Eat your greens . . . . Their good for yer! WHF battle report

With Riotville LIVE happening next week Lee and I decided to have a warm up with our selected armies.

Lano had set the field before we turned up and decided we were playing 'Dawn Attack'.

Warhammer Fantasy. Coming full circle.

Last Sunday I finally got some down time so run out the door and over to Lano's for a game of little soldiers. Lee and Damon also rocked up so Lee and I decided to lock horns.

No fancy scenarios, just 1850 points of smash mouth Warhammer.

And it will be smash mouth as Lee is fielding Khorne and I have brought a cavalry heavy Empire force!

My WHF 8th edition Empire Army

With the sun out and my 'Sons of Sigmar' getting a run out in the fine weather I decided to take some army pics to see where I was with my 1st Company Lustrian Expeditionary Forces.

Here we are. . . . .

Group shot of all my painted elements.

My Militia, which thanks to Mordheim are the best painted regiment in the whole army!

Centre of picture are my 'Deamon Slayers' spearmen with my Warpriest.

My hard as nails, Demigryphs.

Custoras my Grand Master, with Rags and Marcus Darklore my level 2 Wizards. In the back ground you can see my units of 'Second Sons' mounted Knights.

Here are my cannon and crew, Matilda and the boomtown rats.

Here is my gunline. The guy on the end is a sniper.

My 'Noble flashes' pistolliers. Basically my suicide troops.

At some point this lot below will end up as a detachment of crossbows or Huntsmen.

There are still lots of elelments to add to this army but there is no rush as there is still a strong following for 8th amoung my gaming circles.

I am currently painting up a second cannon and crew for Crew(ly) / July and below is a photo with my Greatswords and other unpainted elelments added.

Arise you sons of Sigmar!!

General Custoras peered into the Lustrian mists. Despite the chill of the dawn, Custoras was bathed in sweat. Surely it it just the humidity Custoras thought to himself . . . . .surely!

Despite his bravado Dogstein knew the boy better then he knew himself and could hear the apprehension is his General's voice as he extolled the fighting virtue of his men and the numerous foes they had overcome during their time in Lustria!

The truth was Custoras had never recovered from their decimation at the hands of the lizards when they first arrived on these shores.

Despite his best efforts, the Lizard men had forced his hand and drawn him into combat. Despite his victories and learnt experiences, was he ready? 

With the sun rising to their back Custoras had done all he could to set the field. With one final bellow of defiance towards the Lizard men line he ordered the bugler to sound the advance.

"Sigmar is with us" he bellowed into the mists . . . . . surely?

The end of an Empire?

After hearing from a reliable source (it seems) all WHF Empire boxes will be disappearing form the shelves of all GW's and independents within the next three weeks to make room for the new 'Steam punk Empire' miniatures, I have decided to paint up some Empire Knights to get me to the 99 miniatures mark for the year (so far).

WHF Empire Pistoliers. Army painter speed painting method

With the half term I have managed to knock out another four miniatures to complete my unit of Empire Pistoliers.

As part of my 'Tale of four gamers' Empire Army I have decided to give them a back story.

WHF Empire militia / Mordheim Reikland Mercenaries Miniatures. Goodbye to the forsaken!

Some how this year I have ended up with a unit of 20 odd militia for my Empire WHF army thanks to the unexpected foray into Mordheim! I have to be honest they are of as much of a surprise to me as they are to you as I have no plans to add this unit to my army for quite a while (if at all)!

With the wrapping up of our current Mordheim campaign it only felt right to get the gang together for one last photoshoot.

I have deliberately left out Crashhart, Rags, Nathan and the original version of 'Red' as they are all attached to other elements of my WHF Empire army.

Even so, is still quite a collection. A big part of the reason was the fact I rolled horrendously during the injury phase of each endgame, usually resulting in the death of at least one of my warband (usually more!).

They are (left to right); 

Front rank: Spook (shattered leg), Jeffery Archer (Dead), Red (Alive), Grim Ironjaw (Dead), Eric / Dread Lord Crashhart (Chest wound, Toughness 2), Cairo (Alive), Crazy Bob (Alive), 

Middle rank: Archie (Dead), Arnold Leggenbreaker (Alive), Hal Bard (Dead), Shinobi Joe (Alive), Kate (Dead), Spike (Dead), 

Rear rank: Wenchman (Captured / Dead), Guapo Joe (Dead), Original Eric (Alive), Wild eyed Joe (Dead).

