Iron Empire Mecha WiP and some Carneval in action

I have some family visiting which has slowed down the painting... quite a lot!  But, on the flip side, I've been able to get in an initial game of Carnevale... so that's a bonus!

Here you see the Mecha in the Iron Empire Cream and Purple colors... at least that's the colors of Iron Empire in the Swelterverse!

 I've been painting the bits seperately as the final posing will make a lot of areas practically impossible to reach... the range of viable poses is quite large with these kits.

A lot of Secret weapon washes helping out with the weapon glows and so forth... note the Mummy Pilot and the Egyptian Death Mask!  Scary!

 On to Carnevale!  Our first game pits the classic foes .. Vatican vs Strigoi.  Were still fumbling around with the rules but the game seems very evocative and fun...


Some thoughts so far:

The rules are a little hard to follow and a little confusing in places like... its not always completely clear if an AP (Action Point) cost is a replacement for another AP cost or an additional AP cost.

I'm also unclear why the final health box has a penalty listed when it appears that checking the final box should take a model out of action... odd to have a -2 penalty to action performed while dead... not undead... just dead.

*Update*  We figured out that we were reading the health chart wrong...DOH!  There is no postmortem penalty !

 It is interesting that a lot of abilities are available to any faction but really are tuned to a specific faction.  A lot of choices are available... even if many of them are silly.  I think like that... and once I understand the synergies it might make more sense why some choices, which currently appear to be silly, might be fun or effective to make.

 I am a little concerned about the Inquisitor in the Vatican faction, who looks a lot like Marilyn Manson, seems to be a vampire without the undead trait... or maybe a demonic entity... he certainly doesn't appear to be human 1.0.

I do like all the focus on theatrical maneuvers and water stuff... like how to drown ... accidentally or... on purpose... how to hold the head underwater until the bubbles stop.... not sure how it works precisely but it's very detailed!

More on that... after we play a few more rounds!

*Update*  After finishing the first game we think the Vatican is a strongly designed faction... The Cross Bearing Deacon in particular is very powerful and makes the faction largely immune to morale effects.  The Inquisitor and Executioner are also pretty spectacular in their effects and the whole force has an intuitive synergy that is really significant.

The Strigoi are less intuitive, although they have strong signature special effects, the synergies of the faction are less obvious and require more tactical forethought that the Vatican does. 

We got a lot of basic stuff wrong but, by the time we finished we had most of that sorted and things began making a lot more sense.  A couple of more practice games will tell the tale... and I'm really looking forward to playing some of the other factions...