The Battle of Skinny Butte (Battle Report)

 How to start the New Year right? By playing a game of Warhammer: The Old World. 

It really is a skinny butte.

The Bob and I finally got together again to play a game. This time we decided to play on a kind of desert wasteland-like table. It even has a little fresh water oasis to fight over. And fight we did.

.A force from Cathay, needing the turf to resupply their water stocks, were determined to claim this resource as they make their way through the Westerland seeking out the forces of Chaos.

It's somewhere in this area. 

At the same time Queen Helga, still smarting from her encounter with some pesky High Elves, was determined to restore some honor and reclaim a lost dwarfen settlement in the Westerland. It just so happens that a small force from Grand Cathay's Jade Fleet, along with some supporting forces from The Empire, was determined to claim it for themselves. 

Grand Cathay:

116 - Gate Keeper, Celestial Blade, Battle Standard Bearer, The Jade Banner

189 - Shugengan General, Celestial Blade, Dragon Fire Pistol, Heavy Armour, General, Wizard Level 2, Lore of Yang, Battle Magic (Arcane Urgency and Might of Heaven and Earth)

118 - 5 Jade Lancer, Jade Lancer Officer, Standard Bearer, Musician

138 - 15 Jade Warriors, Shield, Jade Officer, Standard Bearer, Musician

138 - 15 Jade Warriors, Halberd, Jade Officer, Standard Bearer, Musician

130 - Fire Rain Rocket Battery

80 - 10 State Missile Troops, Handgun

80 - 10 State Missile Troops, Handgun

===

Helga's Entourage  [999 pts]

Warhammer: The Old World, Dwarfen Mountain Holds, Open War

===

++ Characters [314 pts] ++

Queen Helga [247 pts] 

- Hand weapon

- Full plate armour

- Shield

- General

- On foot

- Master Rune of Adamant

- Rune of Speed

- Rune of Cleaving

Thane [67 pts] 

- Hand weapon

- Full plate armour

- Shield

- On foot

- Enchanted Rune

++ Core Units [367 pts] ++

12 Dwarf Warriors [147 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Heavy armour

- Great weapons

- Shields

- Veteran

- Veteran (champion)

- Standard bearer

- Musician

10 Dwarf Warriors [105 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Heavy armour

- Shields

- Veteran

- Standard bearer

- Musician

10 Thunderers [115 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Handguns

- Heavy armour

- Veteran (champion) [Handgun]

- Standard bearer

- Musician

++ Special Units [110 pts] ++

Cannon [110 pts] 

- Cannon

- Hand weapons

- Light armour

- Rune of Reloading

- Stalwart Rune

++ Rare Units [208 pts] ++

10 Irondrakes [208 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Drakeguns

- Full plate armour

- Drilled

- Ironwarden (champion) [Trollhammer torpedo]

- Standard bearer [Rune of Courage]

- Musician

---

Created with "Old World Builder"

[https://old-world-builder.com]

Dwarfs go first, with lot of marching and grumbling. A successful cannon shot strikes the BSB who miraculously managed to make his Saving Throw! 

"So it's going to be that kind of game," I thought aloud. 

BOOM!

Cathay Turn 1

The Wind of Yang

Also a lot marching and maneuvering. Unlike the Dwarfs, this actually looks like something significant, particularly the Jade Lancers who've set themselves in my Deployment Zone with perfect Turn 2 charge set-up. Both units of Empire gunners kill a single dwarf from the Warriors unit with the Great weapons and from the unit of warriors with Hand Weapons and Shields. 

Cathay sets the field to their advantage. 

Dwarf Turn 2

In a moment of quick thinking and desperation, the Dwarf Cannon blasts grape shot at the Jade Lancers, scoring 10 automatic hits! The shower of shrapnel bring down two of the Jade Lancers, much to their horrific surprise (and mine too, actually). The Iron Drakes and Thunderers pick off a few more Jace Warriors from long ranges. 

Grapeshot!

Queen Helga orders her unit of Warriors with Great Weapons to wheel around with the expectation that her unit might get charged by the Jade Lancers. 

 

Helga's unit wheels for advantage. 

The field of battle, bottom of Turn 2. 

Cathay Turn 2

The Wind of Ying (+1 WS)

The Rocket Battery targets the Iron Drakes but this scatters wildly into the Thunders blowing a few of them away. 

The Jade Warrior unit that contains the BSB attempted to charge the Warriors with hand weapons and Shields led by the Thane but failed their charge.

The Lancers choose to charge the Canon. And much to our mutual surprise the Jade Lancers only kill a single crew member (actually, I think it was a horse that did it) while one of the cannon crew kills a Lancer in return. The crew don't break and the two units are now locked in combat. 

The crew that wouldn't cave in.

Dwarfs Turn 3

The Warriors with hand weapons and Shields led by the Thane attempted to charge the Jade Warrior unit that contains the BSB but failed their charge. These two units are just itching to to come to grips but just can't seem to make it happen!

