Huntsmen (Part 2)

 Maybe, once upon a time, these guys had names, but that info is now lost to me; assuming it ever existed. Since Part 1 was posted I kind of went a bit nuts with these guys. I broke out all the "earthy" toned Contrast Paints that I had and just went nuts. Note that these guys are still unfinished, but I think I have finished the Contrast Paint stage and think they look good enough to be considered 'battle ready'. 

One of the colors I am most excited about is called Ratling Grime. I used it on some of the coats that a few of these guys are wearing and I think it looks perfect. Grime was a great name for this color as it definitely evokes that feeling. 

There are two colors of green Contrast Paint that I predominantly used on these guys. Creed Camo and Militarum Green. 

Every band of merry men needs a Will Scarlett type of guy right? For the sake of being different, I gave this guy red pants. And a bright green bandana. 

A few of these guys have blue pants to sort of mix up the color pallette a bit. They come off looking like blue jeans, and I think that's just fine with me. 

A few if these guys have shirts pai Ted using Guilliman Fleshwash. The idea isn't to make them appear to be wearing g human skin suits (icky!), but to serve as a base to build up to a dirty white. 

The flesh on these guys are still at the state that I left them in almost 20 years. Some have just a Bestial Brown basecoat and a few others have an additional layer of Dwarf Flesh.  I will figure out what to do about that in the next post. 

The bows were all painted using Wyldwood Contrast Paint. Unlike the High Elf Archers I have been working, these bows are darker. Maybe they are stained, oiled or just worn compared to the elf bows which I like to image are freshly hewn. The ares are brighter which I want to think have just been fetched. 

And this is a good place to leave them off for now. I intend to get these up to higher level in Part 3. 

Dark Elves

 The Dark Elf range has always fascinated me. Well, the '90s models were a bit too bulky and goofy for my tastes, but the 2000s range spoke to me. But l, with exception to a blister pack of random model here and there,  just never went all-in with collecting them. My renewed interest in Warhammer Fantasy over the past year or so has inspired me to get a few more things and make a small force. What follows is a few examples of this dalliance with the dark side: 

This first one is from a pair of miniatures that I got  cheap from eBay. They are the guards from the Cauldron of Blood kit. I thought they looked dynamic as heck perched up on some big tactical rocks. Even more so since I am using actual rocks for this look. 

This one is from Warhammer: Underworlds. I bought it as a single model as I thought it was awesomely dynamic. 

What to do with a resin hag queen? Stick her on a resin slab sitting on top of skulls. It's a simple bit of modeling but I like the results. Also it gives me an excuse to use another piece from the old Citadel Basing kit. 

Finecast Assassins. So sneakiy that they can melt into the shadows. And, if left in a hot car,  can also melt in daylight...

This next one started with the Cold One which I bought for a project in the mid '00s. I had forgotten about it until a recent assessment of some of my plastic sprues reintroduced it to me. Iucked out and found the pewter rider for fairly cheap on ebay. The miniature still in blister sells for a fairly high sum, so this worked out great. 

I bought the command models in this next pic way back in the early '00s as well. I bought them just to paint but I used them mostly for WFRP instead. The other two miniatures were acquired more recently. Mono-pose they may be, but they are incredibly dynamic and a vast improvement over the '90s sculpts. 

This next one is the first Dark Elf miniature I ever owned. Got her back in the '90s thru GW US Mail Order's 'pre-metal' window. It was a kind of speak-easy program that allowed some of us "in the know" to get some select metal miniatures a few weeks before their proper release. The story I recall is that this was one of the test models that Chris Fitzpatrick did to get hired at GW. It was released as a generic Dark Elf Sorceress but the tab says Morathi on it. Not surprisingly as it was clearly  based on a Mark Gibbons illustration from the 4th Edition Dark Elf army book. 

So that's a basic overview of what I have so far to make a start with this faction. Hopefully I can get some color onto these miniatures before the year ends, but I'll encourage you not to hold your breath...

Huntsmen (Part 1)

 Here's a project that I started (and saddly abandoned) just over 18 years ago*. 

