing 4 hits while receiving 2 in response (disrupting both attackers).

The 507th chit is drawn, and fortunately, I get a few reinforcements this turn as well (2 more Para Inf units).  They advance on from my left, and I move them towards the rear of the city, thinking that I might try sending one the long way around to draw off some attackers.  My now reduced HQ and a Para Inf unit shoot at an adjacent German stack, and deal 2 hits, with Rob failing to save either of them.  More disruption!

Since the turn can't end without KG Beck getting a shot to activate, they do so, and advance up further.

Turn 6:
KG Beck gets another shot to activate, and move up.  I Opportunity Fire with my Para Inf and the reduced HQ, rolling 3 hits.  Rob negates one of them, but I'll still take the disruptions.

Both End of Turn chits are drawn next.  Turns like these are really going to help my chances!



Turn 7:
The Schtz.Btl.107 formation chit is drawn, and naturally, Rob rallies all of his disrupted units.  His nearest Infantry unit shoots at my Para Inf/HQ stack, and disrupts me, but the HQ again dies.  He then assaults that unit, dealing 4 hits and receiving none in return.  The rest of his formation moves into position and corners me.

Our first End Turn chit is drawn and then the 507th chit is drawn.  I decide that I'm not going to be able to loop my guys around, sadly, and just moves everything in to prepare for the final rush.

The second End Turn chit is drawn, ending the turn.  Things are looking really bad for me now, but it's not over!  Although it'd be better if it was...



Turn 8:
This turn is started by KG Beck activating, and moving up to lend the support Rob needed to push through.  Their advance is slowed, however, when I Op Fire at their advancing units, and deal 2 hits, disrupting the leading parts of his advance.  Rob isn't very concerned, however.  Not with that many units floating around.

The 507th activate next.  I take a shot at an adjacent stack, and disrupt them.  Really powerful stuff here.

The first End Turn chit is drawn.  I'm hopeful...

But then crushed when Rob draws the Schtz.Btl.107 formation chit.  However, I catch a break when his nearest squads don't rally!  He moves the disrupted squads away, and begins sending in the assaulters.  The first group jumps in and deals 4 hits, but thankfully takes 4 hits.  Critically, since I've tied him, the assaulting units are repulsed, and I'm not pushed out of the hex.  I am badly reduced and disrupted, however.  Plus, my HQ managed to die again.  Rob still has another unit ready though, and he sends him in.  He deals a single hit, and I return with a single hit.  I'm now down to a single reduced (and disrupted) squad, and I'm staring at a LOT of attacking Germans.  Thankfully though, the turn ends.



Turn 9:
Last turn!

The first chit drawn is the End Turn chit.  That's VERY exciting- the game ending here would give me a win!  If any German formation is drawn, however, my chances are very slim.

The second chit drawn... is the other End Turn chit!  YES!  Victory for the Americans!  I managed to win with a single reduced/disrupted Para Inf unit in the town.

Analysis:
With a chit-draw system, a lot of a player's success is dependent on how often his formations get to activate.  With the one German formation getting a free activation on the first turn (with a chance for a second) and the second German formation not arriving until turn 3, we can do some quick checking to see what the 'average' number of activations each formation can dream about.  For the Germans, the Schtz.Btl.107 would average about 7.7 activations per game (it activated 7 times this game) and the KG Beck would activate 5.2 (4 in the game).  That's not a huge difference for the former, but that's a huge loss for that latter formation.  Had he gotten that 5th activation, I'm sure Rob would've swept me from the table.  The Americans, by the way average 6.7 activations (I activated 5 times).  Those two turns without activations (and Turn 6, with just the one KG Beck activation) were critical for me winning. 

Obviously, the number of activations doesn't tell the whole story- when formation activate in relation to one another is a big deal as well (being able to activate twice in between an enemy's activation could be key), but it's helpful to keep in mind how things could go, especially for the attacker to consider his pace.  Rob played fairly aggressively.  Had he known beforehand how many activations he would get, would he have tried something different?  I'd guess not, but you never know.

This scenario seems pretty tough on the Americans, but since it's an infantry-only scenario and there really isn't a lot going on, I don't think it's going to get much play regardless.  I'm sure I screwed up a little with my play, which probably hurt my poor American's chances as well- I'm guessing I need to be more selective about my shots.  It didn't feel like I had many options, however.

