Slannuary and having a good deed come back and bite you in the arse!!

So here is my entry for Slannuary / January for my year of puns.

My muse for him was this little fella. . . . . .

Awakening of the Woods pt.3. The Two towers.

Custoras had not known tiredness like this since his days as a tanners apprentice in his youth before his real father appeared and rescued him from a life of poverty.

Thankfully he had his charger to carry him. The 'Red Caps' were not so fortunate and trudged behind him with weary steps.

Once again I find my self arrayed opposite Phil and his Dwarves.

There could be no respite, they had to clear the forest! Everytime they stopped to make camp the forest would erupt into a frenzy of wooded demons, forcing them onwards. . . . . . But towards what?

Shortly before, the scouts had reported a tower in the distance. It's outline against the horizan reminded Custoras of the castles he has seen as the '1st Lustrian' had been escorted through Bretonnia.

Jac the 'last Bretonnian' had confirmed Custoria's deductions and the towers Bretonnian origins. Could this be where they were being herded towards? If so for what purposes?

I figure I will deploy with my Infantry and detachments first as a bullet shield before my Cavalry destroy them.

School Enrichment. Session 4. Monster hunt.

This week saw the students investigating the disappearence of some sheep herders and their flock.

The mission was to secure the abandoned watch tower in the middle of the nearby forest. This would allow them to spot the cause of the disappearence and earn a reward. If they could then kill the creature(s) the reward would be trebled!

Little did they know the cause of the disappearance was actually  using the tower as it's lair!

To add some added spice to the foray I had produced some secret wanted posters so they could claim a bounty if they removed the wanted player from the field.

Of course the first thing the kids did when they opened the scrolls was blurt out the name written on it (so much for being secret)!!

Had to laugh when the Troll erupted from the tower and one of the students decided to pitch himself off the balcony rather then face the Troll. It did not go well!

Strophade's next top model. Wargames Foundry Harpies.

Work has been murder this week with me often in at 6am and leaving 12 hours later to do more at home!

I have been desperate to paint and really itching to hit the brushes but finding myself unable to focus and just flicking paint at several miniatures but I wanted to see some tangible results.

My original plan for these girls was a much more involved paint scheme but they were standing next to another set of miniatures and just seemed to be calling me.

Yesterday I took an hour off and set myself the challenge of getting as many of the five finished as I could within the hour.

Managed to get three done in the hour. They are just a blue ink wash over the grey undercoat. Then red hair and 'Screaming skull' for any bones / talons etc.

Considering they took about 20 minutes each I am more then happy with how they turned out.

Of course being a man of a certain age their muse was these girls from the classic 1963 'Jason and the Argonauts'. . . . .

Heres  the numbers for the year so far.

Miniatures painted / sold this year = 10.

Target 100

Miniatures bought 2 (second is a purchase for my 'year of puns' project).

431 miniatures to go!

 8 in the black this year.

School Enrichment. Session 3. Rescue

Another cracking little session which saw us blitz through 6 turns of Mordheim in under 50 minutes.

The objective this week was to find / rescue the child of a rich merchant who had got lost on the out skirts of Mordheim.

The Warband possessing the child at the end of turn six would be rewarded by the child's father. The reward would be doubled if they managed to get the kid off a table edge before the end of the game.

It was a nail biter right to the end as both Warbands charged round the ruined manor house desperate to locate the kid.

I had to nod in sage approval when the losing warband decided to try and kill the kid in the final turn to stop the other team earning the reward.

One thing that has been really interesting to watch is how the individual kids play to their own personal agendas.

For example one of the lads has not rolled a single attack die in 3 weeks!! He spent the first week hiding in a forest, the second week searching a building he knew was empty, for treasure and this week set up as close to the back table edge as possible. No matter how much his team mates encouraged, conjoled or shouted at him he refused to run towards the enemy.

It was only when his own team mates threatened to shoot his miniature full of arrows that he started to move!

Even then he took the longest route round the table and tried to convince the rest of his team not to shoot him as he was attempting a 'flanking manoeuvre!'

This is something which would never happen in a regular game of Mordheim as you control all the figures and they do not have free choice!

In that regards these games of Mordheim are the most 'realistic' games of Mordheim I have ever seen.

Bloodbowl Rampant

So like every other Wargamer of a certain age, I have bought this. . . . .

I have started buying rule books as a way to wean myself off buying miniatures. I also really missed playing with my WHF Empire army AND I saw this as a way to play LOTR with a load of GW LOTR miniatures I picked up cheap at a bootsale.