Nearly 20 years ago, over on Warhammer-Empire I had asked the users there to show us their Huntsman.  The idea was that I wanted to figure out a paint scheme and I just wasn't getting there on my own.  This was because the paint scheme shown in the 6th edition Warhammer Armies: The Empire was a bit small to really get a good vibe from the one picture. A picture of only three models by the way. 

The response from the Warhammer-Empire users was impressive to say the least, as many folks shared pics of their models, and they were all unique. If you follow the hyperlink above you'll see what I mean, but you'll have to look past the annoying Photobucket** watermarks. Inspired, I did build my guys. I used the Militia kit mixed with bits from Bretonian Peasent and Wood Elf sprues. I still like what I did with them. I even bought some thread to use as strings for their bows.  But....  I never finished it. The only thing I can think of is that I was pulled back to 40k in a big way around that time and just never got back around to revisiting the Empire range, let alone these particular models.  

This guy is the leader of the group. Not pictured here is his little dog and his Middenheim cloak. Expanding the bases on these guys is going to really benefit this fellow. All of them really, as I will have more room to add brush and grass tufts. 

Reinvigorated, I just dove right in and applied the base extenders to get them expanded out to the required 28mm base size. Then I added grit to help integrate the existing basing materials to the new area.

Then I  painted the bases using my trusty old Territorial Beige craft paint. I love that stuff, it does the trick very well. 

Next, I busted out the Contrast Paint, but for the sake of brevity we shall save the results of that for Part 2. 

Check back soon!

*Writing that hurt my soul.

**I am trying really hard not to rant about that ridiculous company. 

Landsknecht Ogres (Part 1)

 Imperial Ogres, which are essentially quasi-civilized Ogres who live and ally with citizens of the Empire, have had models in existence now since the late 1980s. In recent times GW has re-released some of these old miniatures with new rules for use in The Old World. They are currently available on GWs website in two sets of three for $60 each. The ogre with the light Cannon is available by himself for $32.75. For about the same price as that one guy with the cannon, you can get a box of nine Imperial ogres with the light cannon (and a lot of other options) from Wargames Atlantic.  

The Box

My only complaint is that Wargames Atlantic simply eschews the inclusion of assembly guides inside their kits. It's made their construction a bit more challenging than I had anticipated.

But fun never-the-less!

The first few guys I assembled.

A rank of Light Cannons.

I used them in a recent game and despite how I feel the light cannons should work, I found that the Ogre Pistol got the better results and the double-handed weapon was simply amazing. 

In battle. 

I decided to build up the rest of the models in the box with double-handed weapons and pistols. This now gives be a fairly good mix of options from one boxed set. As we are currently playing (here locally) low point value games, this set will go far in that regard. 

The whole box assembled. 

As you can see they're all primed, their bases are base coated and all their flesh has had a coat of Fyreslayer Flesh Contrast Paint. Painting these chaps are going to be a labor of love I think, so I will be poking at them over the next few months. Meanwhile, there are enough bits left over that I can, and likely will, use some of them on my TOW Ogres Kingdom army when I get around to it. 

A Chaotic Encounter

 

Queen Helga confronts the Silver Jarl.

Determined to settle her most recent grudge, Queen Helga pushed her force deeper into The Wasteland hunting the Cathayan warhost that her force recently fought against. Unfortunately she ran into a far nastier foe: The Gray Reavers. A band of ruthless savages descending from the land of ice, snow and furry beasts led by the even more ruthless Silver Jarl. 

Somewhere in The Wasteland. 

The field of battle was grey and desolate. A small thicket of scraggly trees and thorn bushes grew on one end, while the crumbling ruins of a long forgotten settlement stuck out of the dry and arid ground of the other end. 

We both showed up with small armies totally 1250 points each.. 

The Gray Reavers. 

===

Warriors of Chaos [1241 pts]

Warhammer: The Old World, Warriors of Chaos, Open War

===

++ Characters [317 pts] ++

Exalted Sorcerer [90 pts] 

- Hand weapon

- Light armour

- Mark of Chaos [Mark of Chaos Undivided]

- Wizard [Level 1 Wizard]

- On foot

- Daemonology (randomized spell: The Summoning.) 