This is a game that's going to get played a decent amount of times at PrezCon, including playing some of the advanced scenarios.  That should be very exciting.

Tales of Battle #8 review/thoughts

For some reason, I'm on a magazine-reviewing kick.  I promise I'll have other articles up soon.

I recently received the latest issue of Tales of Battle magazine.  It's an independent magazine generally covering independent GTs and various other events concerning Fantasy miniatures.  Previous issues have really impressed me with their production quality and content, with very well done battle reports, army thoughts, and even allied army lists that could be fun to use.  One thing to note, however, is that Issue #7 came out over 6 months ago- it's been a LONG wait for this issue.

Let's take a look at the various inclusions in this issue.

First, the issue is 20 pages.  1 1/2 pages are ads.  Not a bad ratio, especially in a magazine that costs five dollars.

Coverage of Reaper Con.  The coverage of this was fairly mediocre, I thought.  I don't care how many females were at the event.  I don't need to read about Aliens invade ReaperCon.  Also, given that the issue came out in January, and the Con took place in May, it's a bit dated.  Tales of Battle runs a Reaper ad, however, so I assume they are one of the sponsors.  Maybe he didn't have a choice?

Review of Warhammer Ancients Battle 2.0.  Four pages.  This is mainly coverage of how the book and rules changed from the first edition of the game, as opposed to the basics about the system as a whole (which, seeing as how it's so similar to WFB is probably not necessary anyway).  The article does make the system sound fairly interesting, and since one of the biggest complaints about the current WFB system isn't present in historical games (magic), there may be some reason to take a look at the system.  Still, if you haven't played WAB, this article is going to be pretty uninteresting, even if you have interest in the system.

Interview with Marlon Subieta.  An interview with someone who has won a GT.  I find these interviews to be pretty interesting, it's nice to see how they think, get an opinion from them on strengths of various armies, and also to get a feel for how these people are.  This guy is a big elf player of all sorts, and loves Wood Elves, apparently with an army based off 2 Treemen.  Not a bad read.

8th Edition Observations.  A pretty good article covering the basics of how the new 8th edition rules have changed the game.  I'll point out, again, that the article is a bit too late (8th ed has been out for a while), but the thoughts are good, and if you're just NOW starting to play the new edition, it's probably a worthwhile read.  Takes up three pages, covering a lot of different points.

Painting Guide for a GameZone Chaos Hound.  Basically an article on how to paint a Chaos Hound with Reaper Paints.  It's not very long, but it also doesn't have enough interesting going on in it (various reds, ooooh) to make it something you'll be looking back to from time to time.

Battle Report- Daemons vs Vampire Counts.  At 6 pages, this is the longest article of the magazine, and is probably the best written piece in the whole thing.  Great coverage of the game, with a very close ending, and you get to read a lot about the players' thoughts about the game while it's going on (always a fun time, in my opinion). 

Overall, I found the issue a bit disappointing, compared to how good the last couple of issues have been, but for 5 dollars, we're not talking a huge waste here.  The Battle Report is the best article in the issue, but that's hardly a reason to pick it up.

I really want to support independent magazines- I think they add a lot to the hobby, and I want to see them succeed. Unfortunately, this issue just wasn't so good.  I'm hoping that the long delay probably screwed with it, and when Issue #9 comes out, I'm going to be able to write a review about how great it was.  Look for it, whenever the issue comes!

Battle Report: Frontline General: Spearpoint 1943 (1/8/11)

Yeah, this took me over a month to finally post.  That's pretty terrible.  I'm going to try to get more on the ball with these.

Rob and I played two games of Frontline General: Spearpoint 1943 on one of my few free Saturdays, the 8th.  We decided to start playing some of the Situations (scenarios) that are available to give us some variety in the game.

First up was Situation I: Take Out Those 88's! In this situation, the Germans (played by Rob) had 3 crewed 8.8cm FlaK 36 cards on the rear line, with 2 front lines that must be beaten through before the Americans can finally take them out.  The goal of the game, of course, is the destruction of those 88s, and the Americans have to accomplish this without aircraft.  The Germans aren't allowed to start drawing reinforcements until Turn 3, but they do get 10 free victory points a turn (needing 75 to win).

