[Wargaming] Lost Hemisphere Challenge 2013

It's been a long, long time since I posted anything to do with wargaming. There are a few reasons for this. First, I didn't really get much painted for large parts of last semester, and I lost all of the motivation that I'd built up over the summer. Second, all of the events that I wanted to attend clashed with lifesaving competitions. So I haven't played any games in months. Third, I was getting more into boardgames again, sparked in part by the realisation that my brother likes them too, and the greater convenience of carrying them around (for example, taking them to my parents' for Christmas).

However, something has cropped up on one of the podcasts that I listen to that has really got me excited, and that will hopefully provide me with some structure to my wargaming for 2013. This will hopefully be the first in many posts concerning Lost Hemisphere's Unloved Model Challenge, which I've signed up for.

What have you gotten me into LHR? *Shakes fist* (Credit: lhradio.blogspot.co.uk)

Lost Hemisphere was one of my favourite Privateer Press focused blogs. I say was, because the blog recently ceased publication owing to completely understandable, and perfectly reasonable real life issues. Like many I was sad to see it go, but their forums and podcast are still going strong. In fact it was episode 63 of Lost Hemisphere Radio that brought up this challenge, which one of the hosts was running at his local gaming shop. The basic premise is for players to take a model or theme force that is considered 'weak' by the hivemind of Warmachine/Hordes players, paint it up, and make it work for them. Various levels of challenge, from self-selection of a single model/unit to having a theme force chosen for you were discussed, and the whole thing sounded like a lot of fun.

I commented on the Lost Hemisphere forums (which are awesome) that it would be fun to run something similar amongst the forum community, and it seemed like I wasn't the only one who thought so. A week later, this post cropped up, and the madness began; I duly signed up.

There are three levels to the challenge, and I decided to go all out and sign up for level 3 - letting the hosts of Lost Hemisphere Radio pick a theme force for me to build, paint, and play. After all, in for a penny in for a pound as they say. The aim of challenge level 3 is to build a tier 2 or above list, get it fully painted, and achieve a win-loss ratio of better than 50%. The first two I can probably manage, but the third might be difficult given my normal win-loss ratio, and the fact that I'm not sure how many games I'll get in during 2013. However I figured that it would be a good way to get some of my stuff finished off, and to structure my playing and painting for the year. Plus I love theme forces, and have previously experimented with those of Terminus and Deneghra, both of which are looked down on a bit by the  general Cryxian population. Theme forces are fun, and in the end that's why I play wargames. To have fun.

Sadly this isn't mine. It belongs to gentleben from Bell of Lost Souls. His

models always look superb. (Credit: belloflostsouls.net)

Anyway, I've been assigned the theme force for Lich Lord Venethrax. It's an interesting looking one, and I'll dig some more into my thoughts on both the warcaster and the force in future posts. If you'll excuse me, I'm off to source a Venethrax model.