Chaos Lord [227 pts] 

- Hand weapon

- Full plate armour

- Shield

- Mark of Chaos [Mark of Chaos Undivided]

- General

- On foot

- Giant Blade

++ Core Units [578 pts] ++

15 Chaos Warriors [228 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Heavy armour

- Shields

- Mark of Chaos [Mark of Chaos Undivided]

- Champion

- Standard bearer

- Musician

15 Chaos Warriors [228 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Heavy armour

- Shields

- Mark of Chaos [Mark of Chaos Undivided]

- Champion

- Standard bearer

- Musician

15 Chaos Marauders [122 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Light armour

- Shields

- Chaotic Cult [None]

- Formation [Close Order]

- Marauder Headman (champion)

- Standard bearer

- Musician

++ Special Units [346 pts] ++

Chaos Chariot [110 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Halberds

- Mark of Chaos Undivided

5 Chosen Chaos Knights [236 pts] 

- Lances

- Shields

- Full plate armour

- Barding

- Mark of Chaos [Mark of Nurgle]

- Champion

- Standard bearer

- Musician

---

Created with "Old World Builder"

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

Queen Helga's Entourage

===

Helga's Entourage  [1250 pts]

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

===

++ Characters [285 pts] ++

Queen Helga [177 pts] 

- Hand weapon

- Full plate armour

- Shield

- General

- On foot

- Rune of Speed

- Rune of Cleaving

- 2x Rune of Shielding

Engineer [108 pts] 

- Hand weapon

- Heavy armour

- Handgun

- Rune of Shielding

- Rune of Rapid Fire

- Rune of Accuracy

++ Core Units [355 pts] ++

10 Dwarf Warriors [115 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Heavy armour

- Shields

- Veteran (0-1 unit per 1000 points)

- Veteran

- Standard bearer

- Musician

10 Thunderers [115 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Handguns

- Heavy armour

- Veteran (champion) [Handgun]

- Standard bearer

- Musician

10 Dwarf Warriors [125 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Heavy armour

- Great weapons

- Shields

- Drilled

- Veteran (champion)

- Standard bearer

- Musician

++ Special Units [248 pts] ++

Cannon [110 pts] 

- Cannon

- Hand weapons

- Light armour

- Rune of Reloading

- Stalwart Rune

8 Miners [138 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Great weapons

- Heavy armour

- Blasting Charges

- Veteran

- Prospector (champion)

- Standard bearer

- Musician

++ Rare Units [218 pts] ++

10 Irondrakes [218 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Drakeguns

- Full plate armour

- Drilled

- Ironwarden (champion) [Trollhammer torpedo]

- Standard bearer [Rune of Battle]

- Musician

++ Mercenaries [144 pts] ++

3 Imperial Ogres [144 pts] 

- Hand weapons

- Heavy armour

- 1x Great weapons

- 2x Light cannons

- 3x Ogre pistols

- Captain (champion)

---

Created with "Old World Builder"

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

Dwarf Deployment.

I wanted to change up Queen Helga's list from the last time I used it. With Helga herself I removed the Rune of Adamant and gave her double Rune of Shielding. This was an effort to try to free up points for things elsewhere in the list. One of the the most obvious additions to the list was the hiring of a trio of Imperial Ogres. Thankfully they made their pre-game roll and showed up on time and (allegedly) sober.  

Chaos Deployment.

I can't speak to the decisions Bob made for his Chaos force other than that he eschewed all missile weapons in favor of getting up close and personal. His Sorcerer rolled The Summoning for his pre-game spell selection. 

TURN ONE 

All of the Chaos force marches forward! 

The Dwarfs focus on a a unit of Warriors and pick off a few of them with shooting from the cannon and the Iron Drakes. The Thunderers did not net any kills. 

CHAOS TURN TWO

In the previous turn, the Imperial Ogres shot their Light Cannons into the woods hoping to hit the Chaos Knights that were smashing their way through it. They missed every shot. Now that they were being charged they Stood and Shot and again missed with each shot. The Chaos Chariot crashed into the unit of Dwarf Warriors on the board's edge but only killed two of them. In return, the dwarf counter attack rolled only 1's and 2's on the dice! Somehow, we managed to get a drawn combat our of that mess. 