After choosing our decks (Americans start with 120 points vs the Germans 80), we set up to play.  For my starting hand I chose a M4A1 Sherman, Tank Crew, Rifle Squad, and .30Cal LMG Team.  My hope was to use the Sherman to spearhead my attack (harder for the infantry Rob starts with to kill, and use the infantry to finish the job (the infantry is harder for the 88s to hit, needing a 13 vs an 11 vs the tank).  I didn't write down what my deck consisted of, next time I'll try to include that.  My drawn Command Cards were Withdraw (useful if my tank gets damaged), Reconnaissance (not really helpful for this situation, since Rob doesn't start with units in his hands), and Frontline Priority (great for getting a unit I need into my hand when I need it).  Not a bad start truthfully.

Rob immediately begins the game by playing a Sabotage card, removing one of the Shermans from my deck.  Ugh.

Turn 1:
I commit all 4 units in my hand, hoping to eat through at least one of his frontlines, and putting the pressure on early.


Right after first commitment phase.

Rob begins the Combat phase by playing Fire For Effect, making his artillery a lot deadlier to my poor Sherman (8 intensity vs the Sherman's 5 armor isn't nearly so scary as 12 intensity vs that same 5 armor).  He then proceeds to win initiative.

By the way, it's worth noting here that although the choices of targets for each card is very important in game, it's not a very interesting read, so it's not likely to be mentioned in any report I write.  Usually just the results.

Rob's first shot was an 88 at my Sherman, which missed.  I followed up by having the Sherman (targeted by all three artillery pieces) fire at the German Rifle Squad, discarding the Reconnaissance card for a +1 attack on my 75mm gun.  I missed with all of my attacks, however.

The German Rifle then shot at my Rifle Squad, killing it.  My LMG fires and misses.  With nothing of mine left, Rob goes through his guys- my Sherman dies to an 88, and the German MG-42 Team kills my LMG.

During the draw phase, I draw two units (Tank Crew and a Rifle Squad), and use Frontline Priority to get another Rifle Squad.  My Command Card draw is a Fighter Ace (useless in this situation).

Rob at this point has 34 Victory Points (he needs 75 to win).

Turn 2:
I choose to commit nothing, knowing that I'll just get slaughtered, and needing a few more units so that I can sweep through him.  I'm able to gain a bit of an advantage solely because the Germans aren't allowed to draw Reserves until turn 3.  With no combat, this is a quick turn, and I draw an Artillery Crew, a 57mm Anti-Tank Gun M1, and Commit Reserves (allowing me to play a card from my Reserves deck).

Rob is up to 44 Victory Points.

Turn 3:
Since Rob is going to start getting units this turn, I decide I can't keep waiting.  I commit everything, and use commit reserves for another Sherman (I apparently had 3 in my deck).  With an artillery piece, 2 infantry squads, and a tank, things are looking up for me.

Rob then wins the initiative.  He fires an 88 at my Sherman, damaging it.  The Sherman takes a shot at the Rifle Squad, and manages to deal 6 damage to it.  The German Rifle Squad fires at one of the American Rifle Squads, damaging it.  I draw a 'Shaken' card, retreating my Rifle Squad to the rear line, really hindering my attack. 

My other American Rifle Squad beats on a German Rifle Squad, causing 13 damage (don't remember the damage card), but it turns out not to matter as my ATG finishes it off.  Not a bad turn for me, really, although not great.

Anyway, during the draw phase I again choose two units, and draw an Artillery Crew and a Tank Crew.  I also draw another Fighter Ace.  That's just terrible. 

Up to 54 VPs.

Turn 4:
Well, with a draw like that, you can imagine I had nothing to commit.  Rob did, though.  He put a Scharfschutze (Sniper) in his first front line, and plays a Lay Smoke card on his front line Rifle Squad.  That limits my front line units to attacking his sniper, and means I can't break through his front line this turn.  Ugh!

I once again lost the Initiative.

Rob's first shot is an 88 at my Sherman, but thankfully he misses.  In response, my Sherman kills his Sniper.  Once again, with free reign to shoot, Rob manages to kill my 57mm ATG and retreats another of my Rifle Squads to my rear line.  He's now up to 70VP.  Not looking good.

