Paint Table Saturday

I've seen other folk do this quite a bit and as my stuff was all over the kitchen table this morning I thought I'd take a snap.

So what do we have?

• More Perry plastic Mahdists, mainly command types because the command sprues fell out of the box last week
• Some Perry plastic British Napoleonics for SP2
• Some Perry metal Sudan Highlanders for TMWWBK
• Some 40k Ork Nobs
• Unpainted Perry plastic Naps and Mahdists

So the usual ragtag collection of nonsense and half-finished tomfoolery.

Artizan NWF British (4)

A pair of NCOs to lead the plucky 99th North Humberside Regiment on the NWF.
Painted the same way as the rank and file, lovely little models these from Artizan.

I've a pair of officers on the painting desk, so that'll give me two units of 12 for TMWWBK or a single unit of 20 for TSATF.
Next up I fancy some Sikhs.

British Naps for Sharp Practice 2

General Ballroom and I have gone all giddy and bought Sharp Practice.
Now I struggled with Dux Bellorum, but have been won around to Lardy rules by James and Scrivs and various games of Chain of Command (and a little I Aint Been Shot Mum).
That plus Mike Hobbs' posts about War of 1812 (a conflict I've long wanted to game) were enough to send me scurrying to the loft in search of Perry plastic redcoats.
And here's the first eight.

They look a bit crude close up because, umm, they are a bit crude close up. Bish, bash bosh is the best approach to Naps I reckon, otherwise you'll lose your marbles in the lacey insanity.
Basecoats and the CDA wash for the win.
These will do just fine for my purposes.

Of course Gen B aand I started this, but the painting machine that is Stevo has already cranked out over 40 Frenchies in the time it's taken me to do these

Sudanese sidetrack (4)

Some troops in the service of Her Imperial Majesty to try and suppress the Fuzzy Wuzzy hordes.
Fresh from the North West Frontier where they have been manning the Khyber Pass are these elements of the 3rd Foot and Mouth.

There's another one somewhere that I painted several years ago. And there are six more awaiting priming...

Sudanese sidetrack (3)

More tribesmen.
8 Beja

(still struggling to get non-murky images of these)

and 8 Ansar

This picture's come out better I think.

This time half were washed in Gryphonne Sepia and half in Coat D'Arms. Think I prefer the CDA overall, but happy with the variation the different washes are giving me.
So that gives me 40 in total I reckon. Enough for a TSaTF game and in good shape for the publication of TMWWBK later in the year.
I've started getting some command together now.
I'm going to use the NWF British models I've already painted (they'll be freshly arrived from India in my version of events) and so now I just need to finish off some Perry Highlanders (3rd Foot and Mouth, naturally) to join Private Crank.

Sudanese sidetrack (2)

Eight more Beja.
Took longer to glue 'em together than paint 'em.
Spray with Halfords Matt Brown Camo, then block out the clothes with Deneb Stone and the various metals, spearshafts and hair in appropriate clours.

Struggling to get decent pictures at the moment - they really aren't this "murky" in R/L

This time I used Devlan Mud as the wash. I think it does the skin better, but the clothes less well than the Coat D'Arms wash. Trying to avoid using multiple washes on these though, to speed things up.
Might try Gryphonne Sepia on the next batch. I'm intending to mix them all together in units, so the varied washes will result in a varied unit.

If I bash out another 16 and use the NWF British as opponents I can have a go at the Sword and the Flame basic scenario.
Just like Phil has done over on his excellent Warcabinet

Warhammer Siege Campaign - Sally Forth

Throndin Groznog slumped further onto the iron hard Throne of Groznog and pulled his belt one notch tighter. He'd been looking forward to some roasted beef and a gallon or so of Bugman's Best.
Footsteps approaching across the hall snapped him from his reverie.
"Stand up Snurti Longsight" he gruffly ordered the Dwarf kneeling at the foot of his throne "What news?"
"They've started building some kind of big thrower my Lord. 'Appen it'll be quite powerful if'n they get it finished. Throw a big rock straight ovver oor walls I reckon"
The Lord's brows knitted together and he smiled grimly.
"Well we'll not be allowing any of that nonsense now, can us?" Abruptly he stood up "Get the lads ready, time we stopped hiding in here like wusses!" he bellowed.

The Starve Out game took less than an hour, so we had plenty of time to set up and go again with a different scenario. Technically there's a mechanism for rolling to see if the campaign ends and there are some slightly dull not game benefits you can rack up, but I think we've decided to just play most, if not all, the scenarios and then finish with a really big game of siege.

So for this one I had 1,000 points against a similar quantity of greenskins. The Dwarfs have to get across the table and sabotage a big Orc war engine. And the Orcs have to stop them. The original scenario has a turn limit of five turns, and assumes you'll have a mostly cavalry force. At first we thought this meant the Dwarfs would never do it, but I suggested we just play without the turn limit and see if the Dwarfs could make it despite the odds.

 Eager for a proper fight the Dwarfs head for the gate

 The gates of fortress Groznog swing open

 Red capped gobbos await

And some boar boys. Bugger.

The Dwarfs began by shooting quite a lot. Crossbowmen and rangers on the walls took aim at the savage orcs and Ruglud's lads whilst the Stone Thrower targeted the Savage Orcs. None of which was terribly effective.

 A single fanatic is unleashed - to little effect.

The Groznog longbeards sally about a bit

The savage orcs moo-ve in for some more cow based frolics

In short order the battle lines clashed.

 Eat axe, Grobi scum!

 Longbeards v Savage Orcs. Again

Chop, hack, crunch!

At around this point the hitherto triumphant Orcs and Goblins discovered that big, ranked up units of Dwarfs are a tougher nut to crack....

The Longbeards went through the Savages like a horde of short, grumbling northern psychopaths through some ineffective green things. And the clan dwarfs saw off the night goblins.

At some point Rugluds lads failed animosity and moved, so lost a turn of shooting and the Bolt Thrower was reliably hopeless.

Flushed with success the Clan Dwarfs raced towrd the objective.

Pursued by Orcs on pigs.

Before the stout Dwarfs could dismantle the warmachine, the boarboys were on them!

However in a susrprising turn of events the Dwarfs held and at the second attempt succeded in destroying the war machine!

 Chaaarge!

Hmmmmmm.

Huzzah! Victory for Clan Groznog!

Turns out we needn't have worried about the turn length thing at all. 8th edition charges and pursuit mean even stunty legs can cover quite a lot of ground in a short space of time...