Queen Helga leads the Warriors with the Great Weapons to charge the lancers and successfully wipe them out, and saving the cannon crew in the process. 

Cathay Turn 3

(The WInd of Ying (+1 WS)

Being an honorable and noble character the Shugengan General charges the Iron Drakes from behind (to be honest, it's the only sensible way to avoid their Stand and Shoot Charge Reaction). When the Close Combat Phase was reached we got to witness the Shugengan and her trusty Spirit Longma stead lay wast to the Iron drakes, leaving just the Champion and the Standard bearer alive. They managed to get some hits on it in return but the Shugengan made her saves!

The Iron Drake slaughter. 

The last two Iron Drakes broke like the wind, and ran screaming straight through the unit of jade Warriors in their way. The Standard Bearer did not make it however and was cut down by the Jade Warriors. 

"Phew! made it!"

The champion (aka the Iron Warden) thought he had made it through the worst of it all only to have the Shugengan pursue, catch, and kill him. It was brutal. 

The agony of defeat. 

The Jade Warrior unit that contains the BSB attempted to charge the Warriors with hand weapons and Shields led by the Thane and this time they made their charge. Both units were now happy and filled with glee to finally be able to get to grips with their foe. Despite killing more Jade Warriors than they lost, the Thane and his Warriors still lost the combat due to the incredible CR modifiers in the Jade Warriors favor. Luckily they made the save. 

The fray in joined. 

Dwarfs Turn 4

I tried to get the dwarfs repositioned to be able to counter the Jade Warriors near the water. The Thunderers did shot and kill two of the Jade Warriors, only slightly thinning their numbers.  I wanted the cannon to deal with the Shugengan, and it successfully hit and damaged, only for the lucky (blessed?) General to successfully make her Ward Save. Meanwhile the Thane's fight with the Cathayan Army BSB once again lose to CR, but pass their Leadership test again. 

Cathay Turn 4

Wind of Ying (+Int)

The Shugengan and her trusty Spirit Longma fly to the back side of the Thunderers. The Jade Warriors with the halberds failed a charge against the Thunderers and lost a few more guys to the Stand and Shoot reaction.  

Turn 4, mid-battle. 

The Jade Warrior unit that contains the BSB had a tied combat with the Warriors with hand weapons and Shields led by the Thane. The Thane and his Warriors still lost the combat due to the incredible CR modifiers in the Jade Warriors favor. This time they failed the Leadership Test and were forced to Give Ground. 

Giving ground. 

Dwarf Turn 5

The cannon strikes the Shugengan and her trusty Spirit Longma with another precision cannon ball shot only to have the crafty general make another 6+ Ward Save! On the other side of the skinny butte the Thane and his Warriors lose again due to CR and once again Give Ground. Only this time the Jade Warriors restrain themselves and allow the dwarfs to escape combat. 

The power of restraint. 

Cathay Turn 5

Wind of Ying (+1 Int)

Shugengan General charges the rear of the Thunderers only this time she is formally challenged by the unit Veteran. This brave fellow is promptly murdered but he died honorably, facing his foe as opposed to being run down like a gobbo. 

"Challenge accepted."

This tactic (a gamble really) made it so that the rest of unit was able to still live. After they made their break test, they reformed to face their foe. 

Combat locked. 

The Empire Gunners tried to shoot down the Thane and his unit but was not successful in that goal. 

At the end of Turn 5 we took a quick assessment of the field of battle. As far as forces go, we were both very much still in the game. It was just a matter of determining our options and seeing what the dice gods would allow. 

The state of the battle, end of Turn 5. 

Dwarf Turn 6

I needed a push to hurt more of the opposing units. Sadly Queen Helga and her Great Weapons entourage of warriors failed their charge against the Halberd bearing Jade Warriors. The Cannon fired at that unit and missed. The Thunders and Shugengan tussle ended in a draw as did the renewed fight between the Thane and the Cathay BSB Jade Warrior unit. 

Combat renewed.

Cathay Turn 6

Wind of Ying (+1 WS)

Suddenly the Rocket battery crew remembered how to aim that thing and got a direct hit on the Dwarf Cannon, destroying it!

The Jade Warriors with the halberds refused to take the bait and held back from attempting to charge the Queen's unit, Once again there was no defeats that resulting in a unit being wiped out in any of the close combats. 

"Damn your Ward save!

No banners were claimed in Close Combat and we both had our Generals survive. I lost two units and gave up 310 points and the Cathay Jade Fleet only gave up 153 points. Bob's Cathay army win their first game! Also, this is his third win against me in a row for the Old World, but this one was a lot more of a challenge than the previous encounters. 

My dice proved to be fickle as heck where his were just uncanny at rolling saves, particularly for the 

Shugengan General. She needs to go with him to Vegas or somewhere that gives out money for awesome die rolls. Seriously, she batted away cannon balls and flinched off every blade that struck her! I think you can all join me in encouraging Bob to give this amazing lady a paint job!

MVP in black.

Karlina Von Carstein in the Old World

 

Karlina squared.