Warhammer Ahoy WIP photos

Just a quick post of some photos for a potential Warhammer Ahoy event next year (fingers crossed).

1st Lustrian Expeditionary Forces. Unfurl your banner!

So here it is the final piece of the puzzle for my 1500 points of Empire forces for the "Tale of 4 gamers"

"The winner will be the one who controls chaos, both his own and the enemies". Napoleon Bonaparte

Despite the pounding headache no one else wanted the table and I really wanted to see the progress Kiraya had made on painting her army so it looked like tonight would be a Warhammer double header.

I will add commentary where I can but the game was a while ago now and I was still suffering the after affects of playing Shao gore so it will be brief at best.

Shame because it proved to be an epic ding dong.

Kiraya's Greater Demon makes a bee line for my Gryphs. I guess the plan is to get the wounds in and run them off the table while they are still so close to the table edge.

The secrets out boys, our card is marked

Apparently I am the painting fascist of the Mini Empire GC!

So you make up one rule about unpainted miniatures being worth more bounty in "The killing 3000" and its makes you "the painting fascist"

So in my new role Jiri sets out his freshly painted Skaven to show his progress.

I get flash backs to "The man from Del Monte"adverts and I imagine myself in a fedora hat perusing Jiri's lines of fresh miniatures. When no one is looking I give one a sniff and nod sagely.

The man from Del Monte (well Hackney) he says yes!

Love the Warp stone bases, blinding idea.

Reaper miniatures Davey Crockett 50105

So I have finally grinded my way through the last of my Empire Hand Gunners Yesterday. At least with the Empire Spear men I have the Command group to go to town on, and the rank filler saved some sanity but with the Hand gunnaers I had none of that!

 

I needed something to draw the eye away from the rest on the figures (and restore my sanity) so I walked straight over to the Reaper section of the Miniature Empire, and there he was with a halo round him "Davey Crockett".

Ever since I based my General on George Custer I wanted a Wild West / Great plains figure in there somewhere from Custoras' insurrection days. Basically I wanted a "Hawk Eye", last of the Mohicans type character as the Hand Gunners sharpshooter.

 

This figure was an ABSOLUTE PLEASURE to paint and I knocked it out from top to bottom in under 2 hours. I wish I could have had a unit of these!

As is in keeping with the whole "Tale of 4 Gamers" this fella has a back story.

Nathan Running Elk soon become a legend within the camp. On his first tour of the camp walls an Elf scout had felled Nathans guide. In a heart beat he had returned fire and dropped the Elf at 150 paces while the elf was concealed in the tree line.

A patrol dragged the Elf body into camp. On inspection of the body they found a perfectly round musket ball hole just to the left of the bridge of the Elf's nose. As the hand gunners surrounded the body, chattering in awe and excitment at the impossible shot Nathan had simply walked up, inspected the shot, and then calmly adjusted his sights!

Nathan Running Elk was raised by the tribes of the great plains after he was found as a baby amoung the carnage of a massacre of a settler convoy. Nathan was adopted by "Death Wind" a renowned hunter of the Kuron tribe.

Nathans tribe were one of the few tribes to side with the Empire during the seperast wars of the Great Plains and were renowned as scouts and trackers without peers amoung the Empire forces. This legend was only solidified after their being armed with Hochland long rifles.

Nathans father was lead scout of the Empires forces at the Big Little Horn and literally begged the force commander not to proceed towards the enemy camp. Death Wind later died holding a pass which gave the Empire forces time to regroup after the rout.

Maybe it was their both feeling like fish out of water but a strong affinity soon sprung up between Nathan and Custoras which grew into a strong friendship during the campaign.

Nathan had arrived in Lustria, now anything which walked, flew or swam on this cursed isle would fear the report of "Death wind", his rifle!

Painting inspiration. Getting a wiggle on!