I again choose to draw 2 units, and draw a Rifle Squad and another 57mm ATG.  I also draw Sabotage, which I use immediately to get rid of the Pz. VI Ausf. E Tiger I from his deck.  Have to take those small victories :).

Turn 5:
With Rob on the cusp of winning, I need to win THIS turn.  Well, I can't.  But that doesn't stop me!  What does stop me, however, is Rob playing a Capture That Unit! card, rolling a 10, and ending the game with 82 victory points.  Oops.


That's a picture of a sad me writing down the results of the current game.  In the immediate foreground is the impenetrable wall of FlaK 88s.

I pretty much did as poorly as possible that game, and I think next time I play, I'll have to be a little smarter about what I do.  Tanks are a bit more vulnerable to his artillery (the 88s were used as anti-tank guns, after all).  Maybe more infantry and a few artillery pieces of my own (so I could return fire with my own long range stuff) would have made this a closer game.

We weren't done here though- we decided to take a shot at Situation II: Beachhead Air Defense.

There are two parts to this situation.  First is an air battle, with 4 planes apiece, fighting to the death.  After this is done, the remaining aircraft are put onto the bottom of the victor's reserve deck, and a land battle begins.

There's one more component to this game, however- a US Landing Ship is making landfall at the beach, and is a vulnerable target for the German aircraft.  In fact, for every point of damage done to the LST prior to the aerial fight being done, the German player gets an extra victory point.  Given that the American aircraft is a bit better than the German ones, that's a key way to make up the difference.

Rob and I screwed this up, badly.  See, we missed the line that the LST was removed once the aerial combat was over.  So we left it out there.  That means his tanks were taking pot shots at it, and doing a ton of damage.  That's pretty game changing.  So although I wrote a bunch of notes, and even took some pictures, I'm not going to be writing a report for it.  It's sufficient to say that Rob one this one, but the game would have been a lot closer had I actually READ THE SCENARIO.  Ah well.  Live and learn.  Sounds like the second situation will be pretty enjoyable now that we'll do it right.

Here are some pictures of our second game anyway.


Ready to begin the game.


The air battle begins to go well for me.


As always, I'm struggling when it comes to the land-based part of the game.

We'll be playing this game from time to time at PrezCon, so I'll have more game reports going up next month, as well as a review, finally, since I'll finally have enough experience to do so (plus, I need practice writing reviews).

Non-collectible Monsterpocalypse?

According to PP's Monsterpocalypse news blog, Monsterpocalypse is going to move to a non-collectible format this year.  In addition, they will be re-releasing all of the old stuff so that people can assemble the armies they want.

That is VERY exciting news.  If that comes to pass, I may actually get some new miniatures, and finally get some more games in.  Rob's been eager to play, and I certainly would love to try some of the new and old stuff. 

Hopefully, look for more Monpoc stuff on this blog this year!  Of course, if you have no interest in it, then you can just ignore those posts :).

No Quarter 34 review/thoughts

Well, I finished reading/digesting the new issue of No Quarter, and since I haven't posted in a while, I figured I'd post what was in it, and my thoughts on the issue.

To start, there's a lot of Retribution stuff in the issue, starting with the cover.  Retribution is a fairly cool faction, and they do a lot of work to give players some fun things for players to think about, both with terrain, alternate color schemes, and tactics.

Alright, so let's go through the main things in the issue:

Strategic Academy: Minions.  Basic tactics and ideas for using the various Minion choices in the Hordes armies, as well as some thoughts on how to use the new warlocks.  Like all of the Strategic Academy articles, they are a good start for people looking for tactics, and I'm sure there's plenty of good information here for everyone.  That part on using Minions with Skorne isn't terribly amazing, but really, Skorne are so great it doesn't matter :).

Campaign Terrain.  This article covers a Cephalyx Slave Pit- a type of trench that may prevent grunts from actually dying when nearby, with the ability to rescue them.  I don't think that this really adds anything exciting to the game, truth be told, and I think it's the weakest of their terrain ideas to date.  I would've probably liked this a bit better had the picture shown some sort of conversion for the trench, to fit the theme (basically the Cephalyx capture injured bodies and drag them to these places to start their 'work' on them), instead it's a picture of a trench with Cephalyx standing in it.  Amazing.