As the title says, this is Karlina Vin Carstein in the Old World. This was a limited edition model intended for Age Of Sigmar which I decided to convert for use with The Old World game. The conversion, if you can even call it that, was simply to stick the model onto a 25mm square base. A challenge since it was intended for a 40mm round base. There is a small skull with a dagger in it that was supposed to go in front of the model but I had to squeeze it into one the corners in the rear. Like Lady Annika, this model just spills off of it's base and  towers over the other foot models in this army. 

After a bit of back and forth on how to paint this model, I decided to go with the blood red look of the Blood Knights (yes, I got some, but I haven't gotten to them yet). After basecoating the miniature with Baal Red Contrast Paint I was quite pleased with the result even at this stage. 

Baal Red Contrast Paint

Black Templar was used on the cloak. I think this turned out surprisingly well also. 

After this I painted the rose on the blade using Volupus Pink for the bud and Moot Green on the stem. After that I washed most of the model with Nuln Oil. 

 After that I added a layer of Evil Sun Scarlet which was followed with a thin edge highlight of Fire Dragon Bright.  Now this armor is starting to look nice and vampy.

The cloak was done by painting Nocturne Green over the Black Templar which thought worked very well.  A thinned layer of Kabalite Green was put over that, mostly on the edges,  with a solid application of Kabalite Green  as the final highlight. 

Blood for the Blood God was added to the Golden chalice in a way to make it seem that what little blood was left in it is dripping out of it. 

After finishing the face off, the model was done! 

I am very happy with how this turned out. I must confess, this was sort of a test model to try out the Blood Knights scheme. Now that I feel that this was a success perhaps I need to build those Blood Knights! 

Screaming for Vengeance

 

Screamers of Tzeentch.

The first unit of my Chaos Daemons for the old world have been completed. 

Primed.

To get this scheme to work I had to take a watercolor approach and paint this from light to dark. 

Volupus Pink Contrast Paint. 

I started at the extremities (assuming these fiends truly have such a thing) and worked the color toward the center thinning the color as it goes. Volupus Pink was the color of choice foe this first step. 

Sigvald Burgundy 

Next Sigvald Burgundy was blended into the areas where I stopped the Volupus Pink and expanded into the unpainted area. 

Luxion Purple 

Luxuon Purple continued this blend but it was used more as a transitional step before I got to the dominant color of Asurmen Blue. 

Asurmen Blue (on the bottom).

Titillating Pink highlights (on the top). 

Yellow was used for their eyes. The yellow I used was Imperial Fist Contrast Paint, which is a great match for the classic Sunburst Yellow Citadel Color paint from the last century. I used a Micron for their pupils. 

A few final touch-ups, mostly highlighting the boney bits, and I was happy enough with them to call them done. 

And with that, they were done. The final step was to glue them to their flight stands. Note that the flight stands are NOT glued to their bases. The idea is that I can switch them out from these square bases (rectangular technically but you know what I mean) to round ones. 

Finished models.

And the first unit of Tzeentch daemons is done! What next? 

Daemon Prince Changer of Ways (Part 1)

 Here's a Tzeentch Bolt of Change out of the blue horror for you:  a miniature from the Realm of Chaos era of the late '80s: The original Greater Daemon of Tzeentch,  the Changer of Ways. This isn't the original packaging or a lead miniature, this version s the (circa 1995) GW US pewter casting and packaging. 

Packaging prison.

And before you guys all yell: 

...haha, no, it belongs on my modeling table. In fact it's been in the queue since the end of  Warhammer 40,000 7th edition when the plastic Lord of Change came out. That model definitely dwarfs this thing. 

Freedom!

But I thought it might be cheeky to take some of the plastic bitz from the LoC kit and outfit some of them onto this old model. It wasn't long after that the edition changed (WHFB had gone through the End Tmes not long beforehand) and this project was forgotten about. 

Until now.

But before I go into that, I do want to stress that there were a lot of versions of this model. In fact it had three bodies,  six heads (seven if you consider that one of those heads was double-headed) and two tails. There are lots of combinations possible with these bitz and it's possible you'll look at mine and swear you've seen a different model than this with the same name, and well, you're probably not wrong. 

So much variety.

So back to my model. I have always liked the head that appeared skeletal and wide eyed. I guess there was something dramatic about it that just appealed to me more than the parrot headed one. Anyway my plan with these plastic bits was to stick the sword on his side along with anything else that made sense. I was particularly fond of the scroll. The addition of a pair of brimstone horrors will help update and tie this fellow up to the newer range of Tzeentch models. 

Plastic LoC bitz 

My plan for this thing now is to model him up for The Old World but use him as a Daemon Prince. I think he'll be perfect in that role. Unlike the rest of my Tzeench Daemons, this model will be exclusive to the Old World. 

Assembled.

Somehow I have lost his tail. I know it's around here somewhere because I saw it recently, but I will be damned if I can't recall where I put it... *sigh*

Looks like a party hub?

Anyway, I hope to get this guy painted soon but it might be set aside for an upcoming winter project.  We'll see how things shake down...