A couple of fellas at the MEGC were asking me how I am managing to pump out the mini's so consistently?
Especially with regards to the "4 Gamers".

I honestly think part of it is my "painting shelf".

Pendrake, 2 mages, a knight and a command group are the current priorities!

Basically it is a small shelf I have set up in the kitchen with my priority "work in progress" minis and some of my better examples of painting on.

Be warned having minis this close to booze is NEVER a good idea

I have deliberately set it up in the glasses and drinks cupboard so everytime I go to get my self a drink I am reminded what I need to get through. 

It acts as a real spur, as I now get to regularly look at nearly completed works in progress (so close the little voice says......... so close) and it is nice to see the number slowly diminish as the minis are completed and stored in the relevant KR case.

The two big dangers!

One is having nearly completed minis REAL close to booze. I have caught myself a couple of times, worse for wear from booze and reaching for a 90% complete mini and thinking "I could just give that a quick 10 minutes now!" (God knows what the results would have been), and 

Two the Misses cottoning on to just how many minis are being cycled through that shelf. (Thankfully at the moment they all look the same to her!).

Warhammer Empire 1500 points. Work in progress

Once again was up early this morning with the boy so set out my 1500 points to have a look at the army on mass.

Only a spearman command group, 7 hand gunners and a knight to go.

If I get time I will paint up a base for the cannon and a nice surprise for the other generals of the 4 gamers.

Heres Big Bertha the camps cannon (named after the camp prostitute), and the boom town rats.

9 of my 16 gunners done (don't look at the back rank0

could it be time for another rank filler?

Only the spearmen command group to go.

Would you charge these nut cases?

And once again the boys on mass.

And how it all looked a month ago

I am LOVING the "4 Gamers"

So close to finishing.................. So close

Rank filler. There I said it. Does that make me a bad person?

Ok so I have tried to be a good person, I really have!

I have been slogging through a unit of 20 empire spearmen but was seriously losing the will to live (well at least paint).

I figured I would just plow through them first (bit like brussel sprouts in a roast dinner), before getting to the good bits, i.e. unit champion, drummer etc (bit like the roast spuds in a roast dinner). BUT the truth is they are just an absolute PIG to paint!!!!!!

I can't complain, I bought the unit of 20 spear men (with command group), 16 hand gunners and a cannon with crew from Russel at the MEGC for £15 !!! Absolute bargain I agree but I am really paying for it in regards to tedium and hard work.

So anyway I sounded out Lee and a few of the other generals of the "four gamers" on Friday and the general consensus was, as long as no one takes the piss unit fillers are ok. Sound like a green light to me!

My son had me up at 6am this morning !!!!!! So of course my first thought was "good I can get a good early start on my rank filler!".

Here is the finished result

Its certainly restored my sanity as I was originally looking at plowing through this lot

Thankfully the command group are really nice looking figures and I will put a lot more effort into painting them and the war priest. I figure I will make a really nice looking first rank and the spears have been painted to a sufficent level.

Truth be told I do not see them lasting much further then the 2nd turn as they will be hit with a doom rocket, or arrow of destruction or a mortar, template spell etc and will probably take longer to set up then they will last on the battle field.

Any way back to the rank / unit filler............

Spears fight in 3 ranks if they are charged so I figured a row of spikes with a chain running between them was fully in keeping with the feel of the unit as the filler is essentially another rank of spears.

I have always been fasinated with the battle of Agincourt and remember reading about the Longbow men cutting 6 foot spikes the night before the battle. During the battle they had to pull the spears out again when the French knights refused to charge and marched closer to the Knights as a challenge before banging the spikes back into the ground again. So it is in keeping with the unit as I do not envisinge them moving around too much just holding the centre or refusing a flank.

The really good news is the filler cost peanuts. the card base was 30p, a pack of 100 spiked dale rods cost £1.20, and a length of small link chain cost £1.50 from a local craft shop.

15 minutes with some sissors and super glue and it was ready to paint.

In theory I could make one for 15 units, but I think that might be taking things too far!

Although truth be told I have already been thinking about some for my Hand gunner detatchments as they are just as painful to paint!

Does that make me a bad person?

Maybe the question should be, does this make me a worse person?