Ranking Officers and Wrath model previews.  Rules for the new Ranking Officers that will come in Wrath.  There's rules for this type of unit attachment, as well as the rules for the Ogrun Assault Corps, Attendant Priest, Captain Jonas Murdoch, and Koldun Kapitan Valachev (no Cryx! :( ).  The Ranking Officers are a cool concept, and there's a lot of potential there, especially given the vast variety of Mercenary units out there.  I'm not really qualified to give much tactical advice here, however.  It's a brand new option for your armies though, that's extremely exciting.  As for the new units, the Ogrun Assault Corps has some serious potential, but it has a very limited selection of factions it'll work for.  CMA and CRA on a single unit is pretty fun sounding.  All three of the Ranking Officers are pretty awesome.  The abilities they'll give to their units are going to make for some VERY interesting combinations.  Assault (from Murdoch) is going to be an interesting option, and combined with the various Cygnar ranged attack enhancements could be VERY strong.

Tales from the Iron Kingdom: Prey.  This is story about a Totem Hunter hunting a group of Trollkin Champions.  Great story.  I thought it was pretty well written, and most importantly it moved quickly enough to be enjoyable.

Studio Secrets: Underpainting.  Now, this is a technique I've never heard of, but after reading the article, I'm 100% going to have to give it a shot.  Basically, you spray on 3 layers of primer, black to grey to white, and use extremely light paint on the top to take advantage of the highlighting caused by the primers.  The results (at least those shown in No Quarter) are fantastic, and it looks like it would be fairly fast to do, once it was practiced.  It's a VERY interesting technique, and I'm really excited about the idea.

Guts & Gears: Dawnguard.  Extra background and tactics for the Retribution's Dawnguard infantry units (the Invictors and Sentinels).  The tactics are probably a good read for Retribution players (I have no experience with or against them yet...) but the coolest part of the article for me was the variant paint scheme after the article- the Golden Guard.  They are painted to a darkened bronze color scheme, and frankly, it's so awesome looking that I almost went out and bought models for the army the day after seeing it.  Seriously- it's pretty sweet looking.

Forces of Distinction.  Two new theme forces for Warmachine armies- one for Captain Allister Caine, and one for Aleksandra Zerkova.  Regardless of the relative usefulness of these forces, I think the most important thing is that it looks like Privateer Press is going to be occasionally giving players new theme forces to go with their armies.  That means that maybe I'll see a nice Epic Asphyxious list that isn't based off of Cephalyx.

Caine's list is Trencher-based, which is different (and means that Caine's Elite Cadre ability is worthless here), but it has some interesting potential.  More mobility and protection for your models in the early going- plus extra free Trencher Commando Scattergunners.  It feels... a bit strange, since Caine doesn't have all that much to help out the trencher units, although they probably don't need it.  Maybe the intent is for Caine to do his assassination thing with as much protection as possible?

Zerkova's list actually looks pretty good.  First, you get to take Vanguard light jacks, and with the Tier 4 benefit, they'll actually be a point cheaper.  Greylords, Kayazy, Widowmakers, and get this- Gorman di Wulfe are allowed in the list.  That's a pretty interesting variety of choices here.  I'd love to see this in action, just to get an idea of how it would work on the table.

Modeling and Painting.  Battle Wounds and assembly help for Bethanyne and Belphagor.  Not of any interest to me, but I'm sure those are handy to plenty of people.

Power Progression: Retribution.  Handy if you're a new Retribution player.  Glad to see they are doing this for all the factions.

Terrain Building and The Gavyn Kyle Files.  Both were kind of 'meh' for me.  The terrain is for Retribution themed terrain, which is nice, but I don't think it's terribly exciting.  The Gavin Kyle Files were on Saxon Orrik, a very interesting character, but the article didn't really add anything to him that I hadn't heard already, so it was only of medium interest.

Finally, the concept art on the pack is of the Scavenger, the Battle Mechanik Officer (a Battle Mechanik in Man-o-War armor?  Hmm), and Constance Blaize.  Interesting looking stuff, but I'm more interested in seeing the models (the Scavenger model already looks cool!).

So, there you go.  I think it's another fantastic issue by Privateer Press, and if you haven't picked it up, you really should.