The Slayers roam the Underworlds

  It's been a while since I posted anything about Shadespire and I figured it was about time.  In fact, you'll see another one next post!  But I wanted to get to this one first since there's a story behind it. 

  I have a good buddy coming down to visit at the end of this month.  This guy got into the hobby with me at the same time (we were opponents for much of our developmental years) and he even ran a game store for a little while.  Our love of miniatures gaming goes back all the way to my beginning, and it's kept going (despite his having no time or opponents to play where he lives now).  His visit is for other reasons, but we also plan to get his dice-rolling and mini-pushing muscles back to work. 

  When I was up to visit him many moons ago, I bought the Shadespire box set from his LGS.  We opened it up and checked out the models and it was awesome!  Months passed before we could get together again and we pulled that game back out to give it a go.  He LOVED it!  The models were fantastic, the rules were simple, and the gameplay didn't take entire weekends to enjoy.  With that, he returned home to pick up a bunch of the warbands himself. 

  Knowing that he was coming down to visit soon, he called me and asked if he could crash on my couch and also for advice on how to build a good Fireslayer deck for Shadespire.  Dammit!  I helped him with some ideas (this is a game I'm not actually bad at, unlike most of our other games) and then pulled out my models with the plan to get them painted.  He'll have the deck, but he won't travel with models for obvious reasons...If he reads this (and I doubt that he does), the surprise will be ruined.  But I am hoping to surprise him with a painted warband to use when he gets here. 


The Chosen Axes

   This warband's strength is in defense.  They gain glory points by standing on objectives and they become tougher when doing so.  They get 'inspired' by defending their treasure horde (in the form of objectives) and hit really hard just when you think they'll do nothing but stand there.  They can be vicious if played right. 

  

  Their weaknesses are in speed and requiring so many ploys and upgrades to really become effective.  Poor placement of the boards and objective markers can make their plight much more difficult, and faster bands like Skaven and Reavers can simply outrun them.  But some proper planning and powerful ploys can even the field quite easily.  

  The models are awesome!  They are wearing very little in terms of clothing and armor, but the detail in their weapons and helms is insane!  Better yet, I enjoy painting flesh (one of my hobby strengths) and these models are rife with it.  I didn't want to paint them to look like everyone else's slayers, and I also wanted these to be usable in other fantasy games (like D&D) since I don't have many dwarfs left in my collection.  So I chose a more 'realistic' color scheme.  

  My son has already used these dwarfs to great effect, so I'm curious to see how my buddy's deck works.  Hopefully he doesn't beat us too badly (and vice-versa)...  Let me know what you think and, as always- 

Happy Hobbying!