Is It April Already?

A few months ago, my buddy Josh came over for a game of Warmachine. It was a 35 point game, that ended abruptly when Epic Stryker rushed in with a combination of Velocity and Overload and smashed the utter crap out of the Butcher. After Josh had gone and I was clearing off the table, I discovered that his Stryker model had been left behind, overlooked in the clutter of battlefield debris, dice, and dead Khadoran models.

Well, I couldn’t resist– I immediately placed Stryker in a tower with Widowmakers standing guard, and texted a photo to Josh, to negotiate the ransom and return of his model. It could only have been better if I had taken the time to model a tiny newspaper to hold up in front of my captive! Josh and I planned to have another game, this time with a scenario incorporating the rescue of Lord Commander Stryker.

When I was working in GW retail, this was something I’d have to deal with on a weekly basis. The woods were almost always guaranteed to contain a Space Marine Scout or Eldar Ranger who didn’t know the war was over! Eventually, I constructed a small barbed wire fence in one of the display cabinets– a sort of P.O.W. camp where the forgotten models could reside in safety (and shame) until their owners came to collect them.

Flash back to No Quarter Magazine issue #17. Doug Seacat and I played out a battle report pitting my Protectorate force against his Cygnar army. During the fight, Reznik had Wracked General Adept Nemo. We had a good laugh about it afterward and I even purchased the parts to convert a Wracked version of the warcaster. I never built the Nemo-Wrack, and the parts remained in my parts bin for years.

Back to present day. Josh and I haven’t gotten around to that game yet, and Stryker is still in my possession. I’m starting to think that maybe the Khadorans have traded their prisoner to the Protectorate of Menoth, and that maybe the Protectorate isn’t content to leave him in a comfy display cabinet– er cell, and maybe Stryker’s time in captivity would be better spent on a Wrack, thinking about what he’s done to the poor Menites of Sul…

 

So, okay, it’s still Nemo on the wrack, but he and Stryker wear similar armor, and if Stryker has only captivity and torture to look forward to for the rest of his life, he’s going to go grey real quick. He has essentially become Nemo– an old man, filled with regret, waiting to die alone. (That’s what happens when I watch Inception while I paint!)

‘Til next time!