Of course as the book lands on my door mat Lano starts a whole WHF revival at the 'Legion'. Typical!

The book has some nice old skool, style illustrations but it has not really grabbed me!

That is until now!!!

40K Space Marine Battle Demi-Company. Ultramarine 2nd Company finished

So finally I have the Demi-Company finished.

Here's the break down.

Commander

Captain Cato Sicarius.

Captain Cato Sicarius

Tactical Squads

Squad Fennion. Squad Fennion is known as "The Immortals" due to the fact that they haven't taken a single loss since 829.M41.

Squad Fennion

Squad Vorolanus. Squad Vorolanus is used for reconnaissance and deep strike missions when Scout squads are unavailable. They are known as "The Thunderbolts".

Squad Vorolanus

Squad Manorian. Known as "The Shield Bearers", squad Manorian is used in the vanguard during chapter and company level assaults.

Squad Manorian

Assault Squad

Squad Strabo - Squad Strabo is responsible for the death of Ork Warboss Bonehamma on the Hive world of Selonopolis. They are known as "The Heroes of Selonopolis."

Squad Strabo

Devastator Squad

Squad Tirian. Also known as "Guilliman's Hammer" Squad Tirian is known for their unwavering conduct in battle.

Squad Tirian

The final chip of the Devastator Squad

Dreadnought

Brother Ultracius. Ultracius was interred inside the shell of a Dreadnought after the Pyra Crusades in 453.M39.

Brother Ultracius

The final Chip of the Demi - Company lead pile

I also have the first squad of First Company Terminators done as an attachment.

Not bad considering how they started out, when I bought them off a kid at a boot sale for £20 . . . .

 
I have several elements to finish off to turn this into a 'Gladius Strike Force' but with the light inproving I think any extra bits will be put back in the lead mountain until November.

So lets look at the numbers for the year.

Miniatures painted / sold this year = 6.

Target 100

Miniatures bought 1 (I made the mistake of going to Dark Sphere and they were having a sale on).

434 miniatures to go!

5 in the black this year.

Blood and Thunder. WHF Campaign Game 1.

General Custoras bloody hated spiders! He hated this particular spider even more then the tiny, sneering, green, miscreant sitting on its' back!

At least the Gobbo had learnt to fear cold, sharp, Imperial steel. Unlike the giant arachnid he was riding which had cowled his beautiful Demigryphs.

Custoras turned away from the baleful, red eyes of the Goblin General and surveyed the other participants of this parley.

The Slink Priest stood there, alien and aloof. Rags had told him that the Priest was probably following instructions laid down millennia ago by their Gods and Sigmar help anyone who tried to disrupt the wishes of their Gods.

The four Generals meet on the large hill in the centre of the battlefield to talk terms. Their armies eye each other warily around the outskirts.

The forth participant was a mystery to Custoras. The Dwarf General was sweating profusely from the climb up the steep hill while wearing heavy armour.

Good let the stuntie, little, bastard sweat!

All four armies had fought each other to a stand still in this cursed isle and this truce had been called to discuss terms.

Custoras glanced over his shoulder at his personal body guard arrayed at the edge of the forest clearing, their beautifully wrought, armour glinting in the rising sun.

Suddenly the trees transform into Dryads and charge into the parleying Generals!

As he was about to turn back to his fellow protagonists, a small movement from one of the surrounding trees caught his eye. His hand had barely touched the pummel of his sword when the forest had erupted into a frenzy of shrieking, wooded demons!

Second School enrichment session. Treasure hunts and detentions!

Just a quick one before a proper post tomorrow.

Another cracking session on Wednesday. One of the lads turned up with his own painted miniature. I had to smile when I saw he had used his Dad's old enamel paints!

Here is how the table looked.

It was a standard 'treasure hunt' scenario. I gave the students some clues about where the treasure was hidden and let them go at it.

Bit surprised when they did not spot the most obvious clue.

Yep the big bloody X. Kids these days!

The winning warband won enough gold to buy their own equipment and recieved their own miniature which they can stick together to represent the kit they buy.

Had to smile when I caught one of the kids reading through the equipment handout I had given him and was working out his equipment in 'prep' class when he should have been working on his additional learning tasks. Had to give the kid a detention but to be honest I would have done the same thing; work or wargaming. . . No contest really! I am supposed to be doing work right now!!

 

One surprise result of the enrichment club is pupils have started spontaneously turning up to school with their own scratch built castles after seeing the gaming board!

We ended up with enough entries to run a compertition!

sorry for the fuzzy photo. You can make out the scratch built efforts in the background if you squint!

 

A little something to start the year with.

First two chips off the Lead mountain for the year completed.

First up is a Scibor Barbarian for my Brothers Dwarf Mordheim Warband.

And he's a blinder!!

Such a gorgeous sculpt and a great way to start the year with the brushes!

Thanks to 'Army Painter, Barbarian flesh, primer spray' he was finished in less then 90 minutes!!

While waiting for the washes to dry I also knocked out this fella. . . .

A tiny little lump of lead (see the first photo) from the Reaper Villagers set I bought ages ago.

My brother and I were discussing a fun little scenario on Friday night which involves a small child NPC.

If it is successful I will give it a run out at the 'Enrichment Club'.

I have also had a couple of miniatures go to better home thanks to eBay. Funnily enough one of them actually ended up being sold to someone in the marketing department of GAMES WORKSHOP! How ironic selling a 1980's Chaos Dwarf back to GW!!

My mental run of luck continues into 2016. Not only did I only lose TWO miniatures in Saturdays battle (more on that later in the week) despite being surrounded by Dryads and Dwarfs, I have also won the prize draw for Chico breaking the 20K veiws over at 'Oldhammer on a budget'.

I great blog (and fella!) which is well worth checking out.

So lets take a first look at the numbers for the year.

Miniatures painted / sold this year = 4.

Target 100

Miniatures bought 1 (I made the mistake of going to Dark Sphere and they were having a sale on).

436 miniatures to go!

3 in the black this year.

Shortshank redemption pt 4. Smash and grab.

Crazy Joe caught Bill's eye and raised an enquiring eyebrow. Bill nodded curtly. It had been agreed last night. Crashart would lead them all to their deaths, Lord Crashart meets his end now! 

"We will do it during our foray tonight" they decided earlier. Just another corpse in a City of cadavers!

Crazy Joe slowly drew his stiletto and approached Crashart from behind with murderous intent.

Suddenly a crossbow bolt flew past Joe's face, missing him by a hairs breath!

"Sod off you lot!" a gruff voice boomed into the night "The treasure is ours!".

Joe dove for the shadows and sheathed his dagger 'Deaths' whisper'.

"Treasure eh!" Joe though "I guess Crashart meets his end after this skirmish. At the very least the fool can act as a meat shield"!

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?

First School enrichment session. . . A cracking success!

Just a quick one before a proper post tomorrow.

Run my first 'Tabletop Gaming enrichment' session at School today.

As is the case now days, only two of the kids had heard of WHF or 40K before entering the room, but left the room foaming at the mouth and asking me where they could get the game!

Did not take any photos during the game due to Child protection reasons  and if truth be told I would have struggled to take any photos anyway due to trying to get ten kids to boil through a game of Mordheim in under an hour!

Anyway here is the board.

In the end I settled for giving every kid a noble profile so they had half a chance of hitting stuff etc and everyone got 2 wounds so no-one was sitting out after the first turn.

I set the warbands and limited the amount of ranged weapons so the kids were forced to lock horns.

I gave each Warband the same varitey of equipment (i.e. one great sword, one archer, one swordsman etc) and each kid took one figure each and operated as a 5 man warband.

Followed the same turn sequence as Mordheim i.e. all the kids moved their figures at the same time, all kids shot at the same time, then we went through each combat.

This REALLY helped keep the pace of the game flying along.

This is a shot of the end of the game!

I will not let the kids make their own warbands due to the time constraints. What I figure I will do is keep the warbands as they are and set the kids missions to achieve each game (find the treasure, kill the Ogre, etc.).

The winning warband will then earn coins to buy and personalise their own equipment. I will also have them gain EXP over the games so their profiles will progress over the coming weeks.

On a side note B&Q are now doing 3m tape measures for 70p each! Cannot believe I walked out with ten tape measures for £7!

Start the year as you mean to go on . . . . . LOSING!!

Lord Crashart peered out into the gathering gloom through the shattered window of the hovel. The lack of roof allowed the chill of the dusk to envelope them in it's numbing cloak!

"At least I'm not stuck up on the bloody roof like the new fella" Crashart thought to himself with a smirk.

They had found the rumoured Wyrd stone hoard with ease but the fabled treasure still eluded them. They had been frantically searching through the rubble of the Memorial Gardens when the new fella 'Papa' had raised the alarm!

Now several forms could be spied approaching through the encroaching gloom. Crashart slowly cocked his pistols and glanced over at 'Crazy Joe' who covered the doorway, an evil grin crossed his face at the thought of the slaughter ahead!