DWARFS TURN TWO

Helga and her unit of warriors charge the Chaos Warrior unit. 

Helga Challenges the Silver Jarl who eagerly accepts the it. 

The result is that Helga loses two Wounds, and her Warriors didn't achieve enough kills to win the fight. The unit Falls Back in Good Order. 

turn 3

The Knights win the fight against the Ogres even though the Ogre Captain with his mighty double handed weapon damn  near wiped the floor with them. The CR determined that the ogres lost.. He fails  the break test and runs away. I can't recall if the Knights restrained themselves of just failed to catch him. 

Meanwhile another unit of Chaos Warriors join the fray as the Silver Jarl and his unit charge Queen Helga's unit again. Helga once again accepts the challenge from the Silver Jarl. 

Although she and her unit held firm, the CR of the opposing force was overwhelming and they ended up breaking. 

Both units pursued and ran down the retreating dwarfs.  Thus Helga was defeated again. 

Dwarfs Turn 3

During the rally phase the Ogre Captain rallied! He turned to face the Knights defiantly.  Finally, the Miners show up, however my placement of them could've been better as I had a tough time maneuvering the unit. I had a lot of shooting to perform but my dice rolling stymied my hopes for  gaining any sort of edge over these guys. 

In the close combat phase the Dwarf Warriors continued to keep the Chaos Chariot locked in combat. Bob said of the situation: "If it helps that's really annoying."  

Chaos Turn 4 

Chaos finallt gets the big charge that they've been aching for: three units manage to get charges off.. The Marauders charge the Iron Drakes (kill two of them with their Stand and Shoot option), The Thunderers kill a Chaos Warrior with Stand and Shoot. And finally the Ogre Captain chose to stand and shoot, he raised his pistol and brought down the Chaos Knight's Standard Bearer with a single shot! It was an awesomely heroic moment. However the Ogre was defeated by the Chaos Knights unit Champion. He used his follow-up move to get a bit closer to the Dwarf Warriors that have bogged down the chariot for most of the game. 

The Thunderers held against the Chaos Warriors despite their situation worsening, But more dramatically the Iron Drakes won their combat against the marauders and actually managed to run them down after they broke,. 

Dwarfs Turn 4

The iron drakes redressed their ranks to take full advantage of their firing potential and opened up on the Chaos Sorceror who found himself in their sights. Amazing he lived through that but the Troll Hammer Torpedo found it's mark and exploded him violently across the battlefield. 

Turn 5

The Knight Champion and Chariot finally killed of the unit of Dwarf Warriors over on my left flank, 

I managed to successfully snipe the Silver Jarl with a cannon ball, but he made his save! We imagine he swatted it aside like it was little more than a dodgeball., 

We called it there. it was clear to us that the dwarfs would have to have  a miracle happen in order for the dwarfs to turn this encounter around.  Just look at the difference in captured banners alone: 

4 Dwarf banners captured to 1 Chaos banner captured. 

The final tally once all the points were calculated was Chaos 1220 to Dwarfs 321. ouch. 

That's not to say that I didn't kill a lot, I did, It's just I didn't finish off enough full units for it to make a difference. 

Chaos dead pile.

Dwarfen dead pile. 

Still it was another fun game despite my dice begging me to turn them into slingshot ammo. I think I switched dice four times before settling on a set that wasn't straight up embarrassing me. I do think I have put Queen Helga through enough lately, so I am going to give this particular army list a rest. I'm not done with dwarfs, just done with this specific theme.

 My favorite dwarf unit of the game, despite it not working out the way I envisioned, was the Imperial Ogres. I think I want to try them out with just double-handed weapons and Ogre pistols next time I use them. My Canon did well, especially having the Engineer's re-roll which made a big difference to it's performance. I think I want to field my organ gun next time simply because I have yet to use it. But only if the Engineer is there to support it!

The Chaos side was pretty solid. Although the Marauders feel victim to "new model syndrome" and was the one unit the dwarfs successfully eliminated completely. The Silver Jarl has claimed his trophies and we shall see if he makes another